Saturday, December 27, 2025

Fake Licenses Procured From J&K Help Buy Illegal Weapons In Many States

By
Riyaz Wani
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TO GO WITH STORY “INDIA-VOTE-CRIME-GUNS” BY TRIPTI LAHIRI
In this photograph dated 06 April 2007, Indian arms vendor Gulzar poses in his shop with a double-barrelled shotgun, in Kanpur, about 80 kms outside of Lucknow. Customers usually come from far and wide to buy rifles and shotguns from the dozens of tiny shops clustered in a bazaar in the ramshackle town of Kanpur, billed as the gun capital of India’s Uttar Pradesh state, 14 April 2007. But business has stopped. Arms sales have been banned as the country’s largest state — infamous for lawlessness — holds month-long polls under heavy security, halting one of the area’s most profitable sectors. AFP PHOTO/ MANAN VATSYAYANA

An investigation carried over months by the Anti-Terror Squads (ATS)of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh has revealed that the fake arms licenses procured from J&K have led to the proliferation of illegal weapons across several states. In the past six years alone, around 40,000 licenses have been issued in the state.  

The reason for this is that it is not difficult to get a license in the state, if you fake the identity of a security personnel:  that is, produce a forged letter from a commanding officer of an army unit and use a picture in the application form wearing an army uniform and grease the palms of the concerned officials.

What is more, most of these licenses have not been issued to the J&K residents but to the outsiders. This, in turn, has triggered an illegal arms trade in some states with thousands of people possessing arms on fake documents. Alarm bells so triggered have led to investigations by Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan ATS who are trying to reveal the extent of the scam.

The J&K government too has started a probe to be carried out by the State Vigilance Organisation. The state’s home department has ordered the divisional commissioners of Kashmir and Jammu regions to verify all cases of individual new arms licenses issued between January 1, 2017, to February 23, 2018, in eight districts of the state.

And pending this verification, the district magistrates of Kishtwar, Kupwara, Ganderbal, Leh, Rajouri, Ramban, Reasi and Udhampur have been asked not to issue any new individual arms license till further orders.

And also the district magistrates in the state have been directed to take urgent steps to revoke all such “individual arms licenses issued to various persons excluding the personnel of State Police, Army and Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs), which don’t meet all the conditions prescribed in Rule 11 and Rule 12 of the Arms Rules, 2016”.

According to sources, in the past year alone, 5000 arms licenses have been issued in the state, two-thirds of which are fake. The state has issued a total of 4,29,301 licenses  and only 10 per cent of the number are for the J&K residents. 

J&K Government’s order also requires the district magistrates to ensure “all such persons, whose licenses are revoked, to deposit their arms and ammunition with the officer in charge of the nearest police station, failing which action as warranted under law will be initiated”.

The probe has brought under its scanner the district magistrates from the various districts which have witnessed the issuance of the most of the licenses. 

“It is true that the district level officers are involved in the scam,” said a State Vigilance Organization official. “The investigation will pin the responsibility and help bring the guilty to justice.”

The lid on the scam was blown off after the Rajasthan ATS launched the ‘Operation Jubeida’ in May last year  into the inter-state arms racket involved in procuring fake arms licenses from J&K.

Alerted by the scale of the illegal weapons trade, centre has also moved to launch a National Database of Arms Licenses system in April next year and provide each license holder a unique identification number (UIN) for renewal and other purposes.

It will be mandatory for all licensing authorities in the country to enter data in the new system, any arms license without UIN would be considered invalid.

“In case a person applying for a license for restricted category of arms or ammunition was also a holder of a license for permissible category, or where the applicant applying for permissible category of arms or ammunition was also a holder of a license for restricted category, the licensing authority concerned shall issue a new license for restricted or permissible category of arms or ammunition under the existing UIN of the licensee,” the government notification has mentioned.

However, it is still around a year to go before the database is created. And it would be a painstaking process to provide each licensed item a UIN. But the problem now is tracing the illegal weapons procured through fake licenses in J&K.

“There are two dimensions to the problem. One is fixing the responsibility of the officials for issuance of fake licenses. Another is seizing the consequent illegally bought arms,” said an official. “The simultaneous investigation into the scam in several states has, however, created sufficient realisation of the need to take urgent corrective measures. And we hope we could get a handle on it in near future.”

letters@tehelka.com

Food Adulteration Becomes a Menace

By
M Y Siddiqui
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Notwithstanding with the people’s fundamental right to be free from hunger and to consume safe food, free from toxics, pesticides, other micro-biologicals, chemicals and physical contaminants, the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat contain residues of pesticides. Adulteration of food is caused by sand, stone, chalk powder, mineral oil, coal tar, dyes, arsenic, lead, mercury, pesticide residues, larvae in food, rampant use of formalin in fish, infection by rodents, insects in the form of excreta etc.

Poor implementation of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954 and the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 that created the food regulator, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), coupled with law enforcers (food inspectors) and deficiencies in the testing laboratories, lead to persistence of menace of food adulteration.

Over-use of pesticides in farming, its residue in food chain, poor sanitation in food market, cold storage, adulteration of food items including soft drinks, packaging and transportation are major threats to food safety. As a result, there are severe health hazards like rapid increase in serious diseases like cancer, ulcers, asthma etc. and deaths due to such diseases. All these because of unsafe foods. Common adulterants are urea/detergent powder in milk, animal fat in ghee, brick powder in red chilly powder, chicory in coffee, papaya seeds in black pepper etc. used by unscrupulous traders for sheer profiteering with the connivance of greedy and corrupt law enforcers that pose health hazards to consumers.

