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(A Monthly Publication of Manavadhikar Samajik Manch)

Volume XV No. 10 October 2018
 In this issue...
World Teachers’ Day: 5
The right to education means the right to a qualified teacher

International Day of the Girl Child: 8

The Power of the Adolescent Girl: Vision for 2030

International Day of Non-Violence: 10

Partnerships for Peace – Dignity for All

International Day of Older Persons: 12

Sustainability and Age Inclusiveness in the Urban Environment

National News 15

News from the National Human Rights Commission 17

International News 21

Inside Chhattisgarh: 24
A Paean to Chhattisgarh from an Exiled Lover

Infertility Clinics: 26
The Truth Behind the Screen

Godmen and Gurus: 28

India’s Bane

Higher Education in India: 30

An Innovative Approach
 From the President’s Desk …
The world celebrates the International Day of the Girl Child on the 11th of October every year. It is
celebrated to promote the girls’ position in the society and to make their living better in the society. IN
this context, let us remember that it is very important to remove different types of social discrimination
and exploitation that girls generally face in their life. Merely holding political and community meetings
for the public is not enough. We have to make people aware about the rights of girls for education and
also fundamental freedom.

It is also absolutely necessary for girls to achieve their full potential within a safe and healthy
environment. They should be aware of their rights including education, nutrition and health care
rights. They should also be aware about the legislations regarding domestic violence, prohibition of
child marriage and dowry prohibition in order to face the real challenges in life.

In our country, female literacy rate is still hovering at 53.87% and one third of the young girls are
malnourished. Women in the reproductive age group are anaemic and suffering from various other
diseases just because of the gender discrimination in the society and limited access to the health care.
Various steps have been taken at national and state level by the Ministry of Women and Child
Development to improve the girl child status through a range of schemes.

The Women and Child Development Ministry had implemented a scheme called “Dhanalaksmi” to
make cash transfer to the girl child family to fulfill the basic needs such as immunization, birth
registration, school enrolment and maintenance up to the Class VIII. The Right to Education Act has
also made available free education to the girl child.

International Day of the Girl Child should also remind us that together we need to reiterate our
promise to the girls in our country and do everything to ensure they lead healthy, contented lives. We
must join hands to remove all the inequalities faced by the girl children of the Indian society. We must
work towards making sure that every girl child is getting proper respect and value in the Indian
society. We must work against diminishing the child sex ratio in India and change the people’s mind
about the girl child. We also must address the girl children issues associated with their health, respect,
education and nutrition.

In this new millennium, let us propagate gender equality among the people in India.

Dr. A. Shanker

Vol. XV No. 10 October 2018 4

 World Teachers’ Day:
The right to education means the right to a qualified teacher
The right to education means the
right to a qualified teacher
Held annually on 5 October since
1994, World Teachers’ Day
commemorates the anniversary of
the adoption of the 1966 ILO/
UNESCO Recommendation
concerning the Status of Teachers.
This Recommendation sets
benchmarks regarding the rights and
responsibilities of teachers and
standards for their initial preparation
and further education, recruitment,
employment, and teaching and
learning conditions. The
Recommendation concerning the
Status of Higher-Education Teaching
Personnel was adopted in 1997 to
complement the 1966
Recommendation by covering
teaching and research personnel in
higher education.
With the adoption of the Sustainable
Development Goal 4 on education,
and the dedicated target (SDG 4.c)
recognizing teachers as key to the
achievement of the Education 2030
agenda, WTD has become the
occasion to mark progress and
reflect on ways to counter the
remaining challenges for the
promotion of the teaching
profession.
As we celebrate World Teachers’
Day this year, we take this occasion
to remind the global community that
“The right to education means the
right to a qualified teacher.” This
theme was chosen to mark the 70th
anniversary of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights
(1948), where education is
recognized as a key fundamental
Vol. XV No. 10 October 2018
right. A right that cannot be fulfilled
without qualified teachers.
One of the main challenge to this right
worldwide is the continued shortage
of teachers. There are an estimated
264 million children and youth still
out of school globally, and according
to the UNESCO Institute of
Statistics, the world needs to recruit
almost 69 million new teachers to
reach the 2030 education goal of
universal primary and secondary
education. This ‘teacher gap’ is
more pronounced among vulnerable
populations – girls, children with
disabilities, refugee and migrant
children, and poor children living in
rural or remote areas.
Trained and qualified teachers are
fundamental to the right to
education.
Held annually on 5 October since
1994, World Teachers’ Day (WTD)
commemorates the anniversary of
the signing of the 1966 ILO/UNESCO
Recommendation concerning the
Status of Teachers. This
Recommendation sets forth the rights
and responsibilities of teachers and
standards for their initial preparation
and further education, recruitment,
employment, and teaching and
learning conditions. To complement
the 1966 Recommendation, the
UNESCO Recommendation
concerning the Status of Higher-
Education Teaching Personnel was
adopted in 1997 to cover teaching and
research personnel in higher
5
education.
With the adoption of Sustainable
Development Goal (SDG) 4 on
education, and the dedicated target
(SDG 4.c) recognizing teachers as
key to the achievement of the 2030
Education Agenda, World Teachers’
Day has become the occasion to
mark achievements and reflect on
ways to counter the remaining
challenges for the promotion of the
teaching profession. The day is
celebrated through a global event at
UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, with
regional and country events
worldwide.
World Teachers’ Day is co-convened
in partnership with UNICEF, UNDP,
the International Labour Organization,
and Education International. This year,
the day coincides with the awarding
of the 5th edition of the UNESCO-
Hamdan bin Rashid Al-Maktoum
Prize for Outstanding Practice and
Performance in Enhancing the
Effectiveness of Teachers.
World Teachers’ Day 2018 will mark
the 70th anniversary of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights (1948)
that recognizes education as a key
fundamental right and establishes an
entitlement to free compulsory
education, ensuring inclusive and
equitable access for all children.
This year’s theme, “The right to
education means the right to a
qualified teacher,” has been chosen
to remind the global community that
the right to education cannot be
achieved without the right to trained
and qualified teachers. Even today, a

