Can President-elect Obama Rise to the Occasion?

The world, rightly or wrongly, has high hopes from President-elect Obama. During his election campaign he promised to change the world. I do believe he means it but I am not sure whether he fully understands the implications There is another important question too. Even if understands the implications of his promise of changing the world, will he be able to deliver anything meaningful? Let us look at some of his major challenges.

The most important foreign policy challenge before the President-elect is whether he can recover the credibility of the United States as a country which believes in the “Rule of Law?’

Most American presidents since the Second World War have used the international law and institutions when it has suited America and discarded them when it does not. The President-elect has to convince the world that America will henceforth abide by international law even if it goes against American interests.

He may be sincere about fighting terrorism but he must realize that terrorism in one form or another will continue until a just solution is found for the Palestinian crisis. My guess is that with his close association with the Israeli lobbies in America, not many people in the world, let alone in the Islamic world, can believe that he is capable of taking an even-handed approach to solve the crisis and help to secure a just solution. His appointment of Hillary Clinton as the Secretary of State confirms such feelings. Admittedly, the Palestinian problem is not easy to solve, since the political power in Israel has been taken over by the right-wing elements who dream of a Biblical Israel. It is this group which is supported by the right-wing Israeli lobbies and the Evangelical Christians in America. To the best of my knowledge, the majority of Israeli and Palestinian people are more moderate in their views and are prepared to make sacrifices for peace in terms of ceding land. Jerusalem may be a sticking point. Even on this issue there may be some scope for flexibility Jerusalem, being the birth place of three religions could be declared a religious city state like the Vatican, run and managed by a democratically elected government by the people living in Jerusalem. The rest of the disputed territories could be divided between the Israelis and the Palestinians by negotiations, both states with security guarantees from the United Nations.

I, being a Gandhian, dislike any country having nuclear weapons. So I am with the Preisdent-elects in his efforts towards dissuading Iran from having nuclear weapons, but then I would like him to persuade other countries including Israel to give up nuclear weapons. Will he support the Middle East being declared a non-nuclear zone, an idea supported by many countries in the region?.

Will he take the lead in giving up American nuclear weapons? Will he stop the development and production of new nuclear weapons such as ‘bunker-busting’ nuclear devices?

With wide spread poverty and destitution around the world, there is a crying need for a drastic reduction in the military budgets internationally. The United States military budget exceeds the total military expenditure of the world as a whole. Will he take the lead in reducing the US military budget significantly (simply by closing down of many of the military bases abroad) and divert the money to reducing domestic poverty and destitution? Not many Americans realize that such bases are often humiliating (or at least an irritant) to the local population and serve no real purpose. Peace can be guaranteed by a reinvigorated UN system and the supply of natural resources can be ensured through trade.

One of the ways of fighting against terrorism is to fight against poverty, hunger and deprivation. This can be done by diverting money from defense expenditure to economic development. One way of doing this is to combine the NATO forces and the UN Peace-keeping forces under the UN banner.. This would not only provide teeth to the UN operations, it would have a major psychological impact internationally. In the Third World NATO forces are seen as a means of colonial control of the resources of the Third World for the colonial masters; Merged with the UN forces this stigma loses force. Such a merger allows America to handover troubled areas like Iraq and Afghanistan to the UN without losing face. I see no reason for the American influence being undermined in this arrangement.


Many countries, including China and Russia are opposed to the weaponization of Space. It is the United States which has been reluctant to support such moves. Will the President-elect take the lead against weaponization Space?

Such decisions are not easy. If the President-elect has the courage and succeeds in his efforts he will have succeeded in changing the world as he promised during his election campaign and he will go down in history as one of the greatest statesman of the twenty first century. But the chances are that he will not be forgiven by the conservatives in America. This may cost him his second term. Whether the gamble is worth taking, is the greatest choice facing the Preident-elect.

The Mumbai Carnage

It is not just the loss of innocent lives that pains me, it is the attack on India's very philosophy of open society, its multicultural life style and the age-old tradition of religious tolerance that is at stake. Those fanatics in India, Pakistan or elsewhere who blame India for mistreatment of minorities have only to walk the streets of Delhi near the Jama Masjeed at night and see the freedom enjoyed by the Indian Muslims. If you wish to see India's treatment of minorities you can see not only the composition of the governments at various levels of India but its cricket team, its film stars and other social and cultural luminaries. This religious tolerance goes far back in history. Thousands of Europeans came and lived in India much before the British began to rule India. These were the Europeans who fled Europe because of religious persecutions. It is this tolerance which is put to test when such carnage takes place. The terrorist hope to drive a wedge between the Indian communities on religious lines. In most cases such attempts have failed. Politically motivated religious riots (encouraged by home grown fanatics on all sides) have occasionally taken place in India but none of the terrorist acts have led to inter-religious strife. All communities all over India have denounced this cowardly killing of innocents in Mumbai.
In fact, this carnage may even bring India and Pakistan closer. After all Pakistan is suffering from similar acts of terrorism. It goes without saying that some elements in both countries do not want to see the warming of relationship between the two countries and they may be behind this carnage. One suspects that some rouge elements of the ISI may be behind such acts. It is important therefore that the present government of Pakistan flushes them out. It is also important that the Pakistan Government also closes down training camps which are openly run in Pakistan under the direct patronage of the ISI. Pakistan must learn from the mistakes of the American administrations which created the Taliban , Osama bin Laden and other terrorists elswhere. It is the terrorists created by the CIA world over that now hauns America and its allies.
So far as India is concerned, the leadership both at the Central as well as local levels, which has clearly shown its incompetence in securing India's security must take stand not only against terrorism but also against any kind of religious bigotry. There is a time to think of abolishing religious schools and strengthening secular and multicultural education in schools. There is also a need for enacting an uniform civil code for all the Indian citizens irrespective of religious beliefs. Minority rights, religions and cultures must be protected but pampering of any group for electoral consideration is bound to be counter-productive. The government must have the courage to take drastic measures against fundamentalists in any community. All the community leaders, particularly, those from the minorities must come in full force to denounce such wanton killings and isolate such forces that encourage such acts of terrorism. Minorities may have genuine grievances; in a democracy like India there is a lot of scope for peaceful protests. Force is not an answer. Even the partition of the country and the resulting millions of deaths and transfer of population did not solve the problem. So let us not acty in a way that intensifies hate on both sides of the divide.

Pot Calls the Kettle Black: George W Bush, the Greatest Living Epitome of Human Rights Violations Criticizes Chinese Record

The harsh treatment of Tibetan activists in Beijing on the eve of opening of the Olympics has drawn world criticism, and very rightly so, yet a criticism from George W. Bush seems to be nothing but comical. Here is a person who is guilty of gross violations of human rights both at home and abroad. Had America been a lesser country, he would most certainly be tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity and with overwhelming evidence against him, possibly convicted. His intervention is patently surreal also because he does not seem to realise that the American record of human transgressions is no less sordid than the Chinese, particularly, if one takes account of American human right transgressions outside America. Of course, George W. Bush has made the record decidedly worse. He is possibly the greatest living epitome of human rights violations in the present day world.

As Kenneth Roth, the president of the Human Rights Watch (HRW) pointed out, ‘Quite apart from the fall out of its ill-fated Iraq invasion, its (US) credibility as a proponent of human rights has been n tarnished by the abuses it practices in the name of fighting terrorism. Few ambassadors dare to protest another government’s harsh interrogations, detention without trial, or even “disappearances” knowing how easily an interlocutor could turn the tables and cite U.S. misconduct as an excuse for his government’s own abuses.’

He further added:

‘…the last year dispelled any doubt that the Bush administration’s use of torture and other mistreatment was a matter of policy dictated at the top rather than the aberrant misconduct of a few low level interrogators. The administration claimed to foreswear torture but refused to classify mock execution by drowning—the classic torture technique now known as water boarding—as prohibited torture. Despite the absolute treaty prohibition on cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, the administration claimed it could impose such abuse so long as the victim was a non-American held outside the United States—a position it abandoned only after the US Congress adopted the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 by a veto-proof majority.…

When the news of atrocities committed by the US armed forces in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq became public, the administration claimed such incidents as aberrations. However, it is commonly known that such techniques have been part and parcel of military interrogation in America and was part of the training program of the school of Americas, a training school funded by Congress for Latin American military personnel. Some of the military personnel trained in this school turned to be the worst human rights violators in Latin America.

Unfortunately, it is not commonly recognized either within America or outside that in spite of legal and constitutional safeguards, a vibrant media and numerous public interest groups monitoring and exposing human rights violations, torture, inhuman and degrading treatment of convicts, including women and children, are daily occurrences in American prisons. In this web log, an attempt is made to highlight some of the major human rights abuses practiced within America. This section draws extensively on the reports of the Amnesty International and the Human Rights Watch (HRW). However, one of the most instructive documents is the State Department’s Initial Report submitted to the UN Committee against Torture in
October 1999. This report candidly concedes that ‘there continue to be areas of concern, contention, and criticism. These include instances of police abuse, excessive use of force and even brutality, and death of prisoners in custody. Overcrowding in the prison system, physical and sexual abuse of inmates, and lack of adequate training and oversight for police and prison guards are also cause for concern.’

