Month: August 2017

‘Despite Being Denotified, We Are Labelled as Criminals’

On August 31, celebrated as an ‘independence day’ by many nomadic and denotified tribes, an organisation brought people together to raise demands for a better life.

On August 31, celebrated as an ‘independence day’ by many nomadic and denotified tribes, an organisation brought people together to raise demands for a better life.

Narratives from the community show the extent to which stigma has affected individuals and the community. Courtesy: National Alliance for Denotified and Nomadic Tribes

Narratives from the community show the extent to which stigma has affected individuals and the community. Courtesy: National Alliance for Denotified and Nomadic Tribes

Nomadic and Denotified Tribes (NT-DNTs) are social groups that have been subjected to historical injustices both in the colonial and free India. During the British rule, the Criminal Tribes Act, 1871 was passed, which notified most nomadic communities as criminals. The Act implied that these communities were criminal by birth and practiced crime as a profession. The Act gave the colonial administration the power to brand, penalise, segregate and forcibly sedentarise nomadic communities.

On August 31, 1952, the Act was repealed. Ten million people from NT-DNTs celebrate this day as their independence day. For our forefathers, without a doubt, it was a moment worth celebrating. They believed that future generations could live lives as nomads, free from discrimination. Unfortunately, the joy was short lived. The independent Indian political elite was no different from the colonial rulers. British-free India did not provide any space to the nomadic way of life, either in their policies or in their nation-building process. Despite being “denotified”, we are stigmatised and labelled as criminals. Narratives from the community show the extent to which this has affected individuals and the community.

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I, Kiran Devi, age 67, hail from the Bedia community. We have been folk artist for many centuries. There are many actresses in the Indian film industry who are from our community, who are now famous and have earned a lot of respect. But unfortunately, all these actress hide their caste identity due to the stigma attached to our community. I find it really strange, why people demean our folk art today which originated from this soil. In my lifetime I have experienced the change in people’s perceptions towards out art and women. There are many communities like us in India, who are reduced to sex workers because of the kind of “morality” preached by elites and the kind of attitude that the police have towards us. In our own country, we don’t get even an inch of space and are made to feel like refugees, while refugees from other countries are welcomed and provided shelter.

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I, Atish Chara, age 32, am an unemployed youth belonging to the Chara Tribe from Ahmedabad. My tribe is also know by different names in the police department – Bhantu, Kanjar, Sansi and so on. Like the Bedia, we were also folk artists, but now are know only for criminal activities. On August 31, 1952, when the Act was repealed and our forefathers were released from the open jail, we all settled near the open prison area which is now known as Charanagar. Despite “notification”, we continued to be in a situation where no one gave us jobs or food; everyone treated us like criminals and the police went to the extent of locking our door every evening. Most youth in Charanagar are quite highly qualified, but its difficult for them to find jobs because of their identity – employers are wary of hiring them. My cousin, a medical student, was shopping last year in a market and was picked up and arrested by the police because of the community she hails from. Chara, for most people, is a derogatory abuse, and the police assume that we are thieves, even if we are doctors, lawyers or IT professionals.

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I, Nitin, age 28, am from the Kuchband community in Haryana. My community profession has been traditional healing and we were experts in creating medical remedies using horns and bones of animals. Unfortunately, after the implementation of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, communities like ours and many other nomadic communities like the Sepera, Madari, Kalbaliy and Dervasi lost their livelihood and got criminalised overnight. There was no provision for rehabilitation of communities like us, nor did any animal rights activist care to rehabilitate us. We became a soft target for both the police and NGOs. Today my community members are reduced to rag picking and begging. Just because we now do rag picking in schools, children make fun of us and tell us we stink, even though we are bathed and clean. We have been treated like untouchables and the criminal stigma has doubly marginalised us.

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We have been brought together under a small group known as the National Alliance for Denotified and Nomadic Tribes (NAG-DNT). In June 2017, 13 members from our communities were involved in a three-day process facilitated by Praxis to understand the current realities and raise some demands in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals. Today, we want to reiterate our demands:

A mechanism to stop police violence and labelling of the community

Police should not look at us as thieves and must stop the use of physical and verbal violence against us. They should stop wrongly accusing us in cases. It has been observed that they particularly abuse and target women from DNT communities. They should also not arrest innocent persons without proper investigation. There should be some mechanism to stop these excesses.

