Tag Archives: Non-governmental organization

More than 60,000 #Children Go Missing In India Each Year

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Childhood is an eternal bliss until it lasts, but if childhood is lived in misery and abuse it becomes a curse with no reasons attached. Missing children has been highlighted as one the biggest problems in the country. Being a recurring concern it needs stringent method in order to repress the social menace. The Justice Verma Committee was formed to look into amendments in criminal law and he is working on making amends in the justice system to curb the number of missing children in the country. He said, “A lakh kids go missing every year. The police must file an FIR, DM should maintain records,” as reported by Meenakshi Upreti for ibnlive.com

Most of the missing children become victims to human trafficking and sexual abuse, which occurs often with police collusion, informed the Justice Verma commission. The conclusion was derived from the case of a minor girl, who was trafficked from Jharkhand to Delhi, who was forced to work without pay for a year and then trafficked to Punjab.

An NGO rescued the girl fortunately. However there are thousands of children waiting for a silver lining. Unlike in the case of the 11 year old son of Kunwarjit, who went missing two years ago, Kunwarjit informed that no legal action has been taken by the authorities to locate his son so far. He said, “Police hasn’t done a thing to find him. I got a call from my son once but the police refused to act on it saying that it was a hoax call. Had they acted then, probably I would’ve had my son, but now I think I won’t see him again,” as reported by IBN Live.
As per the official records 53, 000 children went missing in India in 2010, in 2011 the number increased to 59,000. It has been estimated that in every 8 minutes one child goes missing. The NGO activists claim that the biggest trouble with the increasing number and children remaining untraced is police inaction.

The capital, Delhi has the largest number of untraced children with 14 children estimated to go missing from the city each day. In most cases the police claim that children willingly run away, only occasional investigating chances of child sexual abuse and trafficking occur.

AR Chaurasia, an activist said, “The police shut the case saying that the child ran away and came back on his own. My question is what did the child do for four years? Someone must have employed him, why don’t they probe it?” as reported by ibnlive.com

The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) estimated that 60, 000 children go missing each year even with the fact that large states like Maharashtra, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh also Jharkhand and Punjab have not provided the missing children data.

The chief secretaries of all the states and Union territories have been asked by the Supreme Court to instruct all the police stations to register an FIR and start investigation of the reported missing children.
A bench of chief justice Altamas Kabir, justices Vikramajit Sen and J Chelameswar has also directed that all police stations should have a special juvenile police officer to handle the cases of missing children, as reported by Rakesh Bhatnagar for DNA.

It was informed that these officers will be in plain clothes and will coordinate with the child welfare committees regarding the cases. The order was passed by the court on the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by an NGO ‘Bachpan Bachao Andolan’ which claimed that between January 2008-2010 over 1.7 lakh children have gone missing in the country.  About 60,000 children go missing in India each year, with over 30,000 remaining untraced.

As per the recent report by the statistics ministry, it informs that while an absolute increase of 181 million in the country’s population has been recorded during the decade 2001-2011, it also records a reduction of 5.05 millions in the population of children aged 0-6 years during the same period.

Losing a child is the greatest sorrow felt by parents, it cannot be understood by anyone, let alone the police force. As the missing child isn’t considered as a fiendish crime in the Indian legal system very little attention is paid to the recovery of such children. With the numbers increasing the country is taking the matter seriously, however the need for efficiency and speedy recovery to resolve cases is most asked for in the country.

 

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Arvind Kejriwal, supporters detained near PM residence

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India Against Corruption (IAC) activist Arvind Kejriwal, who was to lead a group of 300-odd physically challenged people to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh‘s residence, was detained by the police near the 7, Racecourse Road, in the capital on Friday.

Apparently, the police rounded up Kejriwal and his supporters after warning them to clear the road.

While Kejriwal had said he wanted to submit a letter to the prime minister that contained the details of his allegations against union law minister Salman Khurshid, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh refused to meet him, saying he had prior appointments.

However, reacting to their being stalled by the security, Kejriwal said, “It is utter shame that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should seek a security cover comprising thousands of securitymen to keep a bunch of physically challenged people at bay. This is not democracy.”

Kejriwal, who has demanded the resignation of Union law minister Salman Khurshid over the siphoning of funds of a charitable NGO that his wife Louise runs, is now staging a sit-in at the spot where he was stopped by the securitymen. “Earlier, we were seeking the PM for a time when he could meet us, but now we will wait till the time the PM speaks to the people of this country.”

Refusing to budge, Kejriwal said, “This is not democracy. The government is supposed to serve us and not lord over us.”

Demanding that a police complaint be filed immediately against Salman Khurshid and his wife, Kejriwal said, “Salman Khurshid should be removed from the cabinet till proven innocent. Both of them are influential people, they can tamper with evidence and pressure witnesses. They should be arrested immediately.”