The Amnesty International’s Report 2001 covering the year 2000 pointed out that the, police brutality continues. In 2000, police shot unarmed suspects at the end of vehicle pursuits, during traffic stops, or during police street patrols. A disproportionate number of the victims came from ethnic minorities, the Afro-Americans and the Latinos. As one example of excessive use of force by the police, Amnesty International quoted the highly publicized case of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed West African immigrant, who in 1999 was shot forty-one times outside his home. The four New York Police Department (NYPD) officers were acquitted of all criminal charges.92 According to the Human Rights Watch (HRW) most police officers violating departmental rules or the law go without punishment for lack of adequate investigative and disciplinary arrangements. Victims
who complain are subjected to overt intimidation. During the fiscal year 1999, of nearly 12,000 civil rights complaints brought to the Department of Justice, only thirty-one officers were either convicted or pleaded guilty to crimes under the civil rights statute. The Amnesty International Annual Report 2006,mentions continued reports of ill treatment and death in police custody as a result of excessive use of force by the police. It reported sixty-one deaths resulting from the police use of lasers;
as many as 142 people died as a result of the use of lasers by the police between 2001 and 2005.

Death Penalty

According to the AI Report 2006, in 2005 as many as 60
convicts were executed in the United States. Since 1976 when the Supreme Court lifted a moratorium on executions, a total of 1006 convicts have been executed. In March 2006, the Supreme Court banned the execution of Child offenders under 18 at the time of committing the crime. But the execution of convicts with mental disorders still continues. This is in violation of international standards.

The death penalty is permissible in 38 states of which 29 have conducted executions since 1977; the majority of death penalties have been given in the states of
Texas,Virginia, Florida, Louisiana, Maryland, and Georgia. In fourteen states, offenders aged less than 18 at the time of committing the capital offense cannot be subjected to the death, penalty. Twenty states allow the death penalty if a prisoner convicted of a capital crime has reached the age of 16; in four others, the age is 17. Although U.S. law prohibits the execution of the legally insane, the standard for judging mental competence varies among states. Only twelve states and the federal government specifically prohibit the execution of the mentally retarded.

Cruelty in Prisons

Both Amnesty International and the Human Rights Watch
report on cases of torture and ill treatment, of both adults and juveniles, in prisons and in juvenile detention facilities. Such cases include beatings, use of excessive force, sexual misconduct, misuse of electro-shock weapons and chemical sprays, and the cruel use of mechanical restraints, including holding prisoners for prolonged periods in a four-point restraint. The conditions are particularly cruel in super-maximum security (supermax) prisons, where prisoners are kept in prolonged isolation. Most prisons in the United States use electro-shock weapons, including stun belts, stun shields, and stun guns. Contrary to the claims of manufacturers of such weapons, experts suggest that such weapons ‘can be harmful, even lethal, for people with high blood pressure, for pregnant women and for those suffering epilepsy and some other conditions. In light of this, stun weapons have been banned for law enforcement use by a number of countries, including Canada and most West European countries, as well as some U.S. states.’ One of the devices, remote controlled electro-shock stun belts for use on U.S. prisoners, is of particular concern. Pushing a button from a distance activates this belt, causing severe pain and instant incapacitation; when activated it
can cause the person to defecate or urinate. This belt is being used by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, the U.S. Marshall’s service, and more than 100 county agencies and 16 state correctional agencies. It is also used on prisoners during judicial hearings, which is a contravention of international standards on the treatment of prisoners.

The AI Report 2001 also notes that the use of excessive force, restraint devices and stun-devices has led to deaths of prison inmates. The AI Report 2006 mentions that as many as 7000 police and correctional agencies used electro-shock weapons. 61 people in custody died as a result of the shocks received from such weapons. The number of such deaths between 2001 and 2006 totaled 142.

Cruelty to Women

Various reports by Amnesty International, the Human Rights Watch and other human rights related public interest groups repeatedly refer to ill-treatment of women inmates, including sexual abuses by male guards, including rape, parading partially naked in front of male inmates; forced strip searches by male guards, and fondling by male officers while dressing. AI’s Rights for All report points out that it is not only female inmates who are coerced into having sex by male staff; sexual coercion by female staff against both male and female inmates, and by male staff against male inmates are not uncommon. This happens because the U.S. prisons employ both men and women to supervise prisoners of the opposite sex, allow them to undertake searches involving body contact, and to be present when inmates are naked. The practice of employing male staff to supervise female inmates is contrary to international standards.

Women inmates have to suffer the indignity of being shackled even when they are pregnant; sometimes they remain shackled while in labor or are re-shackled shortly after. This practice has been denounced by a Washington D.C. court as ‘inhumane’—yet the practice continues.

Cruelty to Children

In as many as 20 states, children can be convicted as adults
and be imprisoned in adult prisons and housed with adult
inmates in violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and other international standards, which require that juvenile prisoners should be kept separate from adults. Juveniles can be treated as adults only in exceptional circumstances. Nevertheless, many states are legislating to broaden the circumstances in which children may be prosecuted as adults and held in adult prisons. A special AI report on the ill-treatment of children in U.S. prisons states that children are often held in cruel conditions in overcrowded facilities, deprived of adequate mental health care, education and rehabilitation programs. They are also subjected to cruel punishments, including shackles, chemical sprays and electro-shock devices. Children are also kept in solitary confinement in violation of international standards. In a lawsuit against the State Training School in Plankinton, South Dakota, a juvenile detention facility, it emerged that children are placed in punitive handcuffs and shackles and forced to lie spread-eagled in four-point restraints for hours at a time, even through the night. It is common for male staff to forcibly strip girls while held in four-point restraint. Children, including those who are mentally ill, are routinely held in isolation for 24 hours a day, sometimes for months at a time.

According to the HRW there are as many as 2,225 child offenders in the United States who are convicted for life without parole. Over half of them are first time offenders. The United States is one of the fourteen countries which allows for such convictions. Reportedly, only twelve child offenders outside the United States are serving such sentences. The Convention of the Rights of the Child, ratified by all countries in the world except the United States and Somalia, bans such punishments.

Ethnic Minorities

In view of the widespread geographic and racial disparities in the application of the federal death penalty nationwide, the AI report, Rights for All, calls the application of the death penalty ‘to be racist, arbitrary, and unfair.’ The American criminal justice system’s vulnerability to personal or social prejudice is clearly unfair to minorities, particularly to African Americans. The fact that such an injustice takes place is confirmed by the State Department’s report to the UN Committee against Torture. It concedes that ‘African Americans are disproportionately more likely to be sentenced to death and executed than other racial or ethnic components of the U.S. population.’ The minorities have also suffered disproportionately as a result of the war on drugs. African Americans, constituting only 12 per cent of the total population accounted for 46.5 per cent of state prisoners and 40 per cent of federal prisoners convicted for drug offenses. For the country as a whole, African American men were eight times more susceptible to imprisonment than white men, with an incarceration rate of 3408 per 100,000 African American male residents, as against only 417 per 100,000 for white males. In eleven states, the African American incarceration rates ranged between twelve and twenty-six times those of white men. In September 2000, in its Initial Report to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination, the U.S. Department of State conceded the persistence of racism, racial discrimination, and de facto segregation in the United States. It pointed out that ‘while the scourge of officially-sanctioned segregation has been eliminated, de facto segregation and persistent racial discrimination continue to exist. The forms of discriminatory practices have changed and adapted over time, but racial and ethnic discrimination continues to restrict and limit equal opportunity in the United States.’



Asylum-seekers

Highlighting the human rights violations of asylum-seekers
in the United States, Rights for All pointed out that an increasing number of asylum-seekers are, on arrival in the USA, often detained indefinitely, confined with criminal prisoners and are held in inhuman and degrading conditions. They are liable to be stripped and searched; shackled and chained; sometimes verbally
or physically abused. They are often denied access to their
families, lawyers and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and even telephones. They cannot even receive letters. The passing of the new Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) in 1996 has led to a considerable rise in detentions. People without valid documents can be summarily sent back under the ‘expedited removal provisions’ of the act114 International law provides an opportunity for a review of the decision to detain depending on the merits of the case, taking into account the overall circumstances of the asylum-seeker, not just procedural correctness. U.S. practice does not allow for such an examination.

Foreign Nationals

In violation of the Geneva Convention, foreign nationals
have been executed in the United States without being given their treaty-based consular rights. These rights have been denied to as many as 90 foreign nationals on death row in the U.S.A. In a case brought to the International Court of Justice in The Hague by Germany in the context of the execution of two German nationals in Arizona in 1999, the Court, with an overwhelming majority, found the United States in violation of the Vienna Convention on consular relations.

There are many other areas of concern in so far the protection of human rights is concerned. In both China and America there are sufficient legal and constitution provisions to safeguard human rights of individuals. It is the implementation of laws that is often at fault. The enforcement agencies have low paid and inadequately trained people to implement legal and constitution provisions. At times, policies such as ‘zero tolerance’’ or ‘strike hard,’ go against the safeguarding of human rights. Lack of transparency is a major issue in China. It is imperative for the government to allow independent non-governmental organizations to monitor the progress of implementation of legal provisions. The Chinese do not need sermons from America. In fact, guaranteeing basic minimum needs, the Chinese have gone much beyond what Americans have done in spite of their wealth. Unfortunately, there has been a retardation in this respect because of the adoption of the so-called liberalization as a result unemployment and inequality of income and wealth has increased in China, so has crime and corruption. If this trend continues there is risk of further undermining of human rights.