Access to quality education

We should get free education with good hostel facilitates, particularly for girls. Teachers should be from the DNT community so that they do not discriminate against us. There is a need to encourage co-education among the community.

Livelihood opportunities

The government should provide employment opportunities for nomadic tribes by providing loans for small enterprises. Some of those practicing traditional occupations, including street performers, are struggling due to changes in laws and need to be revived. Companies that are hampering traditional occupations and polluting the local environment should be discouraged as this further marginalises us. For landed DNT communities, there needs to be a strengthening of irrigation as well as other input facilitates so that they do well in agriculture.

Land rights and an end to land grabbing

Landlessness is high among denotified communities and in some places powerful people have grabbed land belonging to DNTs. There are also instances where businesses and government have taken over their land for developing project sites. The land belonging to the DNT should be restored to them, there should be active consultation before any such step of displacement is taken and an allocation of land for the landless. Houses should have toilets and for nomadic communities, there should be a provision of mobile toilets.

Identity documents to access rights

Ration cards, Aadhar cards, other identity cards and documents should be prepared so that nomadic tribes have an identity and the ability to gain access to government programmes which provide food, health, education and other basic needs, as well as to other social protection mechanisms.

Reservation and representation

There should be reservation for denotified tribes and caste certificates should be prepared for the members of nomadic tribes. Nomadic and denotified tribes should be representated in public offices.

By Atish, Bhola Nath Sabar, Gomti Devi, Kesar Das, Kiran Devi, Mahendra Devi, Sakila, Shakinaben Movar, Siddique Usman Sama, Subhey Singh and Sundari Sabar

Templated Tweets, Trolls Deployed to Proclaim ‘Success’ of Demonetisation on Social Media

Unlike earlier social media campaigns, the current effort to counter the negative perception generated by the RBI’s own data has seen the deployment of cabinet ministers too.

Unlike earlier social media campaigns, the current effort to counter the negative perception generated by the RBI’s own data has seen the deployment of cabinet ministers too.

demonetisation paid campaign failure narendra modi
New Delhi: A day after the Reserve Bank of India’s report on demonetisation proved that the whole exercise of scrapping high denomination notes in order to detect and extinguish black money simply wasn’t worth the time or effort, a concerted campaign is underway on Twitter, WhatsApp and other digital platforms to prove that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s big economic gamble was in fact “a success”.

In a desperate attempt to change the narrative on social media about the Modi government’s ill-planned and poorly executed exercise that left nearly 100 people dead, destroyed informal markets, took away almost 1.5 million jobs and choked the money supply – and growth – of the nation, hundreds of Twitter handles were deployed to tweet the exact same ‘facts’ using the hashtag #DemonetisationSuccess.

demonetisation paid hashtag
As expected, the hashtag soon started trending on top on Twitter in India.

How does forced trending work?

Usually brands and political parties hire PR agencies who employ social media ‘influencers’. These influencers run multiple social media handles and usually have a huge following. They are provided a brief about the campaign that contains some sample tweets, a list of people they should attack, the timing of the tweets, etc.

Unlike similar campaigns in the past, the #DemonetisationSuccess effort wasn’t just about garden-variety trolls pushing the agenda. This time, even cabinet ministers have been deployed by the BJP’s high command to push the party line.

Ironically, the government doesn’t seem to have faith in the ability of its ministers to creatively argue the case for demonetisation actually being a success. The ministers were all seen sending out the same templated tweets that had been sent out to ordinary footsoldiers.

demonetisation fake handles tweets

Screenshots courtesy: Twitter user @shrinivassg

Incidentally, the messages they tweeted are also being sent out to smart phone users who have downloaded the Narendra Modi app.

narendra modi paid social media campaign
Multiple RTIs filed by the Economic Times revealed that ministries have been paying agencies as much as Rs 2 crore a year to manage social media.

The practice of hiring social media influencers to counter bad publicity has been seen a number of times over the last year in the Indian context.

To commemorate Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s birthday, ‘bhakts’ tweeted praise for the minister with #NirmalaAtWork earlier this month.

A similar campaign was run to “prove Uttar Pradesh CM Adityanath’s innocence” after over hundred infants died in his constituency.

The use of paid social media trolls to spread positive messages about demonetisation was extensively documented by FactorDaily in December 2016.