Even setting up of a regulator, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has not been helpful except that there has been labeling of food items including processed foods and soft drinks indicating ‘FSSAI Approved’ with no further and continuous checks and balances. Consequently, manufacturers and traders continues to play havoc causing irreparable health hazards to the people. Food adulteration together with air and water pollution in the backdrop of very poor public health care infrastructure has dented people’s income and assets as major portion of their earnings is spent on medicare.

Extent and gravity of food adulteration can be gauged in the light of massive corruption in food business compounded by a rampant collusive culture of corruption at all official levels with no accountability, whatsoever. Both the Union and State Governments are lax with no public concern in the matter. Unless accountability of public servants is fixed by amendments in Article 311 of the Constitution of India, no fruitful public good can be expected in the present system. At the same time, a law of torts (negligence) be legislated to make people in all walks of lives accountable as also safety clauses in all laws which protect public servants for action taken in good faith be abrogated to make them accountable to the people at large, to stem the rots in public administration.

An inquiry in the union Ministries of Health, Food Processing, and Food & Consumer Affairs elicited nil response on the gravity of the growing menace of food adulteration in the country. Nevertheless, to improve the situation greater consumer awareness is called for. Consumer literacy needs to be increased for better awareness of consumer rights and responsibilities. Regular inspection of food outlets to keep premises free from infestations of food bacteria is need of the time. Mass media need to be tapped to make people aware of the menace of food adulteration.

Street food vendors are another source of adulterated food because of their exposure to air and water pollution over and above the normal food adulteration. Added to this, unsafe drinking water is a major health hazards and cause of food adulteration. Woe of food adulteration is continuing unabated as 30 mega food parks sanctioned long ago are yet to be functional across the nation to maintain a modicum of hygienic and unadulterated processed food. Even reverting to organic farming is no option as it is not remunerative to farmers and the cost of organic food products is too high.

There is need for scientific studies by the National Institute of Health & Family Welfare and Indian Council of Medical Research to find out dimensions of food adulteration and remedial measures with the FSSAI taking more and more samples for testing and punitive actions, lest it should be continuing all hunky dory paper work with no end to public suffering from food adulteration!

 

letters@tehelka.com

TMC, other political parties to approach EC demanding ballot papers for 2019 polls

By
Sunny Sharma
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According to reports, at least 17 political parties, including the Trinamool Congress (TMC), are planning to approach  Election Commission of India (ECI), demanding use of ballot paper instead of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) to conduct 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Sources in the opposition revealed that 17 political parties will meet the ECI next week. The Opposition claims that the machines could easily be tampered to manipulate election results.

On the use of EVMs Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said “The party leaders should be careful with EVMs. Party cadre should be on full alert. The central government is taking all systems, including the Election Commission into its control. There is a possibility of misusing the EVMs. Party should be very careful in this regard.”

While pitching for the use of ballot papers in polls Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray said, “Just one time, I want the BJP to head into elections with ballot papers and not EVMs. All the apprehensions will go away.”

The initiative to seek the support of all opposition parties on the same matter was taken by TMC chief Mamata Banerjee on August 1, when she visited Parliament.

Six-member Trinamool Congress delegation detained at Silchar airport in Assam

By
Sunny Sharma
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A six-member Trinamool Congress delegation was detained by Assam police at Silchar Airport on Thursday. The delegation comprises six MPs and one MLA arrived in Assam to attend a public convention on the National Register of Citizens (NRC) final draft.

TMC MPs Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Ratna De Nag, Nadimul Haque, Arpita Ghosh, Mamata Thakur and MLA Mohua Moitra, was led by West Bengal Minister Firhad Hakim, landed at Silchar airport on Thursday afternoon. They were detained and not allowed to exit the airport. 

The delegation was scheduled to attend a public convention organised by the local citizens forum in Silchar.

According to TMC MPs, “They were beaten up and not allowed to exit the Airport”.

BJP’s Bengal unit president Dilip Ghosh blamed TMC members for the incident. He said, “They have no business going to Assam”

BJP national secretary Rahul Sinha said, “If they try to create unrest in Assam, the management will take action. They should be forced out of the state.”

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Wednesday advised people not to harbour any trepidations about the updation process of the NRC. He also said, “He will not accept the provocation statements about NRC from the outsiders”.

Andhra Pradesh: Mob thrashes cops in police station over alleged harassment

By
Tehelka Web Desk
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A sub inspector and a constable from the Andhra Pradesh police were beaten up inside their own police station in Nellore District on August 1 evening by mob who barged in. The mob was angry that the sub inspector had called in three people for questioning at the Rapuru police station and beaten them up.

“We had detained one man because he was drunk and had sent him to the hospital to get a certificate to complete one formality. However, the locals questioned the move to send him to the hospital and picked up a fight. They attacked the police station and dragged the SI out. The SI suffered a head injury while 3 constables also suffered minor injuries,” Ram Babu, Deputy Superintendent of Police reportedly said.

DSP Babu said that Sub Inspector Lakshman Rao and three constables have been admitted to hospital after the attack.

DSP added, “We will take stringent action against all those who attacked the police station and the policemen.”

Locals say police brought Pichchaiah, Lakshmamma and Kanakamma on the complaint of one Ravi. Police reportedly beat them up, which angered relatives and other locals. Locals alleged that police has subjected them to third-degree torture in the name of interrogation.

All the action at the police station has been caught on mobile phones by some locals and another policeman.

Educating through stories

By
Neha Kirpal
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Edited Excerpts from an interview

Katha, a pioneer among publishing houses in India, completed 30 years this year. Tell us how the journey so far has been.