continuing challenge worldwide is the
shortage of teachers. There are an
estimated 264 million children and
youth still out of school globally. To
reach the 2030 Education Goals of
universal primary and secondary
education, the world needs to recruit
almost 69 million new teachers.1
This ‘teacher gap’ is more
pronounced among vulnerable
populations, such as girls, children
with disabilities, refugee and migrant
children, or poor children living in
rural or remote areas.
World Teachers’ Day 2018
Spotlight: Teaching in crisis and
emergency contexts
According to the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR), 65.3 million people, of
which 21.3 million are under 18 years
Vol. XV No. 10 October 2018
of age, were forced into leaving their
homes due to limited employment
opportunities, ethnic or religious
persecutions, armed conflict or
violence, political crises, or natural
disasters.11 In some parts of the
world, large segments of the
population miss out on educational
opportunities due to forced or
involuntary migration. More than
one-third of out-of-school children
and youth globally live in conflict-
affected areas; 55% of whom are
girls. In 2017, about 20,000
unaccompanied and separated
children arrived in Europe, an
increase of 31% since 2016.
When education is interrupted due to
forced or involuntary migration,
children’s right to education is
weakend. For example, in areas
6
affected by armed conflicts or natural
disasters, schools, books and
educational infrastructures are lost or
damaged. Teachers are also lost, as
they too may be forced to leave their
home.
In emergency situtions, teachers are
in short supply. Often, humanitarian
agencies must recruit teachers with
no pedagogical training and no
preparation for working in fragile or
crisis contexts, making them
vulnerable to violence and abuse.13
Those who may have a teaching
qualification may be asked to teach
subjects for which they have no
pedagogical training, impacting the
quality of instruction and learning
outcomes.
In emergency and post-conflict
sitatuations, children’s emotional and
social well-being is often negatively
impacted, and teachers are key to
helping children cope with the new
situation and improve their wellbeing.
However, new teachers may be
unprepared to respond to the
additional complexities of working
with vulnerable children and youth.
Like regular teachers, teachers
working in emergency and crisis
contexts should be carefully recruited
and trained, with access to strong
support systems and specialized
professional development for building
the competencies and skills to work
with refugee and migrant children.
Closing the teacher gap
Clearly, closing the teacher gap will
necessitate much stronger
commitments to not only recruit and
train new teachers, but also to ensure
that sufficient resources are invested
to keep teachers in the profession.
Despite widespread recognition of the
importance of teachers in shaping the
success of future generations,
teaching, in far too many contexts,
is not regarded as a valued
profession, and many countries face
challenges in recruiting and retaining
teachers. This is because wages for
teachers in many countries are not
comparable to professionals with
similar education and training levels,
workloads have increased, working
conditions are deteriorating, and
teachers are increasingly employed
under precarious contracts.16 For
example, in the study of 15 countries
in Southern Africa, it was found that
teachers lacked the basic necessities
for teaching and learning: teacher
guides, writing boards, paper and
pencils.17 The lack of trained
teachers, low salaries, and poor
working conditions in many parts of
the world are jeopardizing prospects
for quality and equitable education for
all, and in particular for the most
marginalized and vulnerable
populations.
As the profession is too often being
associated with inadequate training,
poor career prospects, and lack of
professional autonomy, the general
prestige of teachers has suffered. As
early as 1966, the importance of a
valued teaching profession was
spelled out in the ILO/UNESCO
Recommendation concerning the
Status of Teachers. This standard-
setting instrument defines “status” as
the “standing or regard accorded to
teachers, as evidenced by the level
of appreciation of the importance of
their function and of their
competence in performing it, and the
working conditions, remuneration
and other material benefits accorded
them relative to other professional
groups.”18 To foster public esteem
for teachers and encourage the
development of the teaching
profession, the 1966
Recommendation set out the rights
and responsibilities of teachers.
Vol. XV No. 10 October 2018
Providing high-quality instruction is
teachers’ core responsibility. But
teachers also have rights, such as the
right to contribute to education policy
development, the right to professional
freedom, as well as the right to decent
working conditions and adequate
remuneration.
A poorly valued teaching profession
has a negative impact on the quality
of teaching and learning. This is why
the international community, in
adopting the Education 2030 Agenda,
has committed to ensuring that
“teachers and educators are
empowered, adequately recruited,
well-trained, professionally qualified,
motivated and supported within well-
resourced, efficient and effectively
governed systems.”
At the heart of the right to education,
therefore, is a highly-valued, qualified,
and well-trained teaching profession.
What can the international
community do?
This World Teachers’ Day, as we
commemorate the 70th anniversary
of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, we invite the global
community to celebrate teachers and
the centrality of teachers in the right
to a quality, equitable, and inclusive
education for all.
UNESCO Field Offices and Regional
7
Bureaus, governments, schools,
teachers, and the international
community are invited to reflect on
and discuss how to address the
challenge of increasing the supply of
well-trained and qualified teachers.
Suggested topics for showcase and
discussion may include:
- Success stories of schools or
communities where teachers have
made a difference for marginalized
or vulnerable children living in
emergency or crisis contexts.
- Promising examples of how
countries have been able to
successfully deploy trained and
qualified teachers to remote or rural
areas.
- Examples of how governments,
teachers’ organizations, and the
private sector can work together
to mobilize the financing needed to
increase the recruitment and
training of teachers.
- Innovative approaches to keeping
teachers motivated to remain in the
profession and to improve the
quality of teaching.
Support us for the
creation of a just and
equitable society
 International Day of the Girl Child:
The Power of the Adolescent Girl: Vision for 2030
O
n December 19, 2011, United
Nations General Assembly
adopted Resolution 66/170 to
declare October 11 as the
International Day of the Girl Child,
to recognize girls’ rights and the
unique challenges girls face around
the world.
Girls face discrimination and violence
every day across the world. The
International Day of the Girl Child
focuses attention on the need to
address the challenges girls face and
to promote girls’ empowerment and
the fulfilment of their human rights.
On December 19, 2011, the United
Nations General Assembly adopted
Resolution 66/170 to declare 11
October as the International Day of
the Girl Child, to recognize girls’ rights
and the unique challenges girls face
around the world.
This year, as the international
community assesses progress under
the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs) since their implementation
in 2000 and sets goals to be achieved
by 2030, girls born at the turn of the
millennium have reached
adolescence, and the generation of
girls born this year will be adolescents
in 2030. As we reflect on the
achievements of the past 15 years
and plan sustainable development
goals for the next 15, it is an
opportune time to consider the
importance of social, economic, and
political investment in the power of
adolescent girls as fundamental to
breaking the intergenerational
transmission of poverty, violence,
Vol. XV No. 10 October 2018
exclusion and discrimination and to
achieving equitable and sustainable
development outcomes.
Adolescent girls have the right to a
safe, educated, and healthy life, not
only during these critical formative
years, but also as they mature into
women. If effectively supported
during the adolescent years, girls have
the potential to change the world –
both as the empowered girls of today
and as tomorrow’s workers,
mothers, entrepreneurs, mentors,
household heads, and political leaders.
An investment in realising the power
of adolescent girls upholds their rights
today and promises a more equitable
and prosperous future, one in which
half of humanity is an equal partner
in solving the problems of climate
change, political conflict, economic
growth, disease prevention, and
global sustainability.
"The newly adopted Sustainable
Development Goals rightly
include key targets for gender
equality and the empowerment of
all women and girls. They offer
an opportunity for a global
commitment to breaking
intergenerational transmission of
poverty, violence, exclusion and
discrimination – and realizing our
vision of a life of dignity for all."
Secretary-General Ban Ki-
moon
8
Over the last 15 years, the global
community has made significant
progress in improving the lives of girls
during early childhood. In 2015, girls
in the first decade of life are more
likely to enrol in primary school,
receive key vaccinations, and are less
likely to suffer from health and
nutrition problems than were previous
generations. However, there has been
insufficient investment in addressing
the challenges girls face when they
enter the second decade of their lives.
This includes obtaining quality
secondary and higher education,
avoiding child marriage, receiving
information and services related to
puberty and reproductive health, and
protecting themselves against
unwanted pregnancy, sexually
transmitted disease and gender-based
violence.
As the global community launches the
Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) for implementation over the
next 15 years, it is a good time to
recognise the achievements made in
supporting young girls, while at the
same time aspiring to support the
current and upcoming generation of
adolescent girls, to truly fulfil their
potential as key actors in achieving a
sustainable and equitable world. In
recognition of the importance of
investing in adolescent girls’
empowerment and rights, both today
and in the future, the theme of
International Day of the Girl Child for
2015 is: The Power of the Adolescent
Girl: Vision for 2030.
UN agencies, Member States, civil
society organizations, and private
sector stakeholders are called on to
commit to putting adolescent girls at
the centre of sustainable development
efforts by making the following
critical investments in their present
and future:
* Invest in high quality education,
skills, training, access to
technology and other learning
initiatives that prepare girls for life,
jobs, and leadership.
* Invest in health and nutrition
suitable to the adolescent years,
including puberty education,
menstrual hygiene management,
and sexual and reproductive health
education and services.
* Promote zero tolerance against
physical, mental, and sexual
violence.
* Enact and consistently implement
social, economic, and policy
mechanisms to combat early
marriage and female genital
mutilation.
* Invest in the creation and
maintenance of social and public
spaces for civic and political
engagement, creativity and talent
enhancement.
* Promote gender-responsive
legislation and policies across all
areas especially for adolescent girls
who are disabled, vulnerable and
marginalized, and victims of
trafficking and sexual exploitation.
The commitment by the global
community to realising the potential
of adolescent girls will directly
translate into the girls as powerful and
positive change agents for their own
empowerment, for advancing gender
equality and for the sustainable
advancement of their nations.
Vol. XV No. 10 October 2018
Secretary-General's Message for 2015
The newly adopted Sustainable Development Goals rightly include key
targets for gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls.
They offer an opportunity for a global commitment to breaking
intergenerational transmission of poverty, violence, exclusion and
discrimination – and realizing our vision of a life of dignity for all.
Our task now is to get to work on meeting the SDG targets and making
good on our promises to give girls all the opportunities they deserve as
they mature to adulthood by 2030. That means enabling them to avoid
child marriage and unwanted pregnancy, protect against HIV transmission,
stay safe from female genital mutilation, and acquire the education and
skills they need to realize their potential. It also requires ensuring their
sexual health and reproductive rights. Girls everywhere should be able to
lead lives free from fear and violence. If we achieve this progress for
girls, we will see advances across society.
Just after the adoption last month of the global goals for sustainable
development, world leaders heard a ringing call from Nobel Peace
Laureate Malala Yousafzai, who was flanked in the General Assembly
Hall by young people from around the world. “Promise us that you will
keep your commitments and invest in our future,” she urged.
Three years ago, on the International Day of the Girl Child, I condemned
the attack against Malala and called for more opportunities for girls
everywhere. Today, I applaud her courage and that of her peers, who
only want the chance to contribute to our world.
Let us resolve to invest in today’s adolescent girls so that tomorrow they
can stand strong as citizens, political leaders, entrepreneurs, heads of
their households and more. This will secure their rights and our common
future.
Ban Ki-moon
9
 International Day of Non-Violence:
Partnerships for Peace – Dignity for All