Screenshot courtesy: FactorDaily

News channels too have adopted similar practices in the past to make hashtags trend.

What impact the government’s social media hard sell on demonetisation will have on public perceptions remains to be seen.

‘Jan Gan Man Ki Baat’, Episode 110: Narendra Modi Should Apologise For Demonetisation

Vinod Dua discusses the latest RBI data on demonetisation and appeals to the prime minister to apologise to the public.

Vinod Dua discusses the latest RBI data on demonetisation and appeals to the prime minister to apologise to the public.

ISRO Navigation Satellite Mission Fails Due to Technical Difficulties

A.S. Kiran Kumar, ISRO chief, said the mission was unsuccessful because the satellite housed within the heat sink could not be injected.

“The C39 launch vehicle had a problem, the heat shield has not separated.”

Nozzle End Segment of PSLV-C39 Core Stage being placed on the Mobile Launch Pedestal. Credit: ISRO

Nozzle End Segment of PSLV-C39 Core Stage being placed on the Mobile Launch Pedestal. Credit: ISRO

Sriharikota: The launch of India’s latest navigation satellite onboard its polar rocket failed today following a technical glitch just prior to its scheduled orbiting in space.

The setback for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) involving the workhorse rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) came shortly after a perfect lift off of the PSLV C-39 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre here at 7 pm.

In a brief announcement, A.S. Kiran Kumar, ISRO chief, said the mission was unsuccessful because the satellite housed within the heat sink could not be injected.

“The C39 launch vehicle had a problem, heat shield has not separated. As a result of that the satellite is inside the heat shield and we have to go through the detailed analysis to see what has happened,” Kumar announced at the Mission Control Centre.

But for the failed heat shield separation, the remaining activities had gone on smoothly, he said, adding a detailed analysis would be undertaken.

A successful launch of India’s eighth navigation satellite – IRNSS-1H – would have ushered a new era in the country’s history of space exploration as, for the first time, the private sector has been actively involved in assembling and testing a satellite. Earlier, the private sector’s role was limited only to supplying components.

Centre Repeating Mistakes on Mismanagement of Public Responses on RTI Rules

Even though a folder containing public comments was lost in 2010, the Centre has not changed the way it maintains records in such matters.

Even though a folder containing public comments was lost in 2010, the Centre has not changed the way it maintains records in such matters.

An RTI activist had urged the government to handle the responses better this time, but that plea has gone unheeded. Credit: Pixabay

An RTI activist had urged the government to handle the responses better this time, but that plea has gone unheeded. Credit: Pixabay

New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government does not appear to be learning from past mistakes. Its Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has revealed that while it has so far received 789 responses on the suggestions and comments sought from the general public on the new draft RTI rules, these responses have not been “diarised” or recorded properly. This is despite the fact that the Centre, while going through a similar process in 2010, had not maintained such records and even lost the folder containing public comments.

Incidentally, the RTI applicant on whose query the information has been revealed, Commodore (retired) Lokesh Batra, had earlier this year demanded that the Centre make better preparations for ensuring the security and proper upkeep of public comments.

Past mistakes went unheeded

In the wake of past mistakes, Batra had said that the Centre must assure the public that the records of public comments will be maintained in compliance with Section 4(1)(a) of the Right to Information Act 2005.

However, the appeal from Batra, who had unearthed that the folder dealing with the public comments had gone missing in 2010, does not appear to have made any impact.

The latest information has come in response to a query filed by Batra in July this year, seeking the details of the responses received. The chief public information officer in the DoPT responded that while 789 persons have responded and 30 of them did so through “physical mail”, the records of email responses “need not be diarised”.

A violation of Section 4(1)(a)

Batra charged that “by not maintaining records of communication received, the public authority (DoPT) is not only flouting the office procedure of record maintenance but also violating the section 4(1)(a) of the RTI Act”.

He said the section requires that every public authority shall “maintain all its records duly catalogued and indexed in a manner and the form which facilitates the right to information under this Act and ensure that all records that are appropriate to be computerised are, within a reasonable time and subject to availability of resources, computerised and connected through a network all over the country on different systems so that access to such records is facilitated”.

On why such record-keeping was important, he said while processing the draft RTI rules 2010, the government had not maintained the records and later lost the folder containing the public comments. Even then, “due to administrative reasons the communication under reference was not diarised and it was placed in a folder”. Batra had therefore called for greater caution this year.