Children and stories make Katha’s universe. Enhancing the joy of reading is our mission. Since 1988, Katha’s vision is the singular idea that children can bring themselves out of poverty. We endow children with quality schools, rich storybooks. Result? Reader-leaders! Our more than 100,000 “graduates” prove this!

I took India’s 2,000-year-old storytelling/theatre/dance tradition to hone a powerful communication tool for teachers to reach joyful learning to diverse students. It inspires our storybooks. Over the last 20 years, my StoryPedagogy(TM) is used in the Katha Lab School, 500+ government schools and many nonprofits. Story makes Katha’s classes come alive, makes learning relevant and creative.

Since 1990, we’ve revitalized marginalized communities, attracting mass collaboration and involvement of women and girls — over 250,000 from Delhi’s street and slums alone!

Our I Love Reading (ILR) campaign won the Millennium Alliance Award for frugal innovation; I was named ‘Innovator’. ILR is now mainstreamed; it is going national. 

Katha’s work matters because every child reading well matters. Because every child counts! Katha hones the legacy of multiple literatures, the wealth of people, goodwill to build our capability. But it pains me to still see children dying of treatable diseases like diarrhoea and dehydration, something that had moved me 30 years back to create Katha. It is this urgency that vitalizes the continuous crusade to develop together, serve together.

Katha was recently asked to extend the Katha Lab School Model —StoryPedagogy — into Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) schools. Tell our readers about how the KathaInside model is transforming these schools with robotics. Also, tell us about the Pipal Ped Vatikas (PPVs).

Katha’s success with reading has brought the partnership with the Government of Delhi to replicate our children reading proficiencies in government schools. A MoU has been signed that will allow Katha to help government schools to ramp up Katha’s reading campaign. This took the reading campaign to 500 government schools. Our externally evaluated work was so good that the government has given Katha five schools to run in 2016!

A philosophy-driven organization, Katha’s MeWe Ideology that I put in place in 2001, fosters the idea that each student becomes a responsive, responsible citizen. Our students and teachers believe in loka samastha sukino bavanthu — may all life forms be in peace.

Our well-written and illustrated books take the Katha philosophy forward, focusing on girls, earth, equality and kindness; global warming and sustainable ecology.

Our schools proactively build the capacity and skills of our children to help their communities get out of poverty, sustainably. Our strategy is to transform every child into a community leader and every child willingly contributes to the community through sustainable urbanization and consumption they learn through the curriculum.

I came back to India in 1985 with an IBM computer and its 8 MHZ of power. I thanked it each day when I began Katha and was designing our magazine, Tamasha! Today, Katha has more than a hundred computers. And everything, from our administrative, accounting, design, teacher education and networking happen through computers, contributing enormously to my growth.

My insistence on technology from the late 1980s has led to our setting up computer labs, Robotics and Modern Applications for Children (MACH Hubs) in Katha schools for our women’s economic growth and our Shopkeepers Guild.

We earned the Tech Museum Laureate award at the Stockholm Challenge in 2001! We haven’t looked back since.

Katha has transcended physical boundaries with DigitalKatha. Our first-of-its-kind website for government school teachers (padhopyarse.net) serves as an online resource. We have trained 100 cloud gurus. Each is now in charge of tech-driven learning for clusters of government school teachers. In 2016, we launched our ambitious 300 Million Challenge, with technology as a lever.

Katha has more than 65 Community Owned & Operated Libraries (COOLs) or learning centres that have been set up in people’s homes in Delhi. Tell us more about the idea behind this.

We claim helplessness in the face of entrenched poverty. We talk about our innate goodwill for families in marginalized communities. We would never dream of cutting a branch that we are perched on; of engaging children in building the glass and concrete aspirations of modern India. But we — as individuals, as governments — exploit every loophole our inadequate child labour law allows.

The pre-primary and primary school children of today are going to be the workforce of the 2030s. But there are few programmes for early school goers. What the 21st century needs is creativity, innovation, problem-solving, entrepreneurship and a drive to excel. But basic education seems to be less important in the grand scheme of things than the mission of skilling the Indian youth by the lakhs.

So, we are not fazed by a UNESCO report of September 2016 that says, “India will be half a century late in achieving its universal education goals; hence, we will achieve universal primary education only by 2050; universal lower secondary education only by 2060; and universal upper secondary education only by 2085!”

The community libraries were set up with a simple idea behind it. Our grassroots volunteers came forward for the cause. They were happy to run these libraries. We did massive book donation drives and collected over 30,000 storybooks. 

Katha Khazana, Katha’s first reading app, has animation, games, characters and narration. Tell our readers what to look forward to in this app.

Katha Khazana uses the power of immersive storytelling as a legitimate pedagogical tool to help children from the age of 4 to 12 read for fun and meaning. The user-friendly app is entirely in Hindi and has six of Katha’s stories available as digital books, animated videos as well as interactive games. Free for all, it connects volunteers with children from under-served communities to enable digital learning. Based on Katha’s StoryPedagogy TM, the narrative revolves around themes of gender equality, inclusivity and
diversity and contributes to a child’s holistic growth.

Katha also has an interesting THINKBOOKS series for children on issues like global warming, environment, etc. Tell our readers more about this series.

Katha recently launched its Thinkbook series with an aim to draw the attention of young minds to big ideas such as kindness, climate change, gender, etc. The series comprises five books: My Big Book of Earth, My Big Book of Global Warming, My Big Book of Kindness, My Big Book of Girls and My Big Book of Dogs.

These are designed for easy reading and reference, with illustrations and photographs. These anthologies of fiction, non-fiction and poetry pieces will also provide useful material for classroom projects, debates and discussions.

The Thinkbook series project was generously supported by Ashoka Changemakers for the Public and Oracle Giving for young changemakers.