T
he International Day of Non-
Violence is marked on 2
October, the birthday of
Mahatma Gandhi, leader of the Indian
independence movement and pioneer
of the philosophy and strategy of
non-violence.
According to General Assembly
resolution A/RES/61/271 of 15 June
2007, which established the
commemoration, the International Day
is an occasion to "disseminate the
message of non-violence, including
through education and public
awareness". The resolution reaffirms
"the universal relevance of the
principle of non-violence" and the
desire "to secure a culture of peace,
tolerance, understanding and non-
violence".
Introducing the resolution in the
General Assembly on behalf of 140
co-sponsors, India’s Minister of
State for External Affairs, Mr. Anand
Sharma, said that the wide and
diverse sponsorship of the resolution
was a reflection of the universal
respect for Mahatma Gandhi and of
the enduring relevance of his
philosophy. Quoting the late leader’s
own words, he said: "Non-violence
is the greatest force at the disposal
of mankind. It is mightier than the
mightiest weapon of destruction
devised by the ingenuity of man".
Gandhi, who helped lead India to
independence, has been the inspiration
for non-violent movements for civil
rights and social change across the
world. Throughout his life, Gandhi
remained committed to his belief in
non-violence even under oppressive
conditions and in the face of seemingly
insurmountable challenges.
The theory behind his actions, which
included encouraging massive civil
disobedience to British law as with
the historic Salt March of 1930, was
that "just means lead to just ends";
that is, it is irrational to try to use
violence to achieve a peaceful society.
He believed that Indians must not use
violence or hatred in their fight for
freedom from colonialism.
The principle of non-violence — also
known as non-violent resistance —
rejects the use of physical violence
in order to achieve social or political
change. Often described as "the
politics of ordinary people", this form
of social struggle has been adopted
by mass populations all over the
world in campaigns for social justice.
Professor Gene Sharp, a leading
scholar on non-violent resistance,
says in his publication, The Politics
of Nonviolent Action: "Nonviolent
action is a technique by which people

"There are many causes that I

am prepared to die for but no
causes that I am prepared to
kill for."