For a more detailed analysis please see Radha Sinha, ‘Sino-American Relations: Mutual Paranoia,’ (paperback), (New Delhi, Atlantic Publishers and Distributors, 2008) Ch. 6.

The End Does Not Justify the Means; Violation of Human Rights in Xin Jiang

The Chinese official media claims that two Uighur (a Muslim ethnic group in Xin Jiang) men drove a dump truck into a group of jogging policemen on Monday August 4, killing 16 police officers, Such an act of terrorism, coming four days ahead the opening of the Beijing Olympics, is clearly an attempt by the dissidents to highlight their cause of separatism, as the Chinese government claims, or saving their cultural identity as the Uighurs claim. Whatever the objectives of the dissidents, violence is not justifiable. Violence brings about reprisals and counter-violence leadings to mindless killings and the cause, however genuine, is lost sight of. It goes to the credit of Rebiya Kadeer, a prominent Uighur dissident who issued a statement condemning all acts of violence.

There is no doubt that the Chinese government has attempted or allowed its agencies to undermine the ethnic culture and literature and in the name of war on terrorism to violate the basic norms of human rights in Xin Jiang. This is testified not only by the US State Department’s country reports on human rights but also by prestigious independent human rights related public interest groups such as the Amnesty International and the Human Rights Watch (HRW). The present blog draws heavily on the reports from these organizations to draw attention to human rights infringements in Xin Jiang.

The Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, in northwest China, is a vast region, with almost one-sixth of China's land area. It is strategically important to China because it borders several countries, not all friendly to China. Xin Jiang is also expected to become the biggest petroleum and gas production base in China. Xinjiang has a population of 18 million many of whom are of Turkic-speaking Muslim ethnic groups. The Uighurs, numbering eight million,
\are the largest ethnic group, the second largest group being the Kazakhs numbering 1.2 million. The ethnic Chinese (Han) accounted for only 6 percent of the population in 1949; their population, thanks to the state sponsored transfer of population, has now risen to 7.5 million accounting for 40 percent of the total population of the region.

As the Human Rights Watch (HRW), writes ‘Chinese authorities have not discriminated between peaceful and violent dissent, however, and their fight against "separatism" and "religious extremism" has been used to justify widespread and systematic human rights violations against Uighurs, including many involved in non-violent political, religious, and cultural activities.’

Many Uighurs complain of racial abuse and discrimination against ethnic minorities, and the lack of equal opportunity in education, health care and employment. Unlike their Chinese Han institutions, Uighur schools and hospitals are poorly equipped, with some Uighur village schools so poor and short of equipment that the pupils have to sit and write on the earthen floor. Many hospitals reportedly give preferential treatment to Han Chinese patients and top jobs to Chinese doctors at the expense of their Uighur counterparts.

The opportunities afforded by the economic development have benefited mainly Han Chinese. Many Uighur farmers have become so impoverished due to discriminatory policies, the multiplication of taxes, and corruption that they have to sell their crops to state agencies at lower prices than those of the free market, whereas Chinese farmers are reportedly allowed to trade on the market. Many Uighur farmers are forced by circumstances to sell their land and joined the ranks of the unemployed and vagrants. Han Chinese are the major beneficiaries of the newly created job opportunities in the new oil fields and other enterprises in the north. In the south, many enterprises which have been privatized are now under Han Chinese management which prefer Han Chinese over Uighur workers. With increasing unemployment, there has been an increase in crime, drug addiction and prostitution have become widespread among the unemployed.

As a result of the "open door" policy launched in the late 1970s mosques were reopened and some Islamic countries were allowed to fund the construction of mosques and to establish Koranic schools and import religious books. In the late 1980s the restrictive policies brought back amidst fears that Islam might provide a rallying point for ethnic nationalism. It was also feared that Islamist movements abroad might inspire young Uighurs who had studied in foreign Islamic schools. These fears were apparently reinforced by the protests and rioting in Baren, near Kashgar in 1990, reportedly led by members of an Islamic nationalist group, which resulted in many deaths. New restrictive policies include closure of mosques and Koranic schools, banning of the use of the Arabic script, the tight control, including dismissal and arrests, of the Islamic clergy, and religious leaders and the prohibition on practising religion by Muslims working in government offices and other official institutions.

There has been a curtailment of social and cultural rights as well. In Urumqi, the regional capital, some Uighur entrepreneurs have bee n harassed for manufacturing traditional ethnic clothes or for being involved in social activism. Some entrepreneurs were forced to close down their businesses. In cities in the north, some people have faced harassment or even detention simply for displaying signs of their ethnic or religious identity, such as headscarves for Muslim women.


All this has resulted in an exacerbation of long-standing ethnic tensions between Uighurs and Han Chinese in the region which is behind the escalation of violence in recent years. The number of violent incidents has increased significantly. These include violent clashes between small groups of Uighurs and the security forces, attacks on government officials and bombings by underground opposition groups. The government’s response, as usual, has been harsh repression by launching a ’hard hit’ campaign against ‘ethnic separatists’, imposing new restrictions on religious and cultural rights and resorting increasingly to executions, show trials and arbitrary detention to silence real and suspected opponents.

Both the HRW and the Amnesty International points out that people not involved in violence are also victims of human rights abuses. Attempts by Uighurs to air their views or grievances peacefully and to exercise their most fundamental human rights in constitutional manner have attracted government repression. In doing so the government is inevitably inviting violence. One recognises that Xin Jiang, bordering several countries not all friendly to China, is strategically important; vast amount of petroleum and gas makes the region economically valuable as well. Therefore, its security and the maintenance of law and order are of paramount importance to the Chinese government. But the answer is not in repression which would exacerbate the cycle of violence and counter-violence. While the government must take a hard line against terrorists and violent elements, it must not alienate those who abhor violence.
As the HRW points out, there has long been strong Uighur opposition to Chinese rule in Xinjiang. The effective control of the region by the central government was achieved only after the founding of the Chinese People’s Republic in 1949. In fact, between 1944 and 1949, a short-lived independent East Turkestan Republic ruled the region. It was backed by the Soviet Union. Today, the Uighur opposition-in-exile is based in Turkey, Germany and the United States, and remains overwhelmingly pan-Turkic. The East Turkestan National Congress, based in Munich, Germany, a federation of most of the Turkish and European Uighur associations, consistently advocates peaceful means to achieve a ‘real autonomy’ or ‘independence’ for the region.
Likewise, Uighur organizations in Central Asia, such as the Kazakhstan Regional Uighur Organisation in Almaty or Kyrgyzstan Uighur Unity in Bishkek believe in democracy and secularism.
In Xinjiang itself, there is no unified movement. Pan-Turkic movements like the East Turkestan Party (Tengri Tag), and the Uighur Liberation Organization are the most structured organizations, and are active mainly in urban areas like Yining, Urumqi, Korla, and Kucha. More religiously-oriented groups are active in the southern part of Xinjiang, notably in the Kashgar and Hetian areas. Such groups advocate the establishment of an Islamic state in Xinjiang and oppose Chinese domination, but as the HRW points out there is no evidence that they are either associated with the Taliban or draw inspiration from them. As the HRW points out, the pro-independence groups, whether religious or secular, are mainly ethno-centric movements, not religious ones. There is no evidence of significant cooperation among Xinjiang's different Muslim ethnic groups of Kazakhs, Mongols, Tajiks, and Uighurs on religious lines.
The Chinese government’s’ claim, that these groups are in league with fundamentalist Islamic groups, at least at present, cannot be easily substantiated. A continuing repression may in the long-run prove to be counter-productive since it may lead to a greater cooperation among these disparate groups and then the Chinese government may find it difficult to deal with these groups. It is imperative that the Chinese government begins a meaningful dialogue with the dissidents in Xin Jaing, Tibet and other areas. If repression silenced or eliminated dissent, the Chinese Communist Party would not have come to power in the face of Chiang Kai-shek’s repressive policies.

Are Religious Leaders Failing Us?

Early this afternoon, the PTI reported that in the worst-ever temple tragedy in Himachal Pradesh, 146 devotees, including 30 children and 38 women, were killed and more than 50 injured today in a stampede at the Naina Devi shrine. This makes me ask a question: Are our religious leaders failing us?
We have been taught from our childhood that God resides in all the living beings, therefore if one wants to worship God, one has to look inside. One does not need to go to temples or pilgrimages. Unfortunately, millions of us spend our hard earned money on pilgrimages every year. Many poor people can hardly afford such trips and it is largely these families, because of their ignorance and superstitious believes, that travel to such places. Is it not imperative for religious leaders to come forward and say that such sacrifices at the cost of continued deprivation of the family concerned is not needed for spirituality? Or is it that the religious hierarchy has a vested interest in promoting such pilgrimages because these are the main sources of income and the basis of comfortable (or even the luxurious) life of the religious hierarchy?

If my visiting a holy shrine, or a dip in the Ganges, absolves me from all my sins what stops me committing sins all my life and once in a while visit a pilgrimage or take a dip in one of the holy rivers?

Even with respect to the offerings I may have a question. Is it justifiable to pour tons of milk, fruits and sweets on stone statutes while millions of children, the living incarnation of Gods starve? Is it not the duty of the religious hierarchy to see that some of these offerings are used to eradicate hunger and poverty from India? Should not the hierarchy fattening on people’s largesse--not many of the hierarchy has in fact renounced the worldly pleasures; for those who have renounced worldly pleasures I have a great regard—devote a part their earnings on the elimination of poverty and raising educational standards of the community?