My Big Book of Kindness will help young readers understand the indispensability of being kind. My Big Book of Earth and My Big Book of Global Warming explore pertinent issues of environmental protection and conservation, and examine the effects of global warming. My Big Book of Girls is a book that challenges gender stereotypes and provokes with its galvanizing words and illustrations. Lastly, My Big Book of Dogs is all about our canine friends and their presence that can foster our lives with positivity.

Katha’s 300m Challenge campaign is aimed at making every child read. Tell us more about this campaign.

By the year 2030, India will have 590 million people — nearly twice the current US population — living in its cities. The youth segment of this population is expected to include 170 million workers. These are the preschoolers of today. And yet this very important constituent is practically overlooked in all our policy plans and pronouncements. So much so that in a 2016 UN report on world cities and their outlook (UN World Cities Report 2016: Urbanization and Development — Emerging Futures), “children” or “education” have not even a sub-section!

The best and brightest from more privileged backgrounds will choose to go abroad — despite Mr Trump. But we seem to have no plan and no real sense of urgency when it comes to those left behind.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. We, the people, can make a difference. We can question governments and advocate on behalf of children. I’ve met hundreds of compassionate individuals in the course of my work who believe that “we do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.”

A situation in which 50 per cent of three hundred million children in school can’t read, needs action. Now! And the call is more urgent when we know that 150 million of those children are 5 to 10 years olds.

“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales,” said Albert Einstein. “All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree.”

That “tree” is Imagination and it is something we need to nurture for ALL our children. The elephant has been in the room for a while and it’s time we acknowledged its presence.

So, I end with some questions and a request:

What if our children had books that got them to think about compassion, kindness and caring for all life forms, including the many humans who have no voice of their own?

What if schooling helps break stereotypes and reiterate ideas of equity and equality, while enabling children to move away from the debilitating forces of mass media to a more gently critical culture? Let’s make testing more rigorous, but let’s ensure that passing/failing is a combined responsibility of children, parents and teachers.

What if educators were thought leaders who fill curricula and classrooms with imagination — fiction, nonfiction and poetry that originated in India, from our different bhashas, in translation into all school languages, so helping children culture link, understand where they come from, who they are — stories that will encourage them to delve into the depths of life’s predicaments, giving children the space to be confident, creative, critical thinkers.

What if our children then went ahead to create a nicer, more sustainable world for themselves through reading, supported learning, realizing the importance of gender equality, global climate change, sustainable consumption?

It is serendipitous that we have 150 million children who can read and 150 million who cannot. Each one teach one: what a simple elegant solution to a vexing conundrum (There is a reason why I am often called an eternal optimist!).

These goals are the motivation behind the 300 Million Challenge, developed by us at Katha, the “profit for all” social organization, with help from a group of incredible and passionate partners —spanning individuals, small to large nonprofits as well as the corporate sector.

We want to ensure that all 3 to 10-year-old children are reading well and for fun at an early age. School readiness is a critical factor for lifelong learning and sustainable education. We strongly believe that the government school system should be made more robust. And that all children need equitable quality; democratic education for sustaining our democracy. And that when children understand they can bring sustainable change to themselves, they begin to understand the emotional and the economic purpose of education, leading to sustainable lifelong learning.

Disruptive and collaborative innovation in primary education is possible only when we all join hands when we together make children’s sustainable learning happen! Let’s make it everyone’s business and our collective mission — to be a country where every child counts.

letters@tehelka.com

Challenges galore for Tripura’s Bru refugees

By
Nandita Sengupta
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Just when 32, 876 refugees saw some rays of hope, a National Commission for Protection of Child Rights’ (NCPCR) survey conducted by Quality Council  of India (QCI) has revealed numerous challenges for Mizoram government to ensure a better future for nearly 7,000 Bru children who were born in relief camps in Tripura and grew up with poor facilities for education, healthcare, sanitation and living condition. An agreement signed on July 3 by Union Home Ministry with Mizoram and Tripura governments and Mizoram Bru Displaced People’s Forum (MBRDF), around 5,407 Bru refugee families will be repatriated to Mizoram by September 30 this year. What came as more worry is that almost one in every 10 children consumes alcohol, tobacco and other drugs. 

The study titled Devising Pathways for Appropriate Repatriation of Children of Bru-Reang Community have suggested that the Centre and Mizoram government needs to take extra measures to ensure that the children get education as per the Right to Education Act and healthcare provided for their better future.

The QCI selected a sample of 837 children, 12 per cent of the total children population, living in all six relief camps in Kanchanpur and Panisagar sub-divisions in north Tripura district, where they have been living since 1997 when an ethnic flare-up forced them to leave their villages in Mizoram and crossed over to Tripura for their lives.

Who are the Brus?

Bru or Reang is one of the scheduled tribes of Mizoram. Apart from Mizoram, Tripura, Assam and Manipur have Bru population who speaks Reang dialect of Kokborok language and which is locally referred to as Kau Bru. The tribe mainly practice agriculture and has been practising Huk or Jhum cultivation since long. Several attempts to repatriate the 5,407 Bru refugee families have got delayed, mainly due to lack of an agreement on the compensation to be provided for their rehabilitation.

In order to identify the challenges, QCI teams visited and captured the conditions of schools, health centres, Anganwadi centres and the skill centres.

Education

In most of the schools and non-residential special training centres, the QCI team visited during the survey, nearly 38 per cent respondents between 0 to 6 years said they were not enrolled in any educational facility. However, in the age group of 6-14, only 9.5per cent are not enrolled, but the percentage of out-of-school children was found to be 35per cent in the age bracket of 14-18. “The reason identified behind the increase in the percentage of out-of-school students in the age group of 14-18 is the absence of educational facilities for secondary education in the camps. A staggering 21.6 per cent of all the respondents said they are not enrolled in any educational facility,” said the survey report released recently.