Mahatma Gandhi
The Story of My
Experiments with Truth, 1927

Vol. XV No. 10 October 2018 10

who reject passivity and submission,
and who see struggle as essential, can
wage their conflict without violence.
Nonviolent action is not an attempt
to avoid or ignore conflict. It is one
response to the problem of how to
act effectively in politics, especially
how to wield powers effectively."
While non-violence is frequently used
as a synonym for pacifism, since the
mid-twentieth century the term non-
violence has been adopted by many
movements for social change which
do not focus on opposition to war.
One key tenet of the theory of non-
violence is that the power of rulers
depends on the consent of the
population, and non-violence therefore
seeks to undermine such power
through withdrawal of the consent and
cooperation of the populace.
There are three main categories of
non-violence action:
* protest and persuasion, including
marches and vigils;
* non-cooperation; and
* non-violent intervention, such as
blockades and occupations.
Vol. XV No. 10 October 2018
Secretary-General's Message for 2015
This year, as we commemorate the 70th anniversary of the United Nations,
the International Day of Non-Violence has special importance.
At a time of escalating conflicts, violent extremism, displacement and
humanitarian need, the courage and determination of Mahatma Gandhi,
whose birthday we celebrate today, is an inspiration for us all.
Gandhi showed the power of peacefully opposing oppression and hatred.
He showed how cooperation and tolerance can prevails over injustice.
He demonstrated the great value of the rule of law in breaking vicious
cycles of vengeance.
The United Nations stands for the peaceful resolution of disputes and
for mutual respect across culture, faith and other lines that might divide.
The International Decade for the Rapprochement of Cultures, first
proposed by UNESCO for the period 2013 - 2022, has generated a wide
range of creative projects that demonstrate the power of diversity and
dialogue as forces for peace.
The newly 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development can also point the
way towards reducing violence. A more sustainable world will be a
safer world.
On this year’s International Day of Non-violence, let us recall the
achievements of Mahatma Gandhi -- and renew our commitment to non-
violence and lives of dignity for all.
Ban Ki-moon
11
 International Day of Older Persons:
Sustainability and Age Inclusiveness in the Urban Environment
O
n 14 December 1990, the
United Nations General
Assembly (by resolution 45/
106) designated 1 October the
International Day of Older Persons.
This was preceded by initiatives such
as the Vienna International Plan of
Action on Ageing - which was
adopted by the 1982 World Assembly
on Ageing - and endorsed later that
year by the UN General Assembly.
In 1991, the General Assembly (by
resolution 46/91) adopted the United
Nations Principles for Older Persons.
In 2002, the Second World Assembly
on Ageing adopted the Madrid
International Plan of Action on Ageing,
to respond to the opportunities and
challenges of population ageing in the
21st century and to promote the
development of a society for all ages.
The theme of the 2015
commemoration is “Sustainability and
Age Inclusiveness in the Urban
Environment”.
Living up to the Secretary-General's
guiding principle of "Leaving No-
One Behind" necessitates the
understanding that demography
matters for sustainable development
and that population dynamics will
shape the key developmental
challenges that the world in
confronting in the 21st century. If
our ambition is to "Build the Future
We Want", we must address the
population over 60 which is
expected to reach 1.4 billion by
2030.
Vol. XV No. 10 October 2018
Background
The composition of the world
population has changed dramatically
in recent decades. Between 1950 and
2010 life expectancy worldwide rose
from 46 to 68 years, and it is
projected to increase to 81 by the end
of the century. It should be noted
that at present women outnumber
men by an estimated 66 million
among those aged 60 years or over.
Among those aged 80 years or over,
women are nearly twice as numerous
as men, and among centenarians
women are between four and five
times as numerous as men. For the
first time in human history, in 2050,
there will be more persons over 60
than children in the world.
Almost 700 million people are now
over the age of 60. By 2050, 2 billion
people, over 20 per cent of the
world’s population, will be 60 or
"Making cities inclusive of
older persons means generating
opportunities for their
economic and social
participation in accessible and
safe environments. It also
means providing affordable
housing as well as the health
and social services needed to
support ageing in place."
Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon
12
older. The increase in the number of
older people will be the greatest and
the most rapid in the developing
world, with Asia as the region with
the largest number of older persons,
and Africa facing the largest
proportionate growth. With this in
mind, enhanced attention to the
particular needs and challenges faced
by many older people is clearly
required. Just as important, however,
is the essential contribution the
majority of older men and women can
continue to make to the functioning
of society if adequate guarantees are
in place. Human rights lie at the core
of all efforts in this regard.
The introduction of new policies
and programmes
During the last decade, population
ageing has led to the introduction of
new policies and programmes, in
which the social sector has taken
centre stage, as shown by the
majority of contributions to the
present report. Many Governments
in developed and developing
economies have designed or piloted
innovative policies in the health, social
security or welfare systems. In
addition, several policy framework
documents, including national plans
of action on ageing have been
enacted. Specific age-related
legislative measures in areas as varied
as building codes, licensing and
monitoring of care centres and
vocational training have also begun
to emerge. All levels of government,
from local to national, have taken a
share in this responsibility, and have
either created new institutions or
renewed existing ones to seek ways
of gradually responding to the
challenges faced by older persons.
Understanding the roles of older
persons in family and society
Government institutions have chosen
diverse approaches in setting
priorities. These choices highlight
different perceptions of the role that
older people play in the family and in
society at large. In some cases,
measures aim to capture the rapidly
evolving dynamics of communities
and societies, inviting a second look
at current perceptions about older
persons and work, elder-care
mechanisms, intergenerational
support systems and financial
constraints. Some Governments
have designed policies founded on the
principle of active ageing and
autonomy, aimed at facilitating the
continuation of independent lives at
home, with services and facilities that
cater for various types of needs.
Others emphasize family ties and
support for the family unit as the
primary source of care for older
persons. In all cases, a network of
private actors, including various
volunteer organizations and
community-based centres, are
essential to the smooth functioning
of the entire system.
Of special resonance is the situation
of older women who face inequalities
as a result of their gender-based roles
in society. Gender relations structure
the entire life cycle, influencing
access to resources and
opportunities, with an impact that is
both ongoing and cumulative. The
different circumstances that shape the
lives of women and men in old age
are the outcome of a lifetime of
experience. Good health, economic
security, adequate housing, an
enabling environment, access to land
or other productive resources, these
are the fundamentals of ageing with
Vol. XV No. 10 October 2018
Secretary-General's Message for 2015
On the 25th anniversary of the International Day of Older Persons, we
recognize that older persons are an enormous asset to society and make
a significant contribution to global development.
On September 25 at United Nations Headquarters in New York, Heads of
State and governments committed themselves to building a sustainable
world where no one, regardless of their age or gender, is left behind. In
implementing the newly adopted 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development, we must account for the demographic changes of the
next 15 years. These will have a direct bearing on the achievement of the
Sustainable Development Goals.
Rapid population ageing and urbanization will increasingly shape our
societies. The number of people aged 60 years and above living in cities
is projected to grow to more than 900 million by 2050. This will comprise
a quarter of the total urban population in developing countries.
The theme of this year’s International Day of Older Persons --
“Sustainability and age inclusiveness in the urban environment” --
highlights the need to make cities inclusive for people of all ages. The
United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban
Development (Habitat III) to be held in Quito in October 2016 offers an
opportunity to advance this effort.
Making cities inclusive of older persons means generating opportunities
for their economic and social participation in accessible and safe
environments. It also means providing affordable housing as well as the
health and social services needed to support ageing in place.
On this International Day of Older Persons, I call on Governments to
make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
so that no one - of any age - is left behind.
Ban Ki-moon
dignity, yet achieving them depends pensions and other social security
on decisions and choices only partly benefits, which leave them, and those
determined by each individual. The in their care, extremely vulnerable.
impact of gender inequalities in Without doubt, ageing, its human
education and employment becomes rights challenges and its feminization
most pronounced in old age. As a constitute an unprecedented shift in