“Let’s make this place another Tahrir Square (the focus of anti-regime protests in Egypt last year). People should take leave (from work) and join the protest. Now it’s a fight to the finish. The prime minister will have to meet us and accept our demands. Khurshid has to resign. He should be arrested,” he said.

Khurshid is planning to sue social activist-turned-politician Kejriwal for his allegations.

Criminals, Crorepatis & Non-Graduates; It’s Indian Politics

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Politics pays really well, much more than any other profession as our parliament and state assemblies have become hubs of crorepatis, just as all but three members of the new Goa assembly are millionaires. Politics works as an asylum for criminals that half of the newly elected MLAs in UP have declared criminal cases against them. Politics is a profession of high pay and absolute job security where education is not the primary criterion of eligibility and so, 45 percent of the newly-elected in Punjab Vidhan Sabha are non-graduates.

The new crorepati list from the recently held assembly elections in 5 states shows the fact that the not-so-rich are getting marginalized in Indian politics and in the electoral process. While 101 out of 117 MLAs in the Punjab Assembly are crorepatis, 37 out of 40 elected candidates in the Goan assembly have declared assets worth more than 1 Core. According to the data published by Association for Democratic Reforms, an NGO working towards strengthening governance and democracy in the country; narrates a story quite different than we are used to. Contrary to the popular belief, it’s not people with genuine social conscience, but with deep pockets the political parties prefer to give the tickets to contest. And as a matter of fact, it’s these financially well off candidates stand a good chance to win the constituencies than people with real political zeal but less economical backup.

 

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‘I challenge the PM to make all the evidence public’ – SP Udayakumar

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Anti-nuclear activist SP Udayakumar tells Jeemon Jacob that the Koodankulam agitation is funded only by local people

The prime minister said that the Koodankulam protests are funded by US-based NGOs. What do you have to say?
It’s an absurd, false, malicious and baseless statement. By making such statements, he is behaving like an irresponsible PM. He has become a disgrace to our country. I would like to challenge the PM and demand him to provide details about the US-based NGOs that provided money to the Koodankulam struggle. I also request him to reveal the names of those who took money from the foreign donor agencies to fuel protests. If he has any evidence against us, let him come up with it and take action. Instead, he is engaging in blackmailing tactics. Otherwise let him face the consequences of making wild allegations in a democratic country where everyone has the right to defend his honour.

What will be your next move?
We are going to sue him for making a defamatory statement in public. We will consult our lawyers and initiate legal steps immediately. We are poor people who are on protest for more than 10 years. Majority of our people are fishermen who have no other means of livelihood. They have joined the protests as their lives and livelihood are at stake. It was not funded by US-based NGOs or stage-managed by groups. People cutting across religion, caste, politics and status participated in the movement.

Have you received money from any foreign or local NGOs for organising the protests?
We have not received even a paise from NGOs — foreign or Indian. If the PM has the evidence, I challenge him to make it public. If he doesn’t, then he should resign and offer a public apology. I have been with this movement since 2001. Our people were on hunger strike for more than a month. Entire villages joined the hunger strike because we were fighting for our lives. A PM who sold out our country to Americans when he was finance minister may not understand the spirit of the poor in suffering. A PM who allowed FDI in retail will never understand what a poor man needs for basic survival; a PM who thinks nuclear plants will resolve all energy crises will never understand our struggle.

Earlier, similar allegations were levelled against you and about the movement having foreign donors. In that sense, the PM’s statement says nothing new.
It was none other than V Narayanaswamy, Minister of State in charge of the Prime Minister’s Office, who levelled an allegation that I’d received Rs 1.5 crore from a foreign NGO. I filed a defamation case against him in Madras High Court and issued a notice against him. In his reply, his lawyer had stated that he had never made such an allegation and it was the media misquoting him. So it’s a ploy by the Congress to destabilise and divide the movement. They think that by making wild allegations, they can kill our movement and commission the Koodankulam plant. That’s an illusion.

How do you run your protest without any financial support?
You don’t need money to run a movement when people are fighting for their cause. You don’t need PR or media managers to make a movement a great success. We had organised massive demonstrations in Koodankulam and Idanthikarai for more than a month with less than 2 lakh. You can verify our accounts and see the donations made by poor people. I request you to read the books on freedom struggle. Which corporate lobby funded the struggle led by Mahatma Gandhi? The PM or his media kids should read it at least once. It’s only then that they would learn how to make great movements for a cause. The lessons he had learnt as an economist are not good for this country but only for some corporate giants with hidden agendas.

Jeemon Jacob is Bureau Chief, South with Tehelka.

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