Nearly 24 per cent of the students admitted in the government schools and 48per cent of the students admitted in NRSTCs said that they do not get books, for free, every year. About 36 per cent of the children going to government school said that they do not get the mid-day meal daily and 31per cent of the children going to NRSTC said that they did not have access to mid-day meal daily while another 20 per cent in government schools and 8 per cent respondents enrolled in NRSTCs said they did not receive mid-day meal at all. .

The QCI survey said the basic educational requirements of children, as defined in RTE Act, 2009, are not being fulfilled in the existing camps of north Tripura. Almost 40 per cent of the children studying in NRSTCs and Government schools of north Tripura do not receive books every year.

“Also, they do not have any educational institutions beyond grade V in or near the camps. And since as many as 7000 children are planned to be repatriated to Mizoram, it is expected to put a lot of strain on the existing resources in the proposed villages. Hence, existing educational institutions in the proposed villages in Mizoram should be assessed, based on parameters:

  1. The current number of educational institutions as well as their capacity in the proposed villages in Mizoram should be assessed to ensure adequate capacity to accommodate all 7000 children of Bru community along with the existing student population in the respective villages.
  2. Availability of basic requirements such as books, qualified teachers and infrastructure should be an important part of the assessment to ensure adequate resources and facilities in the institutions.
  3. Make-up classes and bridge courses should be organised to bridge the age-appropriate-class gap in the children of the community.
  4. As the mother tongue of the people of the Bru/Reang community is Bru language, the medium of instruction and the textbooks provided in educational institutions should be in Bru language as per the RTE provisions. Other languages such as English, Hindi and Mizo should also be taught in schools to enable them to study or work anywhere across the country.
  5. Teachers/education volunteers, from the community, should be recruited to work in the schools in proposed villages of Mizoram to ensure continuity and to bridge the language barrier.

Healthcare:

Of the three public health centres near the relief camps, two were found to be functional at Khedacherra and the Gachiram Para.

“The condition of healthcare is deplorable in the camps. Some of the common types of diseases prevalent in the camps are malaria, measles, respiratory diseases and diarrhea. Residents of the relief camps are entitled to receive medicines free of cost, but 97per cent respondents, said that they did not receive medicines from the authorities. Nearly 34per cent of the respondents said that vaccination had not been provided to their children during their growth years,” it said.

The survey recommended that mandatory tests and check-ups of the children of the community should be conducted after repatriation to identify the number of cases of Anaemia, Haemoglobin levels of children, the percentage of children who have received deworming etc. and it should be ensured that adequate remedies and healt hcare are provided to the children of the community.

Sanitation:

Ninety-eight per cent of the respondents said they do not have access to clean drinking water. Most of the respondents had temporary toilets built beside their homes. “There is no system for waste-disposal and as a result, daily waste is scattered across the camps, which might be leading to various diseases among the residents of the camps. It said that the the proposed villages for the Bru community in Mizoram should be assessed by a competent body based on proper sanitation, sewage and waste disposal facilities to ensure clean, hygienic and healthy living conditions for the community after their repatriation within six months and in case any deficiency is detected, necessary augmentation should be completed within a time span of 12 months. “Bru community members do not have adequate knowledge about the proposed villages in Mizoram and are prone to misinformation and rumours spread by stakeholders with vested interests in keeping the community in makeshift camps in Tripura. Hence, serious attempts should be made by Mizoram government to build confidence among the Brus residing in the camps,” said the survey report.

Listing security in Mizoram as one of the most important concerns of the community, the survey said members of the community should be included in different administrative committees at the police station, district and state levels in Mizoram to instill the sense of security.

Skills Development:

Majority of the residents do not have any vocational skills and those who are skilled are not certified, and this is hampering their employability. The QCI survey recommended that a mechanism should be developed to link the skilled labour with the prospective employers and fill the demand-supply gap between employers’ requirements and qualifications of the labour force. “Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) platform, under Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), should be implemented to certify or provide bridge courses to the community members, to enable them to get better employment opportunities in the future. Government is recommended to encourage big industrial players to set up job fairs in these camps,” the report said.

letters@tehelka.com

Is Imran Khan’s win a victory of Pak army?

By
Nuruzzaman
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That the Pakistan army is no longer interested in running the government directly — by capturing the reins of power through a coup — has been proved conclusively by the way it is believed to have managed the July 25 National and Provincial Assembly elections. The outcome of the electoral exercise is almost as the top generals wished: giving a chance to cricket legend Imran Khan’s party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), to run the government with a view to having a “Naya Pakistan” as promised.

Perhaps, the military leadership — also called the Deep State, which also includes the top bureaucracy and the judiciary — believes that the coup idea is no longer relevant or as attractive as it was in the past. There are different kinds of avoidable risks involved, including the possibility of the military getting completely discredited in the eyes of the public all over Pakistan as it happened a  few years back in the tribal areas when half-hearted anti-Taliban military operations were launched under intense international pressure. In view of this, the army leadership has begun trying a new idea: controlling the levers of power by having a government of its choice by influencing the judiciary and the media.

However, all judges and journalists cannot be made to toe the military line as has been proved by the indirect refusal to cooperate by Dawn, Jang and some other groups as well as the disclosures made by Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui of the Islamabad High Court at a programme organized by the Rawalpindi Bar Association. He stated in the course of his address: “Today the judiciary and the media have come in the control of ‘Bandookwala’ (army). The judiciary is not independent. Even the media is getting directions from the military. The media is not speaking the truth because it is under pressure and has its interests.”