result, older women are more likely the social fabric of all societies, with
than older men to be poor. far-reaching consequences.
Furthermore, older women often take Addressing the situation
on greater responsibilities for family
care while managing inflexible The international community started
working conditions, mandatory to highlight the situation of older
retirement ages and inadequate persons in the Vienna International
13
Plan of Action on Ageing, adopted at
the World Assembly on Ageing in 1982.
The 1991 United Nations Principles for
Older Persons, the 1992 Global Targets
on Ageing for the Year 2001 and the
1992 Proclamation on Ageing further
advanced international understanding
of essential requirements for the well-
being of older persons.
The Political Declaration and the
Madrid International Plan of Action
on Ageing, 2002, adopted at the
Second World Assembly on Ageing,
and endorsed by the General
Assembly in its resolution 57/167,
reinvigorated the political consensus
on an agenda on ageing, emphasizing
development and international
cooperation and assistance in this
area. Since its adoption, the Madrid
International Plan has guided the
drafting of policies and programmes
at the national level, inspired the
development of national and regional
plans and provided an international
framework for dialogue.
The Madrid International Plan of
Action
In the Political Declaration adopted
in Madrid, Member States reaffirmed
Vol. XV No. 10 October 2018
their commitment to the promotion
and protection of human rights, and
called for the elimination of age
discrimination, neglect, abuse and
violence. More specifically, the
Madrid International Plan contained
guidance on the right to work, the
right to health, participation and
equality of opportunity throughout
life, stressing the importance of the
participation of older persons in
decision-making processes at all
levels.
The priorities set out in the Madrid
International Plan of Action include
a wide range of issues: equal
employment opportunities for all
older persons; programmes that
enable all workers to acquire social
protection and social security,
including, where applicable,
pensions, disability insurance and
health benefits; and sufficient
minimum income for all older
persons, with particular attention to
socially and economically
disadvantaged groups. The
importance of continuous
education, vocational guidance and
placement services are also
stressed, including for the purpose
14
of maintaining a maximum
functional capacity and enhancing
public recognition of the
productivity and the contributions
of older persons. Health is also a
key feature of the Madrid Plan of
Action. The provisions encompass
notions of prevention, equal access
to health care, active participation,
the impact of HIV/AIDS in respect
to older persons and the full
functionality of supportive and
care-giving environments.
Basic Human Rights
There are numerous obligations vis-
à-vis older persons implicit in most
core human rights treaties despite
the lack of specific provisions
focusing on them. Such instruments
apply to older persons in the same
way as to all other people, providing
protection for essential human
rights, including the right to the
enjoyment of the highest attainable
standard of physical and mental
health, freedom from torture,
inhuman or degrading treatment and
equality before the law as well as
for an adequate standard of living
without discrimination on any
grounds.
 National Human Rights Update
Top Court approves Biometric ID
Program
India’s Supreme Court upheld the
constitutionality of the biometric
identification project, Aadhaar, on
September 26, 2018, Human Rights
Watch said today.
In its ruling, the court said that the
government could make Aadhaar a
requirement to access government
benefits and for filing income tax, but
restricted it for other purposes. The
government should create adequate
safeguards to ensure that an Aadhaar
registration requirement does not
prevent poor and marginalized people
from getting essential services that
are constitutionally guaranteed,
including food and health care.
“Aadhaar has led to further
marginalization of the poorest and
most vulnerable people by denying
them access to critically needed
subsidies and benefits,” said
Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia
director at Human Rights Watch.
“The government should ensure there
that is greater accountability and
transparency by Aadhaar and not
impose unnecessary identification
requirements that violate privacy
rights.”
While the ruling disappointed privacy
advocates in upholding the
mandatory and sweeping program of
government biodata collection, the
court did impose important limitations
on the widely spreading use of
Aadhaar identification. The four-to-
one majority judgment barred private
companies from demanding Aadhaar
Vol. XV No. 10 October 2018
and also said that schools, banks, and
telecom companies cannot make
Aadhaar compulsory for their
services.
The dissenting judge said that the
entire Aadhar program since 2009
had raised constitutional concerns and
violated fundamental rights and called
the law in its entirety unconstitutional.
India’s central government
welcomed the ruling and the
Information and Technology Minister
called it “historic.”
The Aadhaar project is run by the
Unique Identification Authority of
India (UIDAI), a statutory body of
the Indian government set up in 2009.
It collects personal and biometric data
such as fingerprints, facial
photographs, and iris scans, and
issues 12-digit individualized identity
numbers. Aadhaar was initially meant
to be voluntary, aimed at eliminating
fraud in government welfare
programs and giving people a form
of identification.
However, the Aadhaar Act of 2016
and subsequent notifications and
licensing agreements dramatically
increased the scope of the project,
making Aadhaar enrollment
mandatory for people to access a
range of essential services and
benefits including government
subsidies, pensions, and scholarships.
It was also linked to services such
as banking, insurance, telephone, and
the internet.
15
Access to Essential Services
Numerous reports by media,
researchers, and rights groups found
that shops providing subsidized food
grains as part of the government’s
public distribution system to people
living in poverty denied supplies to
eligible families who did not have an
Aadhaar number or had not linked it
to their ration cards, or because the
authentication of their biometric data
such as fingerprints failed. Local
human rights groups and media have
reported some cases in which people
starved to death as a result. Poor
internet connectivity, machine
malfunction, and worn out
fingerprints such as those of older
people or manual laborers have
further exacerbated the problem of
biometric authentication.
Rajasthan state activists reported that
between September 2016 and June
2017, after the Aadhaar authentication
was made mandatory, at least 2.5
million families were unable to get
food rations. In October 2017, the
central government instructed states
not to deny subsidized food grains to
eligible families merely because they
did not have an Aadhaar number, or
had not linked their ration cards to it.
However, reports of denied benefits
continued.
The court said that the authorities
should investigate cases in which
authentication failed and adopt
alternate methods for identification.
Indian authorities should ensure that
problems with biometric
authentication or bureaucratic delays
do not prevent people from accessing
their entitlements or fundamental
rights, Human Rights Watch said.
In his dissenting ruling, Justice D. Y.
Chandrachud said: “Constitutional
guarantees cannot be subject to the
vicissitudes of technology. Denial of
benefits arising out of any social
security scheme which promotes
socioeconomic rights of citizens is
violative of human dignity and
impermissible under our constitutional
scheme.”
Right to Privacy
The government says it has issued
1.1 billion Aadhaar numbers to
residents of India, not limited to
citizens, making it one of the world’s
biggest biometric databases. The
government’s push for mandatory
enrollment and its efforts to link the
Aadhaar number to a wide range of
services raised grave concerns that
it could disproportionately interfere
with the right to privacy for millions
of people. It also prompted fears of
increased state surveillance, with the
convergence of various databases
making it easier for the government
to track information about individuals,
and to target dissent.
Several reports have shown that the
Aadhaar system is also vulnerable to
data breaches and leaks. In 2017 and
2018, government websites
published millions of Aadhaar
numbers, along with people’s
personal information, including bank
account information,.. In January,
the Tribune newspaper reported that
unrestricted access to the personal
details of people enrolled in Aadhaar
could be purchased for less than
US$10 from racketeers. In February
2017, the UIDAI filed a criminal
complaint against three companies
alleging illegal transactions using
stored biometric data.
Vol. XV No. 10 October 2018
In August 2017, the Supreme Court of government overreach in holding
stated that the right to privacy was people hostage to a 12-digit number
part of the constitutional right to life in a program riddled with flaws,
and personal liberty, overturning leaving them at risk of intrusive
government arguments that privacy scrutiny, identity theft or to denial of
was not a fundamental right. their basic rights.”
The ruling on September 26 held that
Aadhaar did not unduly infringe on
Contribute Articles and
privacy or necessarily create a Support Our Cause in
surveillance state. In response to Creating a Just and
privacy and surveillance concerns Equitable Societyhuman
raised by the petitioners on the issue
rights updates.
of metadata collection that it enabled
real-time tracking, the court directed
that authentication records or
transaction logs should not be kept Please subscribe to
longer than six months. Human Touch
The Indian parliament should enact a
and support us for
robust privacy framework and data creation of a just and
protection law in line with equitable society and
international standards, Human Rights