But with the latest RTI response revealing that even now the records are not being maintained properly, he has urged compliance with the rules.

RTI applicants worried about ‘life and death’ issues

For the RTI applicants, the issue is also important as it concerns the larger subject of safety and security of the applicants. With the Centre once again bringing forth the clause on abatement of applications on the death of the applicant, RTI activists are claiming that this would imperil the lives of applicants as vested interests may look to eliminate them to bring the cases to an end.

While the Centre has maintained that the draft RTI rules 2017 do not propose any substantive changes to the key provisions of the Central Information Commission (Management) Regulations and the Rules of 2012, the poor track record of the Modi government in matters relating to transparency related laws does not give much confidence about its intent.

Watch: ‘Demonetisation Has Been Very Bad for the Indian Economy’

Economist Arun Kumar explains how demonetisation failed to tackle black money, but had a severely negative effect on the unorganised sector and the white (formal) economy.

Economist Arun Kumar explains how demonetisation failed to tackle black money, but had a severely negative effect on the unorganised sector and the white (formal) economy.

Farmers in Western UP Forced Into Landless Labour to Repay Debts, Afford Healthcare

Farmers with the smallest land holdings and landless agricultural labourers who need financial support do not have access to formal sources of credit and do not benefit from loan waivers.

Farmers with the smallest land holdings and landless agricultural labourers who need financial support do not have access to formal sources of credit and do not benefit from loan waivers.

Vijay Nazirkar, a farmer, cuts partially destroyed sugarcane to be used as fodder for his cattle at a village. Credit: Reuters

This is the third article in a three-part series on agrarian distress in Western UP. Read part one here and part two here.

Devendra Sharma, 52, suffers from an acute respiratory disorder. He is now required to put in four hours of hard labour every day on his farm, all by himself. His only son, Sunil, 27, who used to assist him, is no longer available to work on the farm. Sunil has to attend to his mother, Sunita, 47, who has recently been diagnosed with stage three stomach cancer. “According to the doctor, she has a 50% chance of survival,” Devendra said when I met him recently at his home in Ladpura village in western Uttar Pradesh’s Hapur district. “If we are able to arrange finances for her treatment, that is,” he added in a whisper, probably meant more for himself than for me.
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It had been 20 days since Sunita had been diagnosed with cancer and the family had already spent Rs 65,000 on medicines, doctor’s fees, tests and the daily 40-kilometre commute to Meerut – the nearest town with decent medical facilities. Devendra, who already has a Rs 5.5 lakh debt, had to take another loan of Rs 50,000 at an exorbitant 36% annual interest rate from a local sahukar. “My relatives and neighbours helped out with some of the finances but we were still short and had to borrow from the sahukar,” he said.

Sunita’s condition deteriorated rapidly and the doctors in Meerut referred her to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi. “Doctors at the Lala Lajpat Rai Medical College in Meerut were unable to figure out how to treat her. She got progressively worse each day and lost 7-8 kgs in 10 days”, Sunil said.

Devendra Sharma

Devendra Sharma. Credit: Kabir Agarwal

Doctors at AIIMS advised that she be hospitalised immediately in the chemotherapy department as her condition was serious. “But there were no beds available so she has had to travel to and from Delhi everyday for the last five days and will continue to do so till a bed is available,” Devendra said.

Delhi is 110 kilometres from Ladpura and the despicable condition of the public transport available to get to the capital makes it a difficult option for patients like Sunita. So the family has to arrange for a private taxi that costs Rs 3,000 for one to-and-fro journey. “I go with her everyday in a taxi. I don’t know how long we will have to do this. I hope she gets a bed soon and chemotherapy can start,” Sunil said.

The problems will not end there for the family. “The treatment is going to cost at least Rs 5 lakh. I don’t have a single rupee on me, plus I have Rs 5.5 lakh in debt. We are already spending around Rs 7000-8000 daily on her treatment,” said Devendra.

“You will probably have to sell your land,” a neighbour who had walked in said to Devendra.

Devendra corrected him, “No, not probably. I will definitely have to sell off my land.”

Devendra owns two acres of land and falls under the marginal farmer category. In other words, he is part of the category of farmers with not enough land to make a profit from agriculture, as discussed in an earlier part of this series. Already suffering from the systemic nature of unviable agriculture for small and marginal farmers, his wife’s medical ailment has pushed Devendra and his family to the brink of poverty, if not beyond.