Justice Siddiqui further explained how the army had been trying to ensure that court verdicts were in accordance with the Bandookwala’s designs. Alarmingly, it has been found that “in different cases, the ISI forms benches of its choice to get the desired results. The ISI had asked the Chief Justice to make sure that Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz should not come out of jail before the July 25 elections. It had also asked him not to include me (Justice Siddiqui) in the bench hearing the appeal of Nawaz Sharif and his daughter in the Avenfield case. The CJI told the ISI that he would make a bench of its choice.”

The Pakistan army meddling in elections is not new. It has always done all it could to get elected the rulers of its choice though without success sometimes. The judiciary in Pakistan too has a history of succumbing to pressures from the army, which has got military coups justified by courts. Of course, exceptions have been there as noticed during the days when Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary was the Chief Justice of the Pakistan Supreme Court.

So, it is not surprising if the army has shown its preference for a federal government under the leadership of Imran Khan this time. Khan’s PTI is, in fact, the obvious choice for the army leadership as it is disappointed with the Bilawal Bhutto-led PPP and the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) after remote-controlling their governments in the past. What is, however, alarming is that the Deep State can go to the extent of politically eliminating a non-cooperating leader — judicially unseated Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif — who has shown the guts to take on a former Chief of Army Staff, Gen Pervez Musharraf, slapped with charges of subverting the constitution when he captured power through a bloodless coup.

Nawaz Sharif also angered the army by ignoring it in matters related to defence and foreign policies. These include expressing his inclination for normalising Pakistan’s relations with India without taking the military leadership into confidence.

The corruption charges against Nawaz Sharif and his children relating to the acquisition of two flats in London’s Avenfield Apartment complex have been used as an excuse to send across the message that any political leader who dares to take foreign or defence policy decisions without the army’s consent will meet Sharif’s fait. Or any government which tries to punish an ex-army chief for his misdemeanors of the past will not be spared.

The armed forces’ leadership found an excellent opportunity to destroy the PML (N) leader’s political career when the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists came out with what became famous as the Panama Papers, exposing illegal money transfers by Nawaz Sharif and his children in the 1990s when he served twice as Prime Minister through foreign bank accounts. An investigation into the matter by a court-appoint team led to the preparation of a 275-page report on his and his family members’ money-laundering activities, resulting in his first getting unseated as Prime Minister and then being jailed for 10 years by the powerful National Accountability Bureau.

So, with Nawaz Sharif having been replaced by Imran Khan at the helm of affairs, courtesy the Deep State, the world should get ready for new initiatives to transform Pakistan in accordance with the designs approved by the military. Imran has all the plus points which Nawaz ad in the past till the 2013 elections when the latter was the army’s favourite. Today the cricketer-turned-politician not only has the army’s full backing but also of the religious right, including the Taliban factions. Of course, he is, perhaps, the only mainstream political leader who has openly opposed the US drone attacks to eliminate the Taliban. He also expressed his displeasure over the military’s anti-militant drives in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) owing to the large-scale suffering caused to the innocent public for no fault on their part; Imran wanted militancy to be contained through dialogue. He has also never faced any charge of being involved in financial corruption.

Despite these advantages, he will realise that political batting is an entirely different area unlike winning a world cup or scoring runs in a cricket match. His controversial personal life may not be troubling him as much as the disguised messages from the Deep State to refrain from being too much independent in the conduct of particularly defence and foreign policies. Stubbornness in his character and his dictatorial temperament may put him on a collision course with the army. How he handles such a situation, if at all it emerges, remains to be seen.

Interestingly, Imran Khan reportedly has the same thinking vis-à-vis India as Nawaz Sharif had come to be known for: treating India as a partner for promoting economic growth in South Asia. Will the Deep State allow Imran to function accordingly?

letters@tehelka.com

English is the new mantra of education in Haryana government schools

By
Rajendra Khatry
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Group of school student in a rural area school in hariyana state. This primary education scheme has also shown a high Gross Enrollment Ratio of 93–95% for the last three years in some states.[20] Significant improvement in staffing and enrollment of girls has also been made as a part of this scheme.[20] The current scheme for universalization of Education for All is the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan which is one of the largest education initiatives in the world. Enrollment has been enhanced, but the levels of quality remain low.
Photo Clicked By Vikas Kumar

English continues to be the bane of education in government schools of Haryana. English, incidentally, is the most problematic subject for students in government schools. It is shocking indeed that almost one lakh students from Humanities stream appear for Class XII board exams in the state every year, but on an average, only around 50 per cent of them pass the examination.

Data collected from government schools all over the state reveal the fact that a maximum number of compartments are in English. Now to deal with the vexed issue, the Haryana government has launched a unique ‘I am not afraid of English’ campaign in the state. The idea is to make the base of the students studying in government schools strong in English. This will also help them in preparing for competitive exams in future.

According to Haryana Education Minister Ram Bilas Sharma, the state is now trying to promote English right from Class one in Haryana’s primary schools. Incidentally, the government’s move will strive for capacity building of the teachers so that they will be able to impart a proper education. The idea is to enable the primary students to learn the language properly. Students should be able to read, write and also speak English properly.

Additional Chief Secretary of Haryana School Education, Dheera Khandelwal said the state is serious about providing better English education to students and in this process has begun to take right steps. Slowly Haryana education department will introduce English as a medium of teaching from class in the government schools.

According to Dheera Khandelwal, a booklet containing around 1000 sentences/phrases has been prepared by the Haryana State Education Department. The booklet also contains around 200 sentences per grade for all the five grades at the primary level of schooling to enable the children to get better educated, she said.