Watch said. The government should
Contribute Articles and
provide sufficient safeguards relating Support Our Cause in
to storing and protecting centrally Creating a Just and
stored data under Aadhaar.
Equitable Society
The Aadhaar Act also prevented
anyone other than the UIDAI from
approaching the courts in case of a
breach or violation of the law.
However, the court ruling now allows
an individual whose right has been
violated to file a complaint.
While the court retained the provision
allowing for disclosure of information
under Aadhaar in the interest of
national security, to prevent misuse,
it added a requirement for judicial Visit our website at :
oversight in such cases.
www.humanrightsnews.net
“The court’s decision to restrict
private actors from accessing and
information under Aadhar and limiting
its expansion is helpful at a time when www.manavadhikar.net
there are serious fears of data breach,
profiling and surveillance,” Ganguly for online
said. “But there are serious concerns human rights updates.
16
News From the National Human Rights Commission
NHRC decides to send its own
team headed by DIG
(Investigation) to conduct an on
the spot enquiry into death of
two school students and severe
injury to many others in police
action in Uttar Dinajpur in West
Bengal
The National Human Rights
Commission, NHRC has decided to
send its own team headed by DIG
(Investigation) to conduct an on the
spot enquiry into the allegations of
the death of two school students and
grievous injury to several others in
lathi charge, rubber bullets, tear gas
shells and gun shots fired by the
police personnel in Uttar Dinajpur
district of West Bengal on the 20th
September, 2018. The Commission
has received three complaints in the
matter. It has directed that the enquiry
be completed at the earliest to submit
a report within two weeks.
The Commission has observed that
allegations, if true, would amount to
the police authorities having acted in
a sheer barbaric manner giving no
respect to the human values. This
kind of treatment with young
students would amount to the ugliest
example of cruelty by the police
personnel who are expected to
protect the citizens but have acted in
a highly irresponsible and inhuman
manner.
Allegedly, the incident was triggered
with the force appointment of an
Urdu teacher by the administration at
Dharivita High School in the village
while the students were demanding
appointment of teachers for core
Vol. XV No. 10 October 2018
subjects including Bengali, History,
Mathematics and English. As
mentioned in the communication, the
said teacher joined the duty with the
help of police force and a large
number of his supporters. The
students raised their protest and
mentioned that their demands have
already been accepted by the School
Management Committee during a
meeting held in the presence of Head
Master, Assistant Head Master,
District Inspector, Secondary
Education School and Block
Development Officer along with
students and their guardians, on
18.09.2018 even then, the Urdu
teacher is being appointed, forcefully.
To disburse the students, the police
allegedly used excessive force against
them which resulted in death of two
students and injuries to many.
It is further mentioned that many of
the girl students who were present
there, were manhandled and molested
by the male police personnel. Not only
this, even the locals of the other areas,
supportive of the administration,
allegedly joined in including unruly
crowd from Golapara, against the
students. It is mentioned that it
became a riot like situation and even
body of the deceased student was
inhumanly thrashed by the mob. The
parents have reportedly not yet
cremated the bodies of the deceased
students rather they have temporarily
buried them in the hope of a second
postmortem and an enquiry by the
Central Bureau of Investigation.
17
NHRC's International Human
Rights Conclave inaugurated
To mark the Silver Jubilee Year
Celebration, the National Human
Rights Commission of India
celebrated its third event in the form
of International Human Rights
Conclave at the Ashok Hotel, New
Delhi on October 1st, 2018.
The inauguration opened with a
rendition of the Vaishnav Jan - a song
that best reflects the work and vision
of Mahatma Gandhi. This was
followed by the lighting of the lamp
by the Chief Guest, Hon'ble Vice
President of India, Shri M. Venkaiah
Naidu along with the NHRC
Chairperson Justice Shri H.L . Dattu,
Hon'ble Member Justice P.C Ghose
and Smt. Jyotika Kalra, Secretary
General Shri Ambuj Sharma and other
esteemed guests of honour.
The International Conclave is aimed
at providing the platform to the
national human rights institutions of
various countries, global networks of
NHRIs, government and non-
governmental organisations and other
stakeholders to share their views and
to deliberate on the road ahead on
important human rights concerns.
Shri Ambuj Sharma, Secretary
General, NHRC, highlighted the work
done by the NHRC in the past 25
years by bringing together all
stakeholders and NHRIs together to
ensure and safeguard the broad based
mandate of the NHRC which was
established under the Protection of
Human Rights Act 1993. He further
listed the significant initiatives
undertaken by the NHRC such as -
online Human Rights Pledge, online
complaints registration system, toll
free national helpline, bilingual content
rich website to make it accessible,
open house discussion on issues on
sexual violence against women and
children, prison reforms etc. He
assured that the conclave will prove
to be an important step in securing
HRs for all.
Shri Rajiv Gauba, Union Home
Secretary, GOI, in his address stated
that NHRC is a central figure in the
institutional architecture of the
country. India has always worked
towards protection of socio
economic rights of the backward
persons of the society through a
robust legal regulatory framework
establishing rule of law and protecting
civil political and fundamental rights
of the people. The NHRC along with
National Commissions for women,
scheduled castes, scheduled tribes,
and minorities, is helping the
government to meet Sustainable
Development Goals by 2030.
Justice Shri H.L. Dattu, Chairperson,
NHRC welcomed everyone to the
international human rights conclave,
marking the 25 years of the
pioneering work of NHRC in
protection of human rights in India.
The chairperson took the occasion
to identify the various achievements
in the past years and reflected on the
important milestones highlighting the
significant contributions of the NHRC
in the field of mainstreaming human
rights culture in the country. He also
deliberated upon creating widespread
awareness, sensitisation of the public
and strengthening constitutional and
legal provisions which thereby
provide extensive system of checks
and balances. By monitoring human
rights situations through camp
sittings , open hearings, setting up of
Vol. XV No. 10 October 2018
a bonded labour cell, appointment of
special rapporteurs, constituting core
and expert groups, NHRC is acting
as a focal point for human right
defenders.
The chairperson identified poverty,
gender inequalities, bonded labour,
trafficking, displacement of refugees
as some of the challenges to human
rights protection. NHRC is a member
of the Bureau of the Global Alliance
of NHRIs(GANHRI) and has been
accredited with 'A' status by
GANHRI throughout its existence.
Human development means widening
and deepening the scope of freedoms
available to all people without any
exception.
A true commitment to human rights
will require concerted efforts to
nourish the rich diversity of all people
and develop mutually enabling
relationships through progressive
economic and social policies.
Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu, Honorable
Vice President of India expressed that
the protection of inalienable rights is
the primary duty of the state. Human
rights are looked upon as
indispensible to meet the sustainable
development goals by 2030. He
mentioned that human rights include
right to healthcare, food, education,
business, issues of the youth and
elderly etc. India has been a strong
voice about HR globally. India follows
a 'Share and Care' philosophy and is
a signatory to many human rights
conventions. He identified the
growing role of the NHRC as the
watchdog towards protection and
redressal of violation of human
rights. He delineated several threats
towards ensuring redressal of human
rights. Corruption, poverty,
terrorism, climate change are some
of the critical challenges facing the
country and the world.
18
India is a huge and diverse country
and consequently, the numbers of
complaints are many and the earnest
efforts are being made by the NHRC
in redressal of the same. He stressed
on the fact that the legislations alone
cannot ensure guarantee of human
rights to each and every individual.
The need of the hour is to take the
changing demographic realities into
consideration while concentrating on
effective implementation. The United
Nations and member countries must
come together to address the growing
number of economic criminals and
terrorists seeking refuge in other
counties. The exchange of fugitives
and information between these
stakeholders is an important tool to
address this. The world must speak
in one voice.
He appreciated the reservation of
women provided in the local bodies
and Panchayati Raj Institutions in
India which has resulted into positive
change in the working of these
institutions as well as it has
empowered the women also.
The Conclave, besides the inaugural
session will be divided into three
thematic session namely (i) Emerging
dimensions of human rights with
focus on trafficking/ migrants/forced
labour and rights of marginalized
sections of society: sharing of best
practices (ii) Protect, Respect and
Remedy Framework of Business and
Human Rights (iii) Empowerment of
women and Protection of children
with focus on sustainable
development goals: challenges and
road ahead.
The event is expected to contribute
to the continuing dialogue and sharing
the best practices on above themes
on the rights of all the diverse
sections of the society. The session
would further help to create effective
framework to enable the process of
developing policies, programmes and