Sudhir Panwar, a professor at Lucknow University, president of the farmer organisation Kisan Jagriti Manch and a former member of the State Price Fixation Committee for sugarcane, believes that even costs other than agriculture have risen significantly for the farmer – a fact that is often not a part of discussions around farmer distress. “You see how the government has slowly withdrawn from sectors such as health care and how private health care has completely taken over. The result is that cost of health care has increased substantially for the farmers. There is the issue of deteriorating condition of government hospitals, which has not been addressed by successive governments,” he said.

Also read: Aspiration, Debt and Death: The Story of One Sugarcane Farmer is the Tale of Western UP

According to T. Haque, an agricultural economist, the rising costs of healthcare and education further add stress to the stagnant incomes from the farm. “On one hand, government provision of basic services such as education, health care and transportation has reduced over the years. And on the other hand, incomes from the farm have not gone up. The result is that the disposable income available to farmers has reduced drastically, and continues to reduce,” he said.

“Farmers get stuck in this vicious cycle of debt where they have to keep borrowing each year, without the capacity to repay their debt. They eventually end up losing their land,” Haque said.

Sandeep Tomar

Sandeep Tomar. Credit: Kabir Agarwal

Three years ago, Sanjeev Tomar, 45, in Nanglamal village, about 30 km from Ladpura, was faced with a situation similar to Devendra’s. His wife was diagnosed with cancer and he was forced to sell his 2.5 acres of land to pay for the treatment. “We spent around Rs 12 lakhs for her treatment. But she died a year after being diagnosed,” Tomar said.

Now, Tomar is a landless agricultural labourer. He works on the farms of others for a daily wage. “I earn around Rs 300 a day. But often there are days when I don’t find work. We go hungry sometimes,” he said.

As a landless labourer, Tomar does not have access to formal sources of lending and will not benefit from the Rs 36,000 crore crop loan-waiver for small and marginal farmers announced by the BJP government in the state. “I borrow from sahukars who charge 3% rate of interest (monthly). Even for my wife’s funeral, I borrowed from them. This year, I borrowed Rs 2 lakh for my daughter’s wedding. Last year, Rs 50,000 for my son’s education,” he said.

Today, Tomar owes sahukars Rs 2.3 lakh. “It is a daily struggle to feed myself and my two sons. I don’t know how to save and repay the sahukars. They keep coming to my house everyday to ask for their money. And due to the high rate of interest, the amount I owe them keeps increasing rapidly,” Tomar said.

Haque says that all farmers, whether they own land or not, take loans from local money lenders who charge usurious rates of interest. “Moreover, it is small and marginal farmers who need to borrow from these informal sources as the amount of loans that they get based on their land holding is lower, compared to richer farmers with larger land holdings. And of course, the landless agricultural labourers have no option but to approach informal sources of credit,” he said.

“Ironically, the most vulnerable among farmers do not benefit from loan-waivers because a substantial proportion of their debt is from informal sources,” he added.

In a 2017 paper titled ‘Institutional versus Non-institutional Credit to Agricultural Households in India’, the authors calculated the distribution of farmer households in India by nature of borrowing ­– formal and informal. Their research, based on the Situation Assessment Survey of Agricultural Households, 2013, shows that loans from informal sources constitute 36% of all loans taken by agricultural households.

Tellingly, their research also shows that proportion of borrowing from informal sources increases as the size of land-holding reduces. For instance, 25% of all loans taken by farmers with large land holdings were from informal sources. Whereas, for marginal farmers, 45% of all loans taken were from informal sources, and only 55% from formal sources. The authors summarise, “Access to institutional credit increases as land size increases, while credit from non-institutional sources decreases as land size increases.”

“Paradoxically, it is the farmers with small land-holdings and landless agricultural labourers who need financial support. Yet, they are the ones who don’t have adequate access to formal sources of credit. And they are the ones who do not benefit from loan-waivers,” said Sudhir Panwar, president of the Kisan Jagriti Manch.

Ankit Tomar

Ankit Tomar. Credit: Kabir Agarwal

Haque does not believe that migrating to urban areas is a viable solution to the problem. “The solution often given by urban policy experts and most economists is that if farmers are finding agriculture unviable, they should move to urban areas and take up jobs there. My question to them is ‘where are the jobs?’” he said.