The Haryana government will move in a very systematic way to train the students. To improve their hold on the English language, the students of government schools will be required to learn at least one sentence every day. In a month, they will be made to learn 20 sentences. This will continue for at least 10 months every year in a class. So the students will be able to learn at least 1000 sentences by the time he graduates to the primary level.

Accordingly, there will be one Junior Basic Teacher (JBT) and one Block Resource Person (BRP) per block who have been trained for the purpose who will make the students learn the sentences per day.

According to Dheera Khandelwal, as many as six language labs have already been established in the selected Model Sanskriti schools of the state. These will facilitate digital learning and also improve listening and speaking skills of the students. As time passes such language labs will be established in other districts of the state to facilitate students learn the English language.

The English language labs have been established in six districts of Haryana namely Panchkula, Gurugram, Karnal, Rohtak, Faridabad and Hisar will have English language labs. The teachers will be trained to teach the students in the English language. The English labs will help improve digital learning of the students. Listening and speaking skills of the students will also be improved to bring them on par with the private schools.

Dheera Khandelwal said the government is also serious about reducing the book load of the young students in schools. As such under a new scheme `bag-free’ plan for students have been started in selected 180 government primary schools. Incidentally at present student of only class one and two will benefit from this scheme at present. The schools have provided attractive lockers for the benefit of the students where they can keep their books and notebooks.

The Haryana Education department plans to add more government schools to this scheme the current financial year. The government is also introducing English as the medium of education for the students of class I in 238 government schools from this academic session. Similarly, two subjects-English and Science are being introduced in the English medium from Class IX in 310 government schools of the state. After making the base of students strong in English, the English language will help them perform better in competitive examinations once they pass out of the college.

“The state government has made a resolve to improve the basic skills of the students studying in government schools. We hope in the time to come the government school students will start performing better than the students of private schools. Slowly we will increase the number of government schools having English medium as medium of education,’’ said Dheera Khandelwal.

If the primary schools of Haryana lack facilities, the higher secondary schools are no better. According to Gurmeet Singh, a government school teacher in Hisar, it is unfortunate that there are very few libraries in the government schools of the state and thus student do not get much chance to refer to other books except their textbooks. This limits their knowledge. According to an estimate, just around 30 per cent of senior secondary schools have proper libraries with a librarian working full time. This makes the students depend on guidebooks, but they fail to catch the nuances of the languages in such books.

A large number of students in Haryana government schools are in the rural areas where often the school buildings are in a dilapidated state and lack basic facilities like water and toilets. In a number of cases, there are Hindi teachers teaching the English language to students. In other schools, there are either few teachers or most of the time they remain absent from the school. This weakens the base of the students. The Haryana government is trying to address all these issues.

Karamvir Singh, president of Confederation of SC/ST/ BC Organisations, Haryana who also managed Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan centre in Yamunanagar, Haryana said the standard of education in government schools in the state is pathetic and the government is right in addressing the issue.

“Mostly children from poor families attend the government schools and the majority of them belong to the Scheduled Castes,’’, he said. 

“Almost 90 per cent of the students are very weak in English and Mathematics. Their English knowledge is zero.  In today’s world English is one of the most important subjects to learn. How will the government school students get good jobs if they have such a poor grasp of the subject? The Haryana government’s move to start English as the medium of education in at least some government schools is most welcome. The ‘I am not afraid of English’ too is a good move. Panchayats too should be involved in this effort,’’ said Karamvir Singh.

According to Pawan Jain, a senior leader of the Haryana Congress, the government should focus on the performance of the government school teachers Many of the teachers are not serious. They either do not attend properly to the students in their schools or are absent from their duties. This leads to poor performance of the students,’’ he explained.

letters@tehelka.com

Kashmir Transgenders: Trapped in women body

By
Safina Nabi
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Gay rights supporters pose during a gathering in New Delhi on July 2, 2011. The LGBTQ (lesbian, Gay, Bisexual,Transgender, Queer, Intersex) rights supporters assembled near Jantar Mantar in the capital to celebrate the anniversary of a historic Delhi High Court judgment which decriminalised consentual sex between two adults of the same gender. The activists also demanded that the Supreme Court should uphold the judgment of the Delhi High Court regarding Section 377 of the Indian Penal code. Photo by Vijay Pandey/Tehelka

Earlier, Kashmir turned a blind eye to the rights and privileges of the transgender community, however, the increasing awareness through social media and its influence is changing the mentality of people towards the hapless community. Kashmir as a society is beginning to accept the transgender community, who majorly sing folk songs in marriages or are matchmakers. What society understands that transgender people are usually male, who want to become females, but there is more to it-females fighting for sexual identity, to become male, and we as a society are in denial. And to gain their identity, several transgender people have to cross many hurdles to achieve what they aim to and the fight is continuing.

Afreen’s family is originally from district Pulwama in South Kashmir, around 30 kms from the main city of Srinagar. They had shifted to Srinagar before Afreen’s birth. Therefore, Afreen had stayed all her life in Srinagar.

19-year-old Afreen was fascinated towards girls when he was in grade five. Whenever his mother would come to drop him at the school bus stop, Afreen would always tell her about the girl she liked the most. Her parents and siblings would later laugh it out.

She said, “I was more into boy’s stuff — I adore playing football, cricket, cut my hair short. I love to wear cargo pants and t-shirts.”   

By grade eight, Afreen was sure that she either is a lesbian or a gay but the gender dilemma started to affect her activities as well as studies.

In 2014, the Supreme Court pronounced a landmark judgement, recognising transgender people as the ‘third gender’.