practices which will ensure equal
rights and opportunities for
development, protection,
participation and empowerment of
all.
The conclave has seen excellent
response by way of participation of
delegates from UK, Afghanistan,
Bangladesh, Croatia, Mauritius, Nepal
etc. besides SHRCs, NGOs, Civil
Society, diplomats etc.
NHRC, India's day long
International Human Rights
Conclave begins in New Delhi on
1st October, 2018
The National Human Rights
Commission is celebrating its Silver
Jubilee this year and has planned a
host of events to celebrate this
important milestone. As part of the
Silver Jubilee celebrations, the
Commission is organizing a one day
'International Human Rights
Conclave' at Ashok Hotel, New Delhi
on 1st October, 2018.
The International Conclave is aimed
at providing a platform to the National
Human Rights Institutions of various
countries, global network of NHRIs,
government and non-government
organizations and other stakeholders
to share their views, experiences,
challenges, best practices and to
deliberate on the road ahead on
important human rights concerns.
Hon'ble Vice President, Shri Venkaiah
Naidu will be the Chief Guest of the
International Human Rights Conclave,
which will be attended by the
representatives of Global Alliance of
NHRIs (GANHRI), the four regional
networks of GANHRI, the
Commonwealth Forum of National
Human Rights Institutions
(CFNHRI), and several NHRIs. Other
Vol. XV No. 10 October 2018
invitees to the Conclave include the
Secretaries of concerned Ministries
of Government of India, State Human
Rights Commissions, National
Commission for Women, Scheduled
Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Minorities,
and Child Rights, Diplomatic Corps,
civil society organizations, and other
delegates.
The Conclave, besides the inaugural
session, will be divided into three
thematic sessions namely, (i)
Emerging Dimensions of Human
Rights with focus on Trafficking/
Migrants/Forced Labour and Rights
of Marginalized Sections of Society:
Sharing of Best Practices, (ii)
Protect, Respect and Remedy
Framework of Business and Human
Rights. (iii) Empowerment of Women
and Protection of Children with focus
on Sustainable Development Goals
(SDG): Challenges and Road Ahead.
The event is expected to contribute
to the continuing dialogue on the
sharing the best practices on above
themes on the rights of all the diverse
sections of the society. NHRIs and
other stakeholders will exchange their
views and good practices on the
United Nations Guiding Principles on
Business and Human Rights which
will also help in building the synergies
among all stakeholders in these focus
areas. The session would further help
create effective framework to enable
the process of developing policies,
programmes and practices which will
ensure equal rights and opportunities
for all for their overall survival,
development, protection,
participation and empowerment.
Mr. Justice D. Murugesan
completes his tenure as a
Member of NHRC, India
Mr. Justice D. Murugesan, today on
the 20th September, 2018, completed
his tenure of five years as a Member
19
of the National Human Rights
Commission, NHRC, India. He had
joined the Commission on the 21st
September, 2013. Prior to his
appointment as Member, NHRC, he
was the Chief Justice of Delhi High
Court from the 26th September, 2012
to the 9th June, 2013. He was born
in Cumbum Pudupatti, Theni District,
Tamil Nadu on the 10th June, 1951.
As a Member, NHRC, Justice
Murugesan, in addition to disposing
of cases of human rights violations,
chaired several workshops on the
elimination of bonded labour besides
being part of the Commission's
Seminars, Conferences and Open
Hearings and Camp Sittings for
hearing of cases of atrocities against
the SC and ST communities, which
were organized in various parts of the
country.
He also attended important
International Conferences/Seminars
including, among others, the 28th
Annual General Meeting of
International Coordinating Committee
of National Institutions for the
Promotion and Protection of Human
Rights (ICC) and Commonwealth
Forum National Human Rights
Institutions (CFNHRI) held in
Geneva, Switzerland from 11th
March to 13th March, 2015,
Consultation Meeting on the Strategic
Plan (2016-2020) held in Dhaka on
16th August, 2015.
NHRC to launch in its silver
jubilee year a human rights
Street theatre festival on 13th of
next month amidst a cultural
extravaganza including human
rights mela; plays of seven
groups selected to perform and
compete for mega awards
The National Human Rights
Commission, NHRC India, based on
the recommendations of a
Committee, has selected seven street
plays out of total 19, received as
entries for participation in its first
'Street theatre festival and
competition' to be held on the 13th
October, 2018 at amphitheatre of
Central Park, Rajiv Chowk
(Connaught Place), New Delhi as part
of the NHRC's silver jubilee human
rights Mela, a cultural extravaganza.
Each street play will be of 10-15
minutes duration.
Out of these seven plays, the three
best will be given the first, second
and third prizes of Rs. 1,00,000/,
60,000/- and 40,000/- and
certificates. Besides this, all the
groups performing the seven plays
will be paid Rs. 25000/- each along
with the certificate of participation.
The cultural extravaganza, open for
public, will be inaugurated by NHRC
Chairperson, Mr. Justice H.L. Dattu
at 4.00 pm. It is going to be an
evening of fun, entertainment,
education and information with a
focus on motivating people to stand
up for the promotion and protection
of human rights. Stalls will be set up
around the amphitheatre by leading
NGOs, like Help Age India, Bachpan
Bachoo Andolan, Delhi police,
Paramilitary forces, Tihar Central jail
besides the NHRC showcasing their
work. Some books, literature and
articles will also be available for sale
at the stalls. The street theatre festival
will be opened by the NHRC
Chairperson at 6.00 pm.
The selected plays for performance
to decide the three awards are as
follows:
1.'My Human Rights' sent by Shri
Sanjeev Kumar representing
'Common People Foundation Trust'.
Theme: Need to stand up for the
protection of constitutional rights
Vol. XV No. 10 October 2018
2. 'Jan Gan Man' sent by Shri Vanshaj
Rai representing 'Rangayan', The
Dramatics Society of ARSD
College, Delhi. Theme: Need to
protect Right to equality ending
corruption/discrimination
3. 'Apna Adhikaar Pehchano' sent by
Shri Umesh Dixit representing
'Rudraksh Kala Mandal', Delhi.
Theme: Domestic violence and
how to deal with it taking legal
recourse and approaching rights
bodies
4. 'Maila Kuchaila' sent by Ms. Yakshi
Soni representing 'Anubhuti'- The
Street Play Society of JDM
College, Delhi. Theme: Ills of
manual scavenging and the need to
end discrimination on the basis of
caste and vocation
5. 'Jee Bhi Lay' sent by Ms. Meghali
representing 'Navrang'- The
Dramatics Society of Lakshmibai
College. Theme: Need to protect the
rights of the children of prostitutes
and challenges thereof
6. 'Tript' sent by Ms. Nishtha Singh
Thakural representing 'Delhi
Technological University' (DTU).
Theme: Need to empathize with the
victims of drug abuse
7. 'Bhookh' sent by Shri Yogesh
Kumar representing 'Jazba Theatre
Group'. Theme: Right to food and
how it can be better ensured by
avoiding wastage of food grains
and food.
NHRC notices to the
Government of Haryana and
Chairman, Railway Board, New
Delhi over reported hacking of a
gateman's hands by some
miscreants at a railway crossing
near Sonepat
The National Human Rights
Commission, NHRC, India has taken
suo motu cognizance of media reports
that in a rare case of violence against
an on-duty railway man, three
persons on a bike attacked a level
20
crossing gateman with sharp objects,
hacked his left arm and left him and
his friend in a pool of blood on the
17th September, 2018 near Sonepat,
Haryana.
The Commission, on the basis of the
media reports, has observed that
whatever be the reason behind this
gruesome act, it clearly indicates that
there were no security arrangements
for the safety of on duty staff leading
to violation of his human rights.
Accordingly, it has issued notices to
the Chief Secretary & Director General
of Police, Haryana calling for a detailed
report along with details of steps taken
in the matter. A notice has also been
issued to the Chairman, Railway Board,
New Delhi seeking a report within four
weeks about the steps to be taken, if
not taken already, to prevent such
ghastly act against gatemen of
Railway crossing across the country.
According to the media reports,
carried on the 18th September, 2018,
two bike-borne assailants severed the
hands of gateman after he refused to
open a level crossing gate in north
Delhi's Narela because a train was
approaching. He is undergoing major
surgery to restore the limbs after the
assault Sunday night. He also received
serious injuries to his legs and neck.
Reportedly, the victim was manning
gate number 19 between Narela and
Rathdhana on Sunday night when
three men on a bike demanded that
the level crossing gate be opened. He
refused as the 18101 Muri Express
was approaching. He was said he
rushed to the Northern Railway
Central Hospital from where he was
later shifted to a hospital in Rohini.
An FIR has been lodged against
unknown persons with the
Government Railway Police,
Northern Railway, Sonepat.
 International Human Rights Update
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government
has passed a bill that prohibits
discrimination on the basis of sexual
orientation and gender identity,
Human Rights Watch said. The act,
enacted on October 5, 2018, also
commits the city government to
conducting public education about
lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender
(LGBT) rights.
Tokyo authorities were inspired to
draft the bill in advance of the city
hosting the 2020 Summer Olympics,
Human Rights Watch said.
“The Tokyo metropolitan government
has enshrined in law its commitment
to hosting an inclusive and rights-
respecting Olympic games,” said
Kanae Doi, Japan director at Human
Rights Watch. “The authorities now
need to put the policy into action and
end anti-LGBT discrimination in
schools, workplaces, and the wider
society.”
Human Rights Watch participated in
the government’s open consultation