Back in Nanglamal, Tomar’s eldest son Sandeep, 27, works in the Nanglamal sugar mill, earning Rs 160 daily for one eight-hour shift. “I put in two shifts at the mill – 8 am to 4 pm, then 8 pm to 4 am. Our family needs the extra cash, desperately,” Sandeep said. His job at the mill is that of a security guard.

Sandeep had earlier wanted to work at a manufacturing unit and spent one year at an Industrial Training Institute (ITI) learning mechanical fitter skills. He finished his course in 2010 and was able to lay his hands on an apprenticeship at a Moser Baer factory in Noida, earning Rs 4,000 a month. “I worked there for six months. They had told me I would be offered a permanent job. But that did not happen,” he said.

Since then Sandeep has run from pillar to post looking for jobs in the neighbouring cities of Meerut, Hapur, Noida and Delhi. His search is yet to yield results. “Even with the ITI degree, I am unable to find a job. I can’t even spend too much time in the cities looking for private jobs, as my father needs help here,” Sandeep said.

Sandeep has applied to be a sanitation worker at several local municipal bodies as well as to be a clerk or a peon at the post office and at government banks but without success. “First, I tried applying for bank jobs. But the tests were too difficult and I realised I did not stand a chance. I have been applying continuously for the post of clerk and peon at the post office for the last seven years. It has been a waste of time,” he said.

“I have even applied to be a safai karamchari (sanitation worker). But did not get that either,” he added.

“Unfortunately, there is just nowhere for rural people to go. Youngsters want to move away from agriculture and take up jobs in cities. But there are no jobs on offer. Lakhs of applicants apply for a few hundred government jobs. The situation is dire,” said Panwar.

Also read: Low Prices, Delayed Payments and Pests Are Pushing Western UP’s Sugarcane Farmers Into Crisis

According to a 2015 report in The Hindu, there were over 23 lakh candidates for 368 peon posts in the state secretariat. Among the applicants, 2.22 lakh were engineers and 255 held PhDs.    

In 2016, the Indian Express reported that more than 20 lakh people had applied for about 20,000 posts of safai karamacharis in UP – a contractual appointment with a salary of Rs 16,000 a month. Many of those willing to clean roads, gutters and dive inside sewers held MBA, MSc and MCom degrees.

Haque terms this a policy failure of the government overlooking non-farm employment in rural areas. “There has been a total policy failure. The government has put in no effort to open up avenues for non-farm employment in rural areas, in the hope that somehow everyone will be absorbed by the urban areas. That has simply not happened,” he said.

In Nanglamal, Tomar’s youngest son, Ankit,19, is studying in class 12 at the government school in the village. “I don’t know what the future holds for him. I keep telling him to study hard – and he does. But even that may not be enough for him to get out of this poverty that we are stuck in,” Tomar said.

“Aisa lagta hai dal-dal mein phans gaye hain (It feels like we are stuck in a swamp),” said Tomar as he put his arm around Ankit.

Kabir Agarwal is an independent journalist whose writings have appeared in The Kashmir Walla, The Times of India, Mint, Al Jazeera English and The Caravan.

Despite Clear Guidelines, University Denies Medical Course Admission to Student With Disability

Delhi’s Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University has come under fire for denying admission to a student suffering from thalassemia.

Delhi’s Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University has come under fire for denying admission to a student suffering from thalassemia.

Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University. Credit: ipu.ac.in

Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University. Credit: ipu.ac.in

New Delhi: The Delhi government-run Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University has joined the list of institutions that have been depriving persons with disabilities (PwDs) of their right to secure admission in medical courses on the basis of the new Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016.

Despite the Supreme Court just earlier this month noting that “it is the duty of every institution to extend helping hand in its command to the disabled persons” and directing the constitution of a medical board by Chhattisgarh to examine a Sruchi Rathore, a girl with thalassemia, who was denied admission in a medical course, the case of Digant Jain, another thalassemic person, bears a stark resemblance to the insensitivity of authorities concerned towards disability and extending the rights which have been accorded by the constitution to them.

Supreme Court norms

In Sruchi Rathore versus Union of India, the apex court had on August 18 directed the Medical Council of India to respond to the larger issue of denial of admissions to PwDs within eight weeks. It had also directed that Rathore be admitted to the MBBS course after due counseling within a week.