In the judgement, also known as the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA), the apex court ruled that people of the transgender community have equal privilege over the fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution. The individuals have the right to self-identification of their sexual orientation but the social stigmas linked to the community continue to exist in the society.

Although things have started to change in a positive direction in the metro cities, in Kashmir valley, the state is yet to give the due rights to the transgender community.

Afreen, who is pursuing her graduation in engineering from one of the prestigious colleges in the Valley said, “Life became extremely difficult with time. Family, friends, relatives started being rude and mistreatment started to increase more often.”

Frustrated with the affairs of day to day life, Afreen started to vent out her anger on social media and started to write about his gender. Soon, people started supporting him and one of the supporters happened to be the noted Professor Dibyesh Anand who teaches at the University of Westminster, London.

After seeing the support and the encouragement that Afreen has received, her family locked her within the four walls of her room. The worst thing happened when she went to meet Professor Anand during his one visit to Srinagar. “I was denied food for five days and my phone was snatched from me. They burnt my clothes in front of me and taunted me of being a ‘laanch’. A pained Afreen narrated.

“I am not troubled about what they would call me. Let them call me a ‘laanch’; ‘Hijra’ or ‘Transgender’ but I want my identity. I want to be addressed as ‘Adam’ and not as ‘Afreen’, ” he further added.

In August 2017, the Supreme Court’s verdict towards the upliftment of the transgender people declared Right to Privacy as a fundamental right. The ruling enabled protection of sexual orientation of citizens.

Afreen had attempted suicide thrice but now she is optimistic about life and plans to learn new languages. He is interested in writing and wants to become an activist one day.

“This is possible only when I complete my studies and acquire a status in the society then only I will be heard or taken seriously till then I know I have to suffer silently,” Afreen added.

Fight for rights continues

Nine years back, a ‘Hijra meanzimyoar’ (matchmaker) visited Aijaz Ahmad Bund’s home with a marriage proposal of his elder sister. The attitude of Bund’s family was awful towards the matchmaker and they were reluctant to welcome the guest. From the demeanour of his family members, Aijaz got an idea how people view them and where they are positioned in the society. 

Aijaz initiated a conversation with the guest, meanzimyoar, and got to know about their problems. He soon started visiting their community and befriending them. Aijaz then pledged to become the voice of transgender community. Surprisingly, Aijaz is not a transgender.

“They were living a subhuman life full of abuse, discrimination, violence, and harassment. I began with sensitising my family, friends, and the people around me. I eventually started working at grassroots level and advocating for their rights,” said Aijaz, transgender activist and scholar. He has published a book in November 2017, called Hijras of Kashmir: A Marginalized Form of Personhood.

In June 2017, Aijaz moved a PIL (Public interest litigation) in High Court. The PIL seeks to create programmes ensuring social, economic, and political inclusion and rehabilitation for this community. It also seeks a provision of social security including a monthly welfare fund for transgender people. The PIL demands that government should acknowledge the transgender community as a marginalised and vulnerable section of society and therefore, introduce reservations in educational institutions and government jobs.

The PIL also demands housing facility, formal and non-formal educational programs, transgender-friendly policy of schools, setting up of counselling centres, a transgender welfare board, and equal applicability of all laws. It intends to have provisions so that the basic human rights of this community are recognised.

Born as a female in the uptown Srinagar, 24-year-old Insha felt as a “man imprisoned in a female body” when she was about to reach teenage.

Insha’s mother thoughtthat the family issues are impacting her daughter, instead, Insha was suffering from gender dysphoriaand was reluctant to talk about itwith anyone. “I was in distress about myself, my body and most importantly my sexual identity. I neither liked to be among boys nor girls. I wanted to stay alone and was suffering silently.”

Insha, who was bright in studies found it difficult to cope up with anything, as a result, she dropped out from engineering college during the third semester. She then stayed in the home for continuous nine years and cut off ties with friends, classmates, relatives and even siblings.  A year before Insha started reading about different communities online and found a community ‘SWT – Sonzal Welfare Trust’ an organisation formed in 2011 and started by the LGBT community and allies in Kashmir. They are exclusively working for the welfare of gender and sexual minorities in Kashmir. This organisation was started by Aijaz with two like-minded people Enus Shafi Khan and Farah Ashraf, who are the part of this movement and the co-litigants in the PIL as well.

Insha tried to speak about the issue with her mother and sister. Although, her sister understood her plight her mother remains reluctant to accept anything. “At times my mother is of the opinion that I have been possessed by Jinn (Ghost) or she feels that I have been brainwashed by Jews,” Insha said.

When Insha convinced her mother to visit a doctor, her mother told her that she will choose the doctor. Insha was then taken to one of the noted psychiatrists in the valley, Dr Arshad Hussain, who diagnosed her with acute depression and gender dysphoria.

“My mother threw her hands after coming out of doctor’s chamber. She said that he is no God and I will be taken to a peer (Spiritual healer). Let her take me anywhere but I want to get rid of my breasts at any cost. My upper body makes me fidgety and agitated. I tried to strangulate myself a few days ago but somehow my sister managed to save me,” Insha added in an exasperating tone.

Conflict has overshadowed everything and the basic rights of transgender community have been taken away. However, the LGBT community of Kashmir is helping others to come forward and speak about their miseries and the abuse that they go through on an everyday basis. “Our children are communicating with the entire globe through the internet and observing the developments, changes that are happening worldwide. They too wanted to express their feelings but our society is still conservative. We are yet to reach any heights and are backward when we talk about science and technology. Hence, we are not ready to accept the facts and remain in denial always,” said noted Poet and historian Zareef Ahmad Zarref.

letters@tehelka.com

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