There are many major social issues, such a sex-selected abortions, infanticide, burning of brides, banishment of widows from homes, sexual abuse of children and so on that need reforming. The religious leaders can be the main instruments for such social changes. They would have much more influence than government legislation. Why, then, are these leaders silent? To the best of my knowledge they have not spoken even against the ‘Devdashi’ system which is directly in their jurisdiction.

I may raise some other issues of great significance to India, in fact to the world humanity. We Hindus do cremate dead bodies. This requires lots of firewood, ghee and oil. Clearly, burning of ghee and oil is questionable in a country where millions of people suffer from hunger and malnutrition. Burning a lot of firewood is depleting our forests and changing our climate. Is it not imperative on our religious leadership to support electrical cremation? It is clean with the least environmental consequences and the ashes can still be taken to holy rivers. In fact, the sandal wood that the rich use in funeral pyres is one of the main reasons for the scarcity of sandal wood so much so that we have now to import it from abroad.

In my view, religious believes and practices have to adjust according to the changing circumstances and it is the duty of the religious hierarchy to redefine values and practices to suit modern times. If they do not do say they are failing us, and \ bringing religion to disabuse and ultimately opening the path to self-destruction.

Why Do I Object to American-Style Neo-Liberalism?

There is no doubt that American economic prosperity has been the envy of the world, and has attracted millions of deprived people from all over the world. Its economic, technological and military superiority over other nations makes it an attractive model to emulate. Yet one is aghast that amidst the phenomenal prosperity of America, considerable hunger and homelessness persists. Even in 2005, after a decade of continued economic prosperity, nearly 37 million people, one out of every eight American (but one out of four Native Americans or African Americans, and one out of five Hispanics) were poor. Among the 21 most affluent countries the United States had the highest incidence of child poverty with 18 per cent of all children poor. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) the United States comes out the last but one (the United Kingdom being the last) out of twenty one world’s most advanced economies with respect to the well-being of children and young people. The six dimensions taken to measure the well- being of children include material well-being, health and safety, education, peer and family relationships, behaviors and risks, and young people’s own subjective sense of well-being.
In 2005, nearly 13 million households were food insecure, in the sense that they could not secure the minimum nutrition for a time within the year for lack of money. In a third of such households had one or more members hungry for a time; remaining two thirds of the households could avoid hunger as a result of federal assistance programs or charitable soup kitchen. Between two and seven million Americans are homeless. 47 million Americans have no health insurance. Almost one in five American adults (between 40 and 44 million) is functionally illiterate. On one of the most telling social indicators, the expectation of life at birth, which can encapsulate to a considerable extent the average standard of living of a country, the United States is almost the lowest of all the most industrialized countries of the West. On this score, Cuba, with a much lower per capita income, has the same expectation of life at birth as the United States. Similarly, infant mortality rate in America is comparable only to the poorest Western European countries and to Cuba. The infant mortality rate among the African American population is almost twice as high as amongst whites. Among all advanced industrialized countries, the rate of violent crimes is the highest in the United States. Approximately 13 million people (roughly 5 per cent of the population) are victims of crime in America every year. Annually, 13 000 deaths are caused by the illegal use of firearms in murder or non-negligent manslaughter. The number of violent crimes totals 440 000 each year. These are numbers far in excess of those killed on September 11, but thanks to the Gun Lobby, a president who has declared ‘War on Terrorism’ seems to have little to offer.
The United States has, from its very inception, shown an uncanny tolerance of highly skewed distribution of income and wealth. It now has one of the most unequal distributions of income in the world; with the lowest quintile (20 per cent) of households earning less than 4 per cent of the total household income, while the highest quintile earns as much as half. According to a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report, the unequal distribution of income among households became substantially more pronounced between 1979 and 1997. The share of pre-tax income going to the richest fifth rose from 45.9 percent in 1979 to as much as 53.2 percent in 1997, while the share for the poorest fifth declined from 5.3 to 4 percent. During the same period the share of post-tax income going to the richest fifth increased from 42.7 percent to 49.7 percent; while the share for the poorest fifth declined from 8.3 percent to only 4.8 percent. The share of pre-tax income of the richest 1 percent rose from 9.3 percent in 1979 to 15.8 percent in 1997. During the same period the share of post-tax income of the richest 1 percent rose from 7.5 percent to 13.7 percent. In 1979 the share of the after-tax income going to the richest fifth was nearly seven times that of the poorest fifth of the households. In 1997 this multiple had risen to a little more than 10. Ultimately, federal taxes, do not seem to affect the distribution of income.
Wealth distribution in the United States is even more unequal. In 1998 the richest 1 percent of households owned 38 percent of all the wealth, while the top 5 percent owned 58 percent. Another study suggests that during 1989-2001, a third of the wealth went to the richest 1 percent of households, another third went to the next richest 9 percent and the remaining third went to 90 percent of households. The poorest fifth of households have no assets or their debts equal or exceed their debts. The wealth inequality almost doubled between the 1970s and the 1990s. If one excludes housing and concentrates on stocks, financial securities and business assets, the distribution of wealth becomes even more unequal. The richest 10 percent of households own 85 percent of all outstanding stocks and financial securities and 90 percent of all business assets. Minorities fare even worse. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, White Americans, on average, own 11 times as much wealth as Hispanic households, and 14 times that of Afro-American families. The median net worth of Hispanic households in 2002 was $7,932 against $88,651 median wealth of White households. The net worth of Afro-American households was only $5,988.
A gross inequality of income and wealth, uninhibited by state intervention, leads to unequal access to opportunity and to political power. In a country, where access to education for children depends upon the income and wealth of their parents, equality of opportunity — the very basis of democracy — becomes largely mythical. Apart from the expensive private schools to which children from rich families invariably go, gross disparities exist even in the public school system. Suburban schools have ‘clean buildings, modern sports and science facilities, and well-stocked libraries, and inner-city schools with broken windows, deteriorating buildings and empty bookshelves.’ Notwithstanding scholarships for poor deserving students at most universities, access to the top private institutions of higher studies often depends on family income and alumni connections. For instance, nearly ‘one fifth of Harvard’s students have been legacies [children of families which have given substantial gifts to the university], or the children of alumni’ even if they are significantly less qualified than other students. As Lind cogently concludes, ‘the effect of legacy preference is to retard social mobility and turn the new American oligarchy into a semi hereditary aristocracy.’
By now it is widely accepted that income inequalities have serious implications not only for health but also other social ills such as crime and violence in society. A major study, conducted at Berkeley showed how the American states with greater inequalities in their distribution of income not only had lower expectations of life and higher infant mortality rates but also had a greater proportion of babies born with low birth weights and a greater proportion of the population was unable to work due to disability. They also had higher rates of unemployment, higher rates of violent crime and homicide, and higher rates of incarceration. The states with higher inequalities had higher percentages of people receiving income assistance and food stamps, and a greater percentage of people without medical insurance. It is not surprising that these states had higher costs per person for medical care, and for police protection. Such states spent less per person on education, had fewer books per person in schools, with failing educational performances, including poorer reading and mathematics skills as well as lower rates of completion at high school.
Another study at Harvard found that the US states with high inequalities of income had relatively high overall age-adjusted death rates, high infant mortality, high death rates from heart disease, cancer and homicide among both whites and blacks.
Yet successive US governments—greatly under the influence of big business-- have done little to tackle the problem of the growing inequality in the United States. In fact, the George W. Bush administration, one of the most-business friendly administrations in post-Second World War America, has adopted tax policies, which have exacerbated the problem of inequality. For instance, as the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, an independent think-tank indicates, Bush imposed taxes enacted in 2004 will add less than half a percent in the after-tax income of the poorest fifth of the households while adding 5.3 percent to the after-tax income of the richest one percent. This would mean that while the poorest fifth of the households on average receive a tax cut of $27, the richest fifth would get an average tax cut of $5,000. The gains from the tax cuts for the richest one percent would be as much as $35,000 and households earning a million or more will receive as much as $123,600. Republicans are also planning to completely repeal the already diminished estate tax after 2010. By 2011, heirs to the richest 600 or so estates will no longer owe any inheritance tax. This will exacerbate the income - wealth inequality even further.
In my view, a society suffering from gross inequities of income, wealth and the resulting inequality of opportunity tears a society apart. It is this risk of social disintegration that worries me in so far as the current economic policies in both China and India. Growing social discontent and increase in crime are evidently major threats to social stability in both the countries. The conventional wisdom suggests increasing expenditures on crime prevention, policing, jails and judiciary. Increased powers to the police and the philosophy of ‘zero-tolerance’ not only undermines human liberties, so essential to a democracy, but also brings about reprisals against the authorities (growing Naxalite activities in India is an example) creating a chain of violence and counter-violence so inimical to the stability of a country.