Appearing for Rathore, senior advocate Prashant Bhushan had submitted that she “should be considered as a person with disability for the purpose of admission to any medical stream.” That apart, he also contended that under the 2016 Act, 5% of the seats for the persons with benchmark disability are required to be reserved and the statutory command needed to be followed in letter and spirit.

Noting that this legislation was a “great welfare measures,” the court had said that “it is the duty of everyone to see that the provisions are carried out with quite promptitude.”

But despite such clear instructions from the highest court of the land, the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University denied admission to another thallasemic student while ignoring its directives.

PwD student still had to seek HC intervention

The student, Jain, then moved the Delhi High court for relief. In this case the petitioner was a thalassemic patient and a person with a disability as per the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016. He had appeared in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) examination and qualified in March 2017 in the general category.

Taking up the matter on August 28, the high court said at the time when the petitioner had appeared for his NEET examination,  the new Act had not been notified. The new Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, which was promulgated in December 2016, was only notified in April 2017.

However, on learning about the new legislation, which was in favour of the petitioner, Jain had applied for this change from general category to PWD. This was granted to him as is evident from the result of the NEET which had notified that the petitioner falls in the PWD category.

However, when the counselling session ended on August 28, the petitioner pointed out that while he had already attended counseling sessions scheduled for July 23, August 12 and August 28, there appeared to be no seats in the MBBS course in any of the colleges of the respondent university.

While taking on record the order of the Supreme Court in the Sruchi Rathore versus Union of India and others case, Justice Indermeet Kaur noted “with pain that all this has happened for the fault” of the respondent who despite knowing that the petitioner was a person with disability did not care to do anything to the representation of the petitioner.

The high court also took cognizance of the submission of the other respondents that “all persons holding PWD certificate shall be eligible for reservation in Delhi as also for sets outside Delhi in terms of the provisions of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016.”

Incidentally, all across the country, students with disabilities are being denied benefits under the new disabilities rights Act when it comes to admission in medical colleges through NEET.

One of the most striking case has been that of Yukesh S., the son of a farmer and a teacher from Dindigul district in Tamil Nadu, who not only secured the second rank in the ‘Physically Handicapped OBC’ category.

He did not attend the engineering counsel because he was quite sure of making it through medical counseling. But when he walked into the counseling, the panel was surprised and questioned him about his disability, as it was not apparent and visible to the naked eye.

Yukesh, who suffers from a bleeding disorder, ultimately got through and is now interested in pursuing research in genetics.

Despite SC order and directions, things have not changed

As RTI and disability rights activist Satendra Singh, who is also an associate professor of physiology at the University College of Medical Science and GTB Hospital in Delhi, said, “Despite notification of the Act on April 19, 2017 and a Supreme Court order on April 25, 2017,  in the case of Justice Sunanda Bhandare Foundation vs Union of  India and Another which directed the chief secretaries and state commissioner (disabilities) of all states/UT to submit a compliance report on the implementation of the new disability Act by August 16, 2017, things have not changed.”

He said the apex court had even reminded the governments and their institutions that “they must realise that under this Act, their responsibilities have increased and the executing authorities must give effect to it with ‘quite promptitude.'”

​As for the Medical Council of India, he questioned why despite having faced so many cases from doctors with disabilities it has never bothered to include a doctor with disability on any of its committees.

India’s GDP Growth Hits Three-Year Low in June quarter

Analysts point out that slowdown from last quarter has intensified due to the combination of long-term slowdown and temporary shock factors like demonetisation and GST.

Analysts point out that slowdown from last quarter has intensified due to the combination of long-term slowdown and temporary shock factors like demonetisation and GST.

June quarter economic growth is lower than expected. Credit: Reuters

New Delhi: India’s economy unexpectedly slowed further to a three-year low in the quarter through June, delivering a blow to Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is facing criticism for disrupting business activity through his shock cash squeeze last year.

Gross domestic product grew 5.7%in the latest quarter, its slowest pace since the January-March quarter 2014, according to data released on Thursday.

That compared with a forecast of 6.6 percent growth by economists in a Reuters’ poll, and was slower than 6.1 percent growth posted in January-March.

Modi’s decision last November to scrap high-value old banknotes, in a bid to flush out the money Indians hide from the taxman, wiped out about 86 percent of currency in circulation virtually overnight.

