Note: forwarded message attached.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Yahoo! oneSearch: Finally, mobile search
that gives answers, not web links.
http://mobile.yahoo.com/mobileweb/onesearch?refer=1ONXIC
--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
greenyouth mailinglist is the activist support mailinglist for kerala
To post to this group, send email to [email protected]
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
--- Begin Message ---
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AS-176-2007
July 25, 2007
A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission
INDIA: Reform criminal justice systems to end apartheid in India
Caste based discrimination is the Indian variant of apartheid. For
decades Indians have been separated and divided according to the
caste hierarchy. In spite of several laws and even Constitutional
guarantees India remains largely divided along the caste lines.
Caste based discrimination is omnipresent in India. It is reflected
across the societal spectrum. It is so evident that even a complete
stranger could identify the inequalities practised openly in the
society based on the caste. Caste based discrimination is reflected
in the private and public life. Caste is the final denominator for
everything in India. It has its influence in the politics,
administration and even the economic growth of the country.
Though India is projecting itself to become a developed country by
the year 2020, what has been ignored is that if situations as of now
continues, a major proportion of the country’s population will
not be benefiting from it. The state of Uttar Pradesh is an example.
The state, considered to be the power centre of India, is now
administered by a political party, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) that
came to power towing the caste line, particularly that of the Dalits.
But what is the actual situation of the Dalits in this state?
The Dalits in Uttar Pradesh are extremely poor. Their counterparts,
the Patels and Yadavs, otherwise known as the Other Backward
Community (OBC), has liberated themselves from the servitude of the
upper caste by making use of the window of opportunity provided to
them by the former government, also led by a Yadav. In the process of
self liberation, they not only ignored the Dalits, but also forced
them to continue under servitude. It has to be understood that this
was a calculated move to exploit the economy of caste based
discrimination.
The equation is simple; by the end of the day there need to be a
source for free labour. To ensure free labour the neo Brahmins of the
state - the Patels and Yadavs - forced the Dalits to remain under
servitude. The Patels and Yadavs are also now known as the neo feudal
of the state.
To control the Dalits, the age-old Brahmin policy of food deprivation
and bonded labour is brutally enforced. Though bonded labour is
prohibited by the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976, the law
has little meaning for the Dalits. They are forced to bone-breaking
work in the farms, quarries and kilns of the upper caste community.
Food deprivation and poverty eradication, though sought to be
prevented through several central and state government programmes
like rationed distribution of food grains and oils through the Public
Food Distribution System (PDS) shops and implementation of programmes
like the Andyodaya and Annapoorna schemes along with the employment
generating programmes like the Jawahar Rozgar Yogna never percolated
into the Dalit community for their benefit. Dalits are deprived from
accessing these programmes by the upper caste by corrupting the
implementing element of these programmes.
All this is possible only because of a corrupt and fallen criminal
justice delivery mechanism in Uttar Pradesh. The backbone of the
criminal justice system is the policing in the state. Policing in
Uttar Pradesh suffer from the impunity the officers enjoy for their
corrupt practices. Custodial torture and extra judicial killing is
widely used to terrorise those who challenge the police in Uttar
Pradesh. Even well known human rights groups are not immune to this
terror.
Dr. Lenin Raghuvanshi, the Secretary of a people’s movement,
the Peoples’ Vigilance Committee on Human Rights (PVCHR) and
his wife Ms. Shruti and their activists, based in Varanasi who are
fighting against the caste based discrimination in the state is
targeted by the local police and the corrupt officials within the
administration. Several threats have been made against the life of
the activists associated with the PVCHR. Thus far instances where
limited to harassment by the local police and death threats sent out
by the upper caste feudal whenever they found their position were
challenged.
Illegal dealing of rationed articles is dominated by corrupt
licensees, mostly from the upper caste, who had obtained licenses to
run the PDS shops in villages. Some of them have been renewing their
license for decades in spite of specific complaints filed against
these licensees. The district administrations, the license issuing
authority on behalf of the state government, has thus far ignored
these complaints and failed to properly investigate them. Even in
cases where an investigation was ordered it was breached by corrupt
police officers who rallied behind the upper caste under the
influence of their money.
When mere complaining and campaigning was found ineffective matters
were taken to the local courts for intervention. The local courts
which are equally corrupt and nepotic failed to intervene. Some of
the judges in the lower judiciary and a few in the higher judiciary
of the state are so prejudiced with their caste sentiments that any
issue concerning the lower caste is thrown out of the court without
any consideration.
It is this insensitivity to deep issues by the courts amplified by a
corrupt police that sustains a broken administrative setup in Uttar
Pradesh. The state is a showcase and a specimen for studying the
current day practices of caste based discrimination in India. The
state is now administered by a Chief Minister who has declared in
public that her government is determined to rule out caste based
prejudices in the state. This determination, if it is not a political
hat trick, has to be reflected in what steps the current
administration would take to check the deep rooted problems within
the criminal justice mechanisms, particularly the police, within the
state.
If caste based discrimination could be initially controlled and in
due course totally eradicated from Uttar Pradesh, similar steps could
be initiated in the rest of India. But what is required for this is
the political will and determination to correct the injustices meted
out against the Dalits by the upper caste through exploiting a fallen
criminal justice system. India is yet to experience the benefits of a
reasonably functioning criminal justice system. Without correcting
this fatal mistake India will never succeed in eliminating caste
based discrimination, and it will remain a blot in the modern history
of India.
# # #
About AHRC: The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional
non-governmental organisation monitoring and lobbying human rights
issues in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984.
---------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from this list visit
http://internal.ahrchk.net/phplist/?p=unsubscribe&uid=1307bf3765709c8ba51e052a9bb18279
To update your preferences visit
http://internal.ahrchk.net/phplist/?p=preferences&uid=1307bf3765709c8ba51e052a9bb18279
---------------------------------------------------
Asian Human Rights Commission
19/F, Go-Up Commercial Building,
998 Canton Road, Kowloon, Hongkong S.A.R.
Tel: +(852) - 2698-6339 Fax: +(852) - 2698-6367
--
Powered by PHPlist, www.phplist.com --
--- End Message ---