Benevolent Exploitation

While generalisations are dangerous in an area where millions of child workers (estimates range between 18 million to 44 million or even higher) and their employers spread over the whole country are concerned, the fact remains that the child workers are perhaps one of the most exploited group in the world let alone in India. We, almost all of us, as employers, inadvertently or otherwise commit incalculable harms to young children in the early years of their development. In employing them we operate on a self-justification that without such employment these children may not survive or be forced to live in a semi-starved state. This might well be true but the fact remains that we employ child labour because children are cheaper than their adult counterparts, they can be easily controlled and do not have the capacity to retaliate if slapped, beaten or abused. This self-serving benevolence is sheer exploitation. As the Save the Child and Tulir Study in West Bengal point out, ‘children who work as domestics outside the family home are amongst the most vulnerable and exploited. They begin work at an early age, shoulder excessive responsibilities such as caring for babies/infants, handling fuel stoves, sharp tools, amongst others, working long hours with no rest period, with little or no remuneration, work at the mercy of the employer and frequently suffer from gender and sexual violence. They are deprived of access to schooling, play and social activities and the attention and support of their family and friends. These situations and conditions not only apply to child domestic workers but also to all children at work.’ Such appalling conditions of work are widespread. The Government of India Study found that nearly 56 per cent of the child workers in the age-group of 5-12 years of age worked seven days a week in all the 13 sample states in India, the percentage being highest at 80 percent in Bihar. The Study found that physical and sexual abuses were quite common. What worries me most is the psychological or the emotional abuse. The use of diminutive and abusive language is quite common. By the use of such language, feeding and clothing with leftovers, the child is constantly reminded of his or her marginalised status in the household. A child worker is often expected to get up and begin working even before the adult members of the family get up, they are allowed to go to sleep at night only after others have gone to sleep. Irrespective of age, the child worker is fed only after the family members have finished their meal. A child worker, day in and out, watches young children in the family being pampered with sweets, new clothes, and toys, often a dream for the child worker except possibly on one or two annual festivals such as Holi or Deepawali. He or she is not allowed to play with children of the same age in the family. Thus, every minute of his or her existence in the family a child worker is reminded of his or her position as a servant, someone inferior and marginalised. This undermines the child’s self-confidence, narrows his or her horizon. Even those employers who are generous enough to keep the child workers in reasonable comfort, a partial incorporation of the child workers keeps them reminding of their inferior position in the family and society at large. Certainly, there are generous employers who allow time for schooling. But the schools, to which child workers go, are unattractive, badly equipped and often lack adequately trained and sympathetic teachers. Besides, after hours of domestic work the child workers do not have the energy to concentrate. The narrowing of his or her horizon itself acts as a deterrent. Without encouragement and inspiration from a peer group, the child knows that he or she is destined to end up in some kind of menial or low paid job. Clearly, this dampens his enthusiasm for education.

Other than house work, children are employed in farming, mining, various trade and industries including garments, footwear, brick kilns, stainless steel, hotels, textile workshops. carpet weaving, gem polishing, glass blowing, match works, brassware, electro-plating, lead mining, stone quarrying, lock making and beedi rolling. Many of these are hazardous to human health. For instance, a study by the Pasumai Trust, Tiruvallur, and the Peoples Forum for Human Rights in Chennai in 2005 found that children working in brick kilns in Tamil Nadu, apart from accidents and injuries, developed skin and stomach problems, wheezing, asthma and stunted development as a result of their being constantly exposed to sand, dust and heat. Adolescent girls developed menstrual dysfunction. Most of the injuries at work go unreported, workers not receiving any compensation.
In the lock industries of Aligarh, and the metal industries of Moradabad, Varanasi and Delhi, Children working for long hours with hand presses, buffing machines, electro-plating and spray-painting units are exposed to chemical fumes, which slowly destroy their respiratory system and eyesight.

The Beedi industry is another notorious example in which children, largely girls, work for long hours in a crowded work place and are exposed to tobacco fumes and develop lung diseases. Glass bangles and glass blowing industries are yet another group of industries in which child workers constantly inhale cyanide and silica fumes. Many such child workers develop tuberculosis and die young.

Child labour is also widely used in cutting and polishing diamonds and other precious stones in Jaipur and Surat. Children work for long hours in congested, badly lit and poorly ventilated workshops, and develop various work-related ailments such as kidney dysfunction, lung disease, stomach problems, wheezing, pains in their joints and eyesores. According to the medical sources nearly a third of the child workers get tuberculosis. Children also complain of body aches and finger tips scraped by the polishing discs. Other complaints include eyestrain and allergic dermatitis due to the regular use of dirty water. The Indian carpet industry is still another example of a large employer of child labour in hand-knotted carpets manufactured largely for export.
The industry uses children as young as 6 years of age, who are made to work in confined, dimly-lit workshops, often chained to carpet looms. These children constantly work in cramped, damp, ill-ventilated and badly lit workshops and breath damp air, dirt and woollen fluff and fall victims to spinal deformities, retarded growth, respiratory illnesses and poor eyesight.

Child workers face a similar fate in India’s silk industry. As the Human Rights Watch, an American public interest group, points out, child workers are involved in the entire process from boiling cocoons, hauling baskets of mulberry leaves, to embroidering saris. The children work twelve or more hours a day, six and a half or seven days a week, under appalling working conditions and are subjected to conditions of physical and verbal abuse. The children suffer injuries from the machines and from sharp threads. They are constantly exposed to sericin vapors from the boiling cocoons, smoke, diesel fumes from the machines in poorly ventilated workshop and develop respiratory ailments such as chronic bronchitis and asthma. With the constant immersion in scalding water and the handling of dead worms hands become raw, blistered, and sometimes infected. Children have to work at looms located in damp and ill-ventilated workshops for hours and develop contagious diseases, especially tuberculosis and digestive disorders, spread easily in crowded rooms. Poor lighting and constant visual strain always affects the eyesight.

Unfortunately, some of these hazardous industries such as brick kilns, mines and quarrying, glass making, sericulture and silk weaving and carpet weaving have a high incidence of bonded child labour. Under the system parents are advanced some money by the contractors of the employers and the children are bonded until such time when the loan is paid back. They have to work at low wages for long hours, may be 10 to 12 hours a week, seven days a week. Much of the bonded labour comes from migrants belonging to the scheduled castes and tribes who are landless and lack alternative sources of income.

As you can see even a cursory look at the employment situation in India shows that the conditions of work for child workers is pitiful; they have to work for long hours under unhygienic conditions and are subjected to physical and sexual abuse. Undoubtedly, it is mainly economic vulnerability which is at the root of child labour. Yet, the sociological conditions and societal attitude of those in privileged economic and social groups are also important. Often, vulnerable groups are considered to be less intelligent and not enterprising enough to break out of the vicious circle of poverty, ignorance and powerlessness.

Road to Hell

Early marriage in many cases leads to early widowhood. The loss of the bread winner is a tragedy in any society but widowhood in India is a major curse, particularly, among the Hindu so-called upper castes in which widow remarriage is not allowed. A widow in India - estimated numbers range between 35 to 50 million - suffers in many ways. A recent survey of widows conducted across seven states ‘reveals the immense psychological and social pressures that widows are under even today: they are accused of being 'responsible' for their husband's death. They are pressurised to observe restrictive codes of dress and behaviour. However young, they are often excluded from social life. They are physically and sexually abused, and are deprived of their property.’ Many of the widows are abandoned on pilgrimages. Some estimates put the number of abandoned widows at 15,000 a year. However, in the recent Kumbh Mela alone, 60,000 abandoned widows were rescued by Allahabad police and taken to their homes but relatives refused to accept them, forcing the government to make some provisions for them. Many of the abandoned widows live in Vrindaban, Mathura and Tirupati, primarily living on begging. Young women often fall prey to the agents of prostitution rings and end up in brothels. It is well known that agents of prostitution rings operate in places of pilgrimage, particularly during big religious festivals and melas in search of abandoned and lost young girls. Thus, there is almost a direct relationship between child marriage widowhood and prostitution. It is not being claimed that brothels mainly consist of widows, in fact, there is considerable trafficking in women and children furbishing the supply to the red light districts of the major cities in India. The U.S. State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report, 2007 places the number of trafficked persons in India at several millions, this includes people trafficked for involuntary labour as well. According to the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs, ninety per cent of trafficking in persons is within India itself. However, India is also the destination for trafficked girls from Nepal and Bangladesh for being exported abroad. . Primarily for reasons of poverty, some parents sell their young daughters into prostitution; some are duped by unscrupulous agents of the vice-rings and marry their daughters to such people. Once the bride arrives in cities she is forced to become a sex worker. As in any other country, the sex-workers in India-numbering nearly 900,000 in the major cities, with a third of them minors; lead a marginalised existence. The national total is estimated to range between 2 and 3 million. They are badly fed and housed and are victims of sexually transmitted diseases. Once trapped, it is impossible to get out; even those young sex-workers who are rescued by the police cannot be rehabilitated. There is hardly any provision for rehabilitation; social attitudes prevent their assimilation in society.