While his drive to unearth unaccounted wealth did not deliver the desired result, it pounded consumer demand in an economy where most people are paid in, and buy what they need with, cash.

Confusion ahead of the launch of a new goods and services tax (GST) also seems to have dampened economic activity.

Industry sector has primarily dragged the Q1 FY’18 GDP growth to its lowest level in 13 quarters. Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast annual growth of 6.6% in the quarter.

HDFC Bank chief economist Abheek Barua pointed out that the numbers “are certainly disappointing”.

“The numbers seem to suggest that the slowdown from last quarter has intensified due to the combination of long-term slowdown and temporary shock factors like demonetisation and GST (goods and services tax) destocking. A rate cut from RBI now becomes more and more probable, not immediately, but over the next 6 months. We have to revise our GDP outlook numbers for the full year closer or perhaps lower than 7 percent,” Barua stated.

Infra growth up slightly

Annual infrastructure output growth accelerated to 2.4% in July, driven up mainly by higher electricity and steel production, government data showed on Thursday. The output grew a revised 0.8% year-on-year in June.

For April-July, the annual output growth was 2.5 percent, data showed. Electricity production grew 5.4 percent last month from a year ago, faster than a 2.2 percent rise in June. Steel output in July was 9.2 percent on year compared with a 5.8 percent growth a month ago.

JNU Agrees to Change Inquiry Panel After Nivedita Menon Alleges Bias

Menon had deposed against Bidyut Chakrabarti, head of the former probe committee, during a sexual harassment investigation in 2007.

Menon had deposed against Bidyut Chakrabarti, head of the former probe committee, during a sexual harassment investigation in 2007.

Nivedita Menon. Credit: Sylwia Mierzinska

New Delhi: The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) administration has reconstituted an inquiry committee that was meant too look into ‘disruptions’ created by professor Nivedita Menon at an academic council meeting after allegations of bias.

The committee was set up to look into the role of teachers in a ‘disruption’ of an academic council meeting on December 26, 2016. “Several students had barged into the academic council meeting and chanted slogans demanding reduction of the weight given to the oral interview in admission to research courses. Nine students were suspended,” Telegraph reported. Menon is currently the head of department at the Centre for Comparative Politics and Political Theory at JNU’s School of International Studies.

The original committee, formed on January 3, was headed by professor Bidyut Chakrabarti, an external member of JNU’s executive council who teaches at Delhi University. In 2007, Menon had deposed against Chakrabarti during investigation into a sexual harassment complaint against him in DU; Menon taught there too at the time. Chakrabarti had been debarred from all administrative posts for three years after the incident.

When Menon was asked to appear before the committee headed by Chakrabarti, she repeatedly expressed her apprehensions of bias to the administration. However, the university still sent her repeated letters, including a final notice, to depose before the committee.

On July 19, Menon wrote to the JNU vice-chancellor saying: “I am apprehensive that given my role as a witness in the enquiry that found him to have committed sexual harassment, a committee chaired by Prof Bidyut Chakrabarty will not be impartial in any enquiry against me. An apprehension that there is likely to be prejudice or animus towards witnesses such as myself in that case is not unfounded. I therefore request that the executive council reconstitute the inquiry committee.”

A group of academics, activists and feminist organisations also issued a statement supporting Menon, saying, “The JNU administration has exposed its own mala fide intentions by ignoring Prof. Menon’s repeated pleas to reconstitute the inquiry committee, given her legitimate apprehension of bias. Instead they have sent her repeated letters asking her to appear before the inquiry committee. We are deeply shocked that the JNU administration ignored the fact that the nomination of Prof. Chakrabarti as the chair of this inquiry against Prof. Menon is a violation of the principles of natural justice and the right to a fair procedure. Surely the JNU administration and its Executive Council should abide by the principles of a fair inquiry and ensure that such an enquiry should not be headed by someone who has grounds for bias.”

When the administration did not respond to her request, Menon petitioned the high court. The matter was set to be heard in the court on August 23, but the university reconstituted the committee on August 22.

JNU said in a notification, according to The Hindu, “Respecting natural justice and to have a fair examination of the case, the competent authority has constituted a committee consisting three DU Professors that include Ashok Prasad from the Department of Chemistry, J.P. Dubey from the Department of Adult Education and Kumund Sharma from the Department of Hindi.”