Some Wider Implication of Indo-US Nuclear Deal

The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) clearly survived the trust vote in the Parliament. In spite of the allegations regarding buying of votes and abstentions, Prime Minister,Manmohan Singh claims this as a decisive victory. Constitutionally, of course, it is a victory, yet one doubts whether it is morally so. Certainly, not for the prime minister, who has a unblemished record of political morality. His claim of a decisive victory is also open to question. In fact, the votes show that the country is split almost in the middle. The reason is obvious. Even though theIndo-US Nuclear deal has been sold to the public as an energy security measure, it is in reality about a strategic alliance with the United States in its anti-China jihad. It is for this reason that the leftist parties in India had opposed the deal and had withdrawn support to the UPA government. Man Mohan Singh’s indecent haste to hand over George W Bush, a winner’s trophy in spite of his ignoble record, is certainly deplorable One of the main questions is whether it is morally justifiable for a minority government in its dying. days to take an irrevocable decision of such importance. Constitutionally, of course, by buying off disparate elements in the Parliament, the Man Mohan Singh government has a majority, to pass a legislation supporting the Indo-US alliance binding India to a commitment for which the country may not be ready. It is almost certain that India does not get a lot of strategic advantage from such an alliance, except the chance of standing next to an American president and getting a pat on the back, as the one Man Mohan Singh received from George W. Bush in his Tokyo meeting. This brings us to another and even more important moral question. Is it morally right for India to get closer at this time to the United States; a country that has committed an act of unprovoked aggression on an independent country on false pretences? Under the Geneva Convention, Nuremberg Charter, the UN Charter and the precedents set by the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials, the American president, as the commander-in-chief is culpable of war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Had it been a lesser country, it would be America that would be clamouring for war crime trials as it did in the cases of Saddam Hussain or Slobodan Milosevic. Yet, in spite of the mounting evidence of contraventions of the Geneva Convention, no senior civilian or military official has been tried for war crimes in America. For short-term electoral reasons, the Democrats have avoided even impeaching George W. Bush. Unfortunately, we have been duped by the American propaganda regarding America’s democratic credentials and its being the defender of the rule of law. The reality is almost the opposite. From its very inception, the oligarchy of the United States ignored the treaty rights of the Native Americans, and indulged in acts, which, in present parlance, amounts to ethnic cleansing and genocide of the native population. It repeatedly violated the sovereignty of Mexico and other neighbouring countries, and subjected the Afro-Americans to inhuman treatment including lynching. Such occasions were advertised in the press and graced by parliamentarians, judges and senior government officials. Nearer our own time, the U.S. government and its intelligent services undermined democracies, arranged the assassination of the Third World leaders and underwritten atrocities by dictatorships the world over. In pogroms organised by the Central Intelligence Service (CIA) to overthrow Sukarno in Indonesia, at least half a million people were slaughtered, the list of communists to be liquidated was drawn by the American embassy in Jakarta. In the conduct of war, America has almost always violated international law. This happened in Vietnam, Nicaragua, the Gulf war, and Kosovo and is now happening in Iraq and Afghanistan. All in all, America respects international law when it suits its interests, when it does not, international codes of conduct are set aside indiscriminately. It applies international law selectively; Israel possesses nuclear weapons, yet the IAEA cannot raise it as an issue, while Iran is penalised for using its legitimate rights to develop nuclear technology for civilian uses. India, because of its willingness to play a part in the U.S. game plan against China, is condoned for having nuclear weapons. Even though the United States helped in creating the United Nations, it has more often undermined than helped it. With its unparalleled economic and military might it acts in the world as if it is above law. It has become much more intent on world domination since the demise of the Soviet Union. Not that the Soviet Union ever matched American power, but it did act as a restraint. Perhaps, Iraq would not have such an unfortunate fate if the Soviet Union was still alive. It is morally unsound to align with America at this juncture when it is turning to be what Noam Chomsky calls a ‘terrorist state.’ For a proper functioning of the international system, it is important that there is some restraint on American power. This can happen only if a countervailing power is born. At one time it was hoped that the European Union might develop into such a power. But it does not seem to be the case. Politically it is a disparate group of countries; a meaningful political and economic integration may take a long time to come. In the interim, there is no country which can act as a counterweight to the United States. In spite of the hype, China is economically, technologically and militarily too weak to match American power. So if we want to moderate American excesses, it is important that countries such as Brazil, China, India, Russia and South Africa co-ordinate their policies on international issues as they have often done in the trade talks and have had some successes. It does not need to be an anti-American alliance; on many international issues such as climate change and International Crime Court, there are many Americans who would like to see some constraints on American arbitrariness and to its return to the ‘Rule of Law’ much the same way as many Americans would like to see George W. Bush tried as a war criminal; many more support his impeachment. India can obtain its rightful place only when multi-polarity in the world is respected. India’s rightful place cannot come as a gift of the United States. The United States has rarely treated allies as equals; it does not need friends, it needs lap-dogs. It is sad that not unlike Tony Blair, Man Mohan Singh has opted for becoming one.

Delete It

Are We failing Our Children?

Are We failing Our Children?


Today I raise the issue of almost a billion unprivileged children whom we ignore, marginalize and even brutalize day in and day out. It might sound strange to some of you to consider children as an underprivileged group. Often, we see them as being a well-cared for and pampered group. This description fits some children but not the majority of them who are deprived of basic necessities and are abused in various ways. We fail to realize that even under the best of circumstances, children, more so female children, are abused physically, sexually and emotionally. Much of such abuse does not come to light because the perpetrators of these abuses may be close relatives, or friends. The incidents go unreported because the victims are too scared to complain or the parents do not like to wash their dirty linen in public. Of late, particularly after the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by the United Nations General Assembly in 1989, there has been a growing awareness regarding the continuing, even accelerating, infringements of the rights of children. An increasing concern is being expressed both at the national as well international levels. With greater transparency - parents are more open to public discussion of issues relating to child abuse - and greater media and non-governmental organization (NGO) activism, more and more people are learning about the magnitude and the growing seriousness of the problem of child deprivation and abuse. Economic Development and Child Abuse Economic development, which raises the income of households and thereby helps to reduce the child deprivation, also creates conditions under which children become much more vulnerable. The rural poor are often forced to move to urban areas in search of jobs having lost their land as a result of debts and the lack of alternative employment opportunities in rural areas. With economic development the importance of agriculture declines relative to the industrial and the service sectors. Since these sectors are predominantly urban, the population drifts to the urban centres. The resulting urbanization tends to undermine the joint family system. When the earning member of the family moves to an urban area, housing shortage compels the family to leave the grand parents at their original place of abode. The high cost of urban living forces both parents of the children to take up employment outside the home. This applies as much to poor families as to the more well-to-do ones. This has serious consequences for the children. For lack of resources, poor parents make children leave schools and begin to work at an early age. Schools are either inadequately provided or even non-existent in slums where relatively poor families end up. These urban slums lack even the basic amenities such as toilets, drainage and drinking water. Parents in poor families can hardly afford good nurseries, kindergartens or schools. In the absence of the care of parents or grand parents, many children end up on the streets and come into contact with street gangs, pimps and other anti-social elements. These elements initiate these children into illegal activities such as begging, pick-pocketing, drug peddling and prostitution. Such children on the streets are invariably treated as criminals and mishandled by the police Nor do these children get a fair treatment in courts of justice. When they end up in prisons or correctional homes, they get abused in various ways. The children in more well-to-do families fare better in terms of living conditions, schooling and other amenities, but these children-known as latch-key children- face other problems. Because of the high cost of living in cities, often, both parents have to work. As a result, parents are away from home when the children arrive back from schools. They may have to spend an hour or two alone before the parents return home. During this period the children fix their own refreshments with one kind of fast food or another and watch television or play video games. As a result of inappropriate food and the lack of physical activity many children become obese. Obesity is a growing problem in most countries, both developed and developing. Incessant watching of violence on the television and playing computer games with considerable amount of violence in them tend to attract the children to violence. The social tolerance of violence means that parents do not hesitate to give the replica of deadliest killing machines as presents to their children. Through the Internet chat clubs, some children come in contact with people who lure them out of the house and abuse them. Globalization and Child Abuse With economic development comes the increasing pace of globalization. The drastic reduction in the cost and time in long distance travel, tourism has been increasing phenomenally. In some countries tourism has become a considerable source of foreign exchange available for growth as well as development. As a result, most countries developed and developing are promoting tourism. There is no doubt that tourism raises income and employment for poor and thereby assists in ameliorating poverty. Tourism also brings with it its vices. It is not unknown that tourists often indulge in activities in foreign countries which they would not do at home either for fear of law enforcement or for fear of social ostracism. Sex tourism, particularly sex with young children comes in this category. With tourism, there has been a phenomenal increase in child-sex related tourism. The increasing demand for young children, both boys and girls, is met by child trafficking by national and international vice-rings. With sex tourism, the increase in the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases including AIDS among children has been causing worldwide concern. Among the other causes of child deprivation and abuse one can include both man-made and natural disasters. Man-made disasters such as wars in several countries in Africa, in Afghanistan and Iraq have killed and orphaned children the world over. Millions of children in Africa have been forced to become child soldiers handling deadly weapons, millions of girls have been raped and forced to become prostitutes for the soldiers. HIV/AIDS, possibly a hybrid of natural and man-made disasters has killed or orphaned millions of children. Among the natural disasters, the recent Tsunami has also led to the orphaning and destitution of children. Magnitude of the Problem An accurate assessment of the number of children suffering various kinds of deprivation and abuse is difficult to come by. Yet estimates by the United Nations agencies such as the International Labour Organization (ILO), United Nations International Children’s Organization (UNICEF) and other international agencies as well as some national estimates and the NGOs researches do provide some sense of the magnitude. According to the most recent estimates, the total world population has reached 6.6 billion. A third of the total comprises children below the age of 18, nearly 90 percent of these children live in developing countries.[i] According to UNICEF, as many as 1 billion children in the world live in poverty and suffer other deprivations. 16 percent of the children under the age of 5 years living in the developing world are severely malnourished. Nearly half of these 90 million malnourished children live in South Asia.[ii] This means that one out of every four children under five in South Asia is severely malnourished. Almost 640 million children, or one out of three, living in developing countries, lack adequate shelter. As many as 400 million or one in five have no access to safe drinking water. Nearly 270 million children are deprived of medical and health facilities. Nearly 500 million children have no access to sanitation facilities. At least 140 million school going children in developing countries—13 percent of those aged 7-18 years—have never attended school. In South Asia one in four girls of school going age (against one in seven boys) has never gone to school.[iii] As many as 300 million children in developing countries do not have access to television, radio, telephone or newspapers so they are also deprived of informal education. As a result of various kinds of deprivation nearly one sixth of the developing countries’ children are born with a low birth weight. One child in four children under 5 years of age is moderately or severely underweight.[iv] In South Asia, these numbers are even higher; nearly 29 percent of the infants (under 1-year) are born with low birth weight and as many as 45 percent of children under 5-years of age are moderately or severely underweight. Currently, the infant mortality rate per thousand in developing countries stands at 57 against only 6 for the industrialized countries. The mortality rate of children under the age of 5 in developing countries is as high as 83 against only 6 for industrialized countries. The equivalent numbers for South Asia are 63 and 84.[v] Deprivations and Abuse Reinforcing It is well-known that these deprivations abuses often go together and reinforce each other. For instance, on the one hand poverty is the main cause of inadequate nutrition, housing, health care, sanitation and education; on the other hand, lack of sanitary conditions of living by causing various kinds of diseases reduces the capacity to learn as well as the potential to work. Similarly, a lack of education does not only inhibit future potential for employment and earning, it also inhibits the capacity to appreciate the significance of sanitary conditions of living. Similarly, poverty forces parents to send children to work as domestic servants or workers on farms, in workshops and mines at an early age where they are often ill treated, badly paid and forced to work in unhealthy workshops impairing their health. Working under such conditions and ill treatment and abuse cripples the children’s personality by undermining their self-esteem and creating a sense of hopelessness. All this creates an atmosphere of despondency in which the child workers cease to attempt to improve their present state even when an opportunity may arise. It is known that child domestic workers if when given time to attend school do not make serious effort to develop their potential. Clearly, this adversely affects future earning potential of such children. In societies where income and wealth form the main basis for political power, the poor and the underprivileged suffer lack not only the will but also the power to get out of the poverty trap. Of course, there are exceptions, but it has been experienced world over that poverty thus breeds poverty for future generations. Child Abuse It is by now, widely recognized that millions of children world over, are subjected daily to violence, physical, sexual and emotional, at home, at school and at work. As a UN study by Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro (henceforth the UN Study) points out, ‘such violence exists in every country in the world, cutting across culture, class, education, income and ethnic origin. In every region, in contradiction to human rights obligations and children’s developmental needs, violence against children is socially approved, and is frequently legal and State-authorized.’[vi] Violence against children is often perpetrated by the very ‘people who are part of their lives, parents, schoolmates, teachers, employers, boyfriends or girl friends spouses and partners.’[vii] The UN Study further points out that: 1. According to the estimates of the World Health Organization (WHO), as many as 53,000 children died worldwide as a result of homicide in 2002.[viii] 2. Evidence from many countries from every region indicates that up to 80 percent or more children suffer physical punishments, with thirty percent or more experiencing severe punishment, 3. In both developed and developing countries bullying is commonly practiced in schools, and as many as 20 to 65 percent children in developing countries experience bullying in schools; 4. According to WHO estimates, in 2002 nearly 150 million girls and 73 million boys were subjected to sexual violence including forced sexual intercourse; 5. The WHO indicates that between 100 and 140 million girls and women of the world have undergone some form of genital mutilation or cutting.[ix] In Sub-Saharan Africa alone 3 million girls and women are subjected each year to this harmful social convention; 6. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), in 2004 as many as 218 million children were engaged in child labour, this included 126 million in hazardous work.[x] It is also estimated that as many as 5.7 million children in 2000 were working as ‘bonded’ labour; 1.8 million in prostitution and pornography and 1.2 million were victims of child trafficking.[xi] A detailed study of child abuse in India by the Ministry of Women and Child development, Government of India comes to similar grim conclusions.[xii] The study (henceforth the Government of India Study) found that just over two thirds of the respondents were physically abused.[xiii] In Assam, Mizoram, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh the corresponding rates ranged between 82 and 85 percent. Much of the physical abuse took place in the family environment and was inflicted by parents in an atmosphere of domestic violence, alcoholism and drug abuse. In nearly 15 percent of cases physical abuse resulted in serious physical injury such as swelling or bleeding.[xiv] Two out of three children reported receiving corporal punishment at school. Nearly 60 percent of the children put in institutions were subjected to physical abuse by the staff. The rate of physical abuse of juveniles in conflict with law in observational and special homes was much higher than children in need and care who are placed in children’s home or sheltered homes.[xv] Children at work suffer a similar fate. A study by the Save the Children and Tulir, ‘Abuse among Child Domestic workers of West Bengal’ shows that as many as 70 percent of the domestic child workers are physically abused.[xvi] The Government of India Study also reported that nearly 60 percent of the respondents had experienced physical abuse in employment.[xvii] The Government of India Study also looked into the sexual abuse of children and came to the conclusion that a little more than half the children responding to the survey had suffered one form of sexual abuse or another including severe forms of sex abuse.[xviii] The study also found that sexual abuse of children started as early as 5 years of age (victim’s age) and peaked at 12 to 15 years of age. Contrary to common perception, a greater percentage of boys were victims of sex abuse. The Government of India Study found that in 9 out of 13 Indian states surveyed, there was a higher percentage of sexual abuse of boys than girls. In Delhi two out of every three boys were subjected to sex abuse against only one out of two girls.[xix] Nationwide the difference was much smaller, 53 percent for boys against 47 percent for girls. In another study on child sexual abuse by Save the Children and Tulir in Chennai, it was found that at least 42 percent of school children were victims of one form of sex abuse. This study also showed that sex abuse was more prevalent in upper and the upper-middle classes than in lower-middle and the poorer classes. The incidents of sex abuse were present in both nucleus as well as extended families. It was also found that the majority of the abusers were usually known, (such as cousins, uncles, friends and class mates) to the child.[xx] Most studies suggest that the abusers are not strangers but close relatives and friends whom the child knows very well. The abusers include cousins, uncles, and friends of the family. Incidents of incest are not uncommon in India. A recent survey by RAHI, a Delhi-based NGO reported that 76 percent of respondents (college young women) to its survey had been abused when they were children – 40 percent of those by a family member. The report, ‘Voices from the Silent Zone,’ suggests that nearly three-quarters of upper and middle class Indian women are abused by a family member - often an uncle, a cousin or an elder brother.[xxi] Research by a Delhi-based NGO, Sakshi, suggests that nearly 80 percent of women from all classes experienced sexual abuse within their own families or by acquaintances. In over 20 percent of cases the victims were subjected to serious and continuing forms of sexual abuse by close relatives.[xxii] Apart from the physical and sexual abuse, a child is subjected to various emotional abuses quite often by parents. They, inadvertently or otherwise humiliate a child by comparing him or her to somebody else. Often, girls are belittled for being born as girls and as a burden to the family. Girls feel so neglected or humiliated that nearly half of them reported wishing that they were born as boys. To say that some one else is more intelligent or better looking belittles the victim and undermines his or her self-esteem. Particularly, a child domestic worker is victimized by abusive language not only for the victim but also for the victim’s parents.
[i] UNICEF, The State of the World’s Children: Children Under Threat, 2005, (N.Y:UNICEF, 2004), p. 10 [ii] Ibid., p.20. [iii] Ibid. p. 22. [iv] UNICEF, The State of the World’s Children: Women and Children, 2007 ( N.Y. UNICEF, 2006), Executive Summary, pp. 28, 39. [v] UNICEF, The State of the World’s Children, 2007 (Executive Summary) [vi] UN General Assembly, Report of the Independent Expert for the United Nations Study on Violence Against Children, 29 August 2006, p.5. [vii] Ibid., p.9. [viii] Ibid., p.9, see also WHO, Global estimates of due to violence against Children, Background Paper for the United Nations Study on Violence Against Children Geneva, 2006. [ix] UNICEF, Changing a Harmful Social Convention: Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting, Innocenti Digest No. 12 Innocenti Research Center, Florence, 2005. [x] ILO, The End of Child Labour Within Reach: Global Report, Geneva 2006. [xi] ILO, A Future Without Child Labour: Global Report,, Geneva, 2003. [xii] Government of India, Ministry of Home and Child Development, Study on Child Abuse, India 2007, prepared by Loveleen Kacker, New Delhi 2007. [xiii] Ibid,. pp. 44-5. According to the ILO, physical abuse of a child is an ‘incident resulting in actual or potential physical harm from an interaction or lack of interaction, which is reasonably within the control of a parent or person in position of responsibility, power or trust.’ Quoted in Ibid. p.43. [xiv] Ibid., p. 51. [xv] Ibid. p. 55. [xvi] Save the Children and Tulir (Centre for Prevention and Healing Child Sexual abuse),. Abuse among the Child Domestic Workers—A Research study in West Bengal’ West Bengal Office of Save the Children, Calcutta, 2006, p. 11. [xvii] Government of India, Ministry of Home and Child Development, op. cit., , p.58. [xviii] The report mentions the following as severe forms of sex abuse: assault including rape and sodomy, touching or fondling a child, forcing a child to expose her private parts and photographing a child in the nude. Other forms of sexual abuse included: forced kissing, sexual advances towards a child in travel, sexual advances towards a child during marriages, exposing oneself before a child and showing pornographic material to a child. (Ibid. p. 73) [xix] Ibid., p. 75. [xx] Save the Children and Tulir, ‘Research on Prevaalence & Dynamics of Child sexual Abuse among Schoolgoing Children in Chennai,’ .Save the Children, Sweden Regional Office for South and c\Central Imdia, Lalitpurm 2006, pp. 10-2. [xxi] RAHI, Voices from the Silent Zone,’ http://www.rahifoundation.org/Programmes/Programmes/document.2004-11-16.2705569041. See also BBC, India’s Hidden Incest,’ 22 January 1999. [xxii] Preeti Vasishtha, ‘Give them a clean childhood,’ Indian Express, Bombay,10 August 1998.

Delete It

We Worship Stone Statues but Prey Upon the Living

It is a strange irony that in a country which worships the stone and earthen images of Durga, Kali, Laxmi, Saraswati and the like as Goddesses, girls, the living incarnations of these Goddesses -don’t we Hindus believe that God resides in all living being-are neglected, victimized, burned to death, smothered at birth and even aborted in large numbers.

Not withstanding the progress women have made in post-independence India, all this happens in most parts of the country, irrespective of caste, class or income groups. Would you believe it, ‘Jai Mata Ki, Puja Karo, is a slogan denoting a female foetus needing abortion. The abortion based on pre-natal sex determination is illegal in India yet it continues to be practised on a large scale. It is practised more by the well-to-do and educated classes than their poorer counterparts. According to the Indian Medical Association as many as 250,000 female foetuses are aborted each year. The Lancet, a respected British Medical journal puts the figure at half a million but this figure is contested by the Indian Medical Association as well as some Indian demographers. The Indian demographers feel that if the rate was closer to the Lancet figure the ratio between girls and boys would have been more skewed than it is. As a result of the continuing practice of female foeticide and infanticide, the child sex ratio has been falling sharply in India, much more precipitously from 1991 onwards. The latest Indian census in 2001 reported 927 girls for every 1000 boys in the age group 0-6 years; in 1991 it was 945 girls to 1000 boys. Recent data from India’s birth and death registration suggests even a lower ratio of 900 baby girls to 1000 baby boys. Demographers suggest that in the absence of such artificial interference as foeticide the ratio should have been 852 to 1000. In some areas, particularly the prosperous ones, such as Haryana, Punjab, Delhi and Gujarat, the problem has become much more acute as there are only 900 baby girls for 1000 baby boys. In the prosperous farming district of Kurukshetra, there are only 770 baby girls to 1000 baby boys. Similarly, in the high-rent South-West of New Delhi the ratio is 845 baby girls to 1000 baby boys. In absence of foeticide and infanticide there should have been another 35 million women in India.

Some of the activists blame the wide prevalence of foeticide on the ready availability of the new technologies of pre-natal sex determination. To me this seems unjustifiable. Technology is a tool, how this is used depends on the social, cultural and political setting in a country. It is well known that because of the preference for a male child female infanticide has been practised widely in India for a long time. Infanticide of a baby girl at birth is quite common even today in the states of – Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Bihar, Orissa, Tamilnadu, and the Union Territory of Delhi. By the very nature of the problem accurate statistics is not available. However, some estimates suggest that as many as 10 million female infants may have been killed by their parents during the last twenty years. Girl infants are murdered by various inhumane ways. Sometimes they are poisoned, or smothered by wet towels, at other they are drowned in milk or fed on a considerable amount of salt or dry paddy husk. Some times they are buried alive. Such murders are generally not reported to the police because these are socially acceptable. Even when reported, the culprits are not convicted in the absence of witnesses.
In addition, abortion as a tool for family planning is acceptable, even promoted by the Government of India and is used commonly by the Indian elite. Under the circumstances, it is no surprise that female foeticide is readily acceptable. It is also true that material success has come to be seen as the dominant symbol of success in India. It does not matter how this success is achieved. In such an atmosphere the rate of dowry has been going up, making it difficult for many middle class families to afford the going rate of dowry. To the best of my knowledge dowry is outlawed in India but even the leading lights of India, both social and political, publicly accept or provide dowry in one form of another. Unfortunately, under the influence of the Bollywood, young brides expect a psychedelic marriage party which many middle class families can ill afford unless they have a clandestine source of income. Law enforcement is often weak or non-existent. It is in this climate that unscrupulous doctors and clinics use the technology for foeticide. In this context it is encouraging to note that apart from the recent government crackdown in various parts of the country as well as the government efforts to ‘adopt the girls’ some religious leaders, including Sri Sri Ravi Shankar of the Art of Living, Alahaj Syed Kiberia of Dargah Ajmer Sharif, the Jathedar of the Akal Takht, Giani Joginder Singh, and the head of the Pejawar Math in Udupi, Vishvesha Teertha Swami have taken a stand against the practice.

There is no doubt that since independence, the attitude towards female education and employment outside the home has been changing. As a result of positive discrimination many young women even from the underprivileged classes have succeeded as politicians and professionals inspiring others in their respective groups, Yet, because of poverty, ignorance and superstition, the traditional attitude towards women and children is changing only slowly. Primarily in rural areas, a female child is still discriminated against and is seen as a burden to the family. They are fed less and not as well cared for as their male siblings. While their siblings are sent to school and allowed to play, a female child often has to share domestic chores including the care of other siblings since the mother moves from one maternity to another. In most cases marriage is seen as the ultimate objective of female children in most population groups, even the educated upper and middle classes are not immune from such a tendency. Even female education is seen as a means to acquire a good husband. Even if the marriage of a young women is delayed in order to complete her education or compete for a job, neighbours or relatives start to gossip as if there was some kind of major shortcoming in the young women. Hence the parents desire to give away the daughter in marriage as soon as they can. In rural areas this desire translates into numerous child marriages. Child marriage is common in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Kerala. According to UNICEF, as many as 82 percent of girls are married before the officially prescribed age of 18.. Nearly one in seven girls are married even before the age of 13. An official survey in Rajasthan of 5000 women in the 1990s showed that as many as 56 percent were married before the age of 15;and 3 percent of them even before 5 years of age. Another 14 percent were married before they were 10 years old. In 2005 in a public interest litigation, the Forum for Fact Finding Development and Advertisement (FFFDA), an NGO submitted a research paper quoting the figures from the National Family Health Survey, said ‘the percentage of women who married before attaining the age of 18 years was as high as 71 percent in Bihar, followed by Rajasthan (68 percent), MP (64 percent), Andhra Pradesh (62 percent), UP (47 percent), Maharashtra (46 percent), Karnataka (45 percent), West Bengal (41 percent), Haryana (40 percent), Gujarat and Assam (37 percent). Percentage figures ranged between 10 to 24, in Himachal, Punjab, Kerala, Jammu and Kashmir and Tamil Nadu.’ .

Child marriage has meant that many child brides get pregnant at an early age with debilitating effect both for the mother and the child. According to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-1) nearly 58 percent of adolescent girls had already commenced childbearing, with only 7 percent adolescent females using contraception. The survey suggested that fertility in the age group of 15-19 years accounted for 19 percent of total fertility in India. Almost a quarter of the age-group had already had a second child.
As the United Nations Fund for Population (UNFPA), points out, both for physiological as well as social reasons, girls aged 15 - 18 are twice as likely to die in child birth as those in their twenties. Girls under 15 are five times more likely to die in child birth as those in their twenties. According to the UNFPA, ‘about half of all deaths among children under age five occur in their first month of life. In developing countries, an infant’s risk of death during the first year is 30 per cent greater if born to a young mother than to an adult woman. Even if they survive, infants born to adolescent mothers are more likely to be premature and low birth-weight. Such survival risks are far greater in developing countries, given conditions of poverty, poor nutrition and poor availability of medical care.’

It is commonly known world wide that pregnancy-related deaths are the leading cause of mortality for adolescent girls in the age group 15-19 years. The chances of maternal death are almost three times higher in this age group than those in their twenties. Girls below 15 are 5 times more vulnerable than women in their twenties. Younger women also have a higher propensity to experience adverse outcomes such as higher foetal wastage in terms of miscarriage, still births and prior spontaneous abortions.

Medical evidence also suggests that the mother’s age has a considerable influence on the rate of infant deaths; the Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) for adolescent mothers is 40 percent higher than for older mothers (107.3 and 75.8 per 1000 live births respectively) . In their study of organized slums of Mumbai researchers found a direct association between maternal age and low birth weight of the child, the incidence being 47 percent in the adolescent age group as compared to 34 percent in the 20-24 years age group and 29 percent in the 25-29 years. In a study of a semi urban population by Kushwaha et al., the incidence of low birth weight in age groups 15-17 years and 17-19 years were 81 percent and 56 percent respectively.