for the act to fulfill the Olympic
Charter’s human rights values. The
law states: “This act upholds the goal
of the Tokyo Metropolitan
Government to make Tokyo a city
that upholds the human rights values
of banning any sort of discrimination
as stated in the Olympic Charter.”
The Olympics have driven some
changes in how governments hosting
the games act on LGBT rights issues.
This has in part been a rebuke to
Russia for the 2014 Sochi Winter
Olympics. The Russian government’s
Vol. XV No. 10 October 2018
passage of the discriminatory “gay
propaganda” law marred the games,
along with other human rights
violations such as forced evictions,
abuses against migrant workers, and
media censorship. In December
2014, as part of its “Olympic Agenda
2020,” the International Olympic
Committee (IOC) confirmed that all
future host city contracts would
include a requirement to specifically
ban discrimination on the basis of
sexual orientation.
The new Tokyo law states “the
Tokyo Metropolitan Government,
citizens, and enterprises may not
unduly discriminate on the basis of
gender identity or sexual orientation”
and pledges that the government will
“conduct measures needed to make
sure human rights values are rooted
in all corners of the city and diversity
is respected in the city.”
Japan’s national government has, in
recent years, taken positive steps
toward recognizing and protecting
LGBT people, Human Rights Watch
said. The Education Ministry issued
a “Guidebook for Teachers” in 2016
that outlines how to treat LGBT
students in schools. That same year,
Japan, along with the United States
and the Netherlands, led a UNESCO
conference on LGBT student
bullying. In March 2017, the ministry
announced it had revised the national
bullying prevention policy to include
21
LGBT students. Japan has also voted
for two United Nations Human Rights
Council resolutions to end violence
and discrimination on the basis of
sexual orientation and gender identity.
Despite these promising steps, Japan
still has no national legislation
protecting LGBT people from
discrimination and does not grant legal
recognition to same-sex couples,
though more and more local
authorities are doing so. It also labels
transgender people who request legal
recognition as having a “Gender
Identity Disorder” and leaves them
with no alternative but to undergo
unnecessary and invasive medical
procedures to secure official
documents that reflect their gender
identity.
Prominent Journalist Missing in
Turkey/Saudi Arabia
Turkish authorities should deepen
their investigation into the
whereabouts of a prominent Saudi
journalist who has not been seen or
heard from since he visited the Saudi
consulate in Istanbul on October 2,
2018, Human Rights Watch said
today.
Saudi authorities have denied that the
journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, is being
held inside the consulate, but Turkish
authorities say there is no evidence
he left the building. If Saudi Arabia
has detained Khashoggi without
acknowledging it, his detention would
constitute an enforced disappearance,
Human Rights Watch said.
“If Saudi authorities surreptitiously
detained Khashoggi it would be yet
another escalation of Crown Prince
Muhammad bin Salman’s reign of
repression against peaceful dissidents
and critics,” said Sarah Leah Whitson,
Middle East director at Human Rights
Watch. “The burden of proof is on
Saudi Arabia to produce evidence for
its claim that Khashoggi left the
consulate alone, and that Saudi agents
have not detained him.”
Khashoggi is a prominent Saudi
journalist with several Saudi Arabia-
based Arabic and English-language
newspapers and served two stints as
the editor-in-chief of the Saudi daily
al-Watan, which is owned by a
member of the royal family. In
September 2017, al-Hayat newspaper,
a London-based Arabic-language
newspaper owned by another member
of the Saudi royal family, stopped his
regular opinion columns, and he later
fled Saudi Arabia, fearing arrest.
Shortly after his departure, Saudi
authorities arrested dozens of
prominent dissidents, intellectuals,
academics, and clerics.
Since late 2017 Khashoggi has
regularly participated in public events
in Washington, DC, and written
columns for The Washington Post in
which he criticized Saudi Arabia’s
escalating repression of dissidents.
Khashoggi’s fiancé, a Turkish national,
told media outlets that Khashoggi
visited the Saudi consulate in Istanbul
on the afternoon of October 2 to
obtain documents necessary for their
marriage, and that he left her his
phones and instructions to alert the
authorities if he did not return after
two hours. That was the last time his
fiancé saw him.
Saudi Arabia denied on October 3
that it is detaining Khashoggi,
releasing a statement via the Saudi
Vol. XV No. 10 October 2018
governmental news agency claiming
the Saudi consulate was “following
up on the media reports of the
disappearance of Saudi citizen Jamal
Khashoggi after he left the building
of the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.”
Khashoggi’s fiancé, however, told
Reuters that she waited 12 hours for
him outside the consulate on October
2 and that he never emerged.
Responding to Saudi Arabia’s claim
that he left the embassy, she told
Reuters, “If this was true, where is
he? Where is he? If he went home,
no, I went to the house and didn’t
find him. Where is Jamal?”
Also on October 3, Turkey’s
presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin
said during a news conference, “the
information we have is that the Saudi
citizen in question is still in the Saudi
Arabian consulate in Istanbul.”
Turkish authorities summoned the
Saudi ambassador to Turkey on
October 4, asking for an explanation
about the disappearance.
Turkish authorities should take steps
to prevent Saudi agents from forcibly
returning Khashoggi to Saudi Arabia.
If forcibly returned there, Khashoggi
faces a real risk of an unfair trial and
long prison term.
Eli Lopez, the international opinions
editor of The Washington Post, to
which Khashoggi contributed a
regular column, said on October 3
that, “It would be unfair and
outrageous if [Khashoggi] has been
detained for his work as a journalist
and commentator.”
When Khashoggi lived in Saudi
Arabia, the government had taken
steps to keep his articles from being
published several times over the
years. In November 2016, when the
Saudi Press Agency stated that
22
Khashoggi did not represent the
government after he criticized Donald
Trump at a presentation in
Washington, DC, on November 10.
Saudi authorities have escalated
repression of dissidents and critics
since Mohammad bin Salman became
crown prince in June 2017.
In September 2017, Saudi Arabia
arrested dozens of dissidents, writers,
and clerics. Activists have circulated
lists of more than 60 people being held,
and Saudi authorities began bringing
them to trial in September 2018,
largely on charges related to their
peaceful opinions and expression as
well as political affiliations.
Authorities are seeking the death
penalty against several, including a
prominent cleric, Salman al-Awda,
who is facing 37 charges based on
his alleged ties to the Qatari
government and to the Muslim
Brotherhood, which Saudi Arabia
classifies as a terrorist organization.
On November 4, Saudi authorities
initiated a mass arrest of princes,
current and former government
officials, and prominent businessmen
over corruption allegations. Some of
them were held for months in a five-
star hotel in Riyadh and forced to turn
over assets to the government.
In May, Saudi Arabia began a
sweeping crackdown on women’s
rights activists, arresting at least 13
women under the pretext of
maintaining national security. Nine of
the women remain in detention.
Under international law, a state
violates the absolute prohibition
against enforced disappearance when
its agents take a person into custody
and then either denies it is detaining
the person or refuses to disclose the
person’s whereabouts.
“If it is the case that prominent Saudis
like Jamal Khashoggi are not only
chased out of the country but also at
risk abroad, Western allies should
condemn this thuggish, illegal behavior
and investors should take notice that
any semblance of respect for basic
rights and the rule of law in Saudi
Arabia is a fiction,” Whitson said.
Security Forces Try to Close
LGBT Conference in Lebanon
Lebanese General Security officers
unlawfully attempted to shut down a
conference on the rights of lesbian,
gay, bisexual, and transgender
(LGBT) people on September 29,
2018, Human Rights Watch said
today. Human Rights Watch staff
members were among the
participants at NEDWA, a conference
organized by the Arab Foundation for
Freedoms and Equality (AFE), a
group that works to advance LGBT
and other human rights,
General Security is an intelligence
branch of Lebanese security forces
and is the agency that oversees the
entry and exit of foreigners into the
country.
Late on the conference’s third day,
officers from General Security,
arrived at the hotel where the
conference was being held and
questioned AFE executive director
Georges Azzi, directing him to cancel
the conference and sign a pledge to
cease any activities related to the
conference. When Azzi refused, the
officers ordered the hotel to shut
down the conference.
General Security officers also took
details of all conference participants
from the hotel registry, including
those from highly repressive
countries such as Egypt, where, in
2017, police arrested over 100 people
for being gay or transgender, and Iraq,
Vol. XV No. 10 October 2018
where armed groups have murdered
LGBT people with impunity. AFE,
which is an officially registered
nongovernmental organization,
moved the conference to a different
hotel for its final day.
“General Security’s latest efforts to
shut down an LGBT conference in
Lebanon is an attack on freedom of
assembly rights and an attempt to
silence the voices of courageous
activists,” said Lama Fakih, deputy
Middle East and North Africa director
at Human Rights Watch. “Trying to
intimidate NEDWA organizers and
activists working in challenging
circumstances throughout the Middle
East and North Africa violates
Lebanon’s obligations under
international law.”
The four-day conference, which
included workshops on issues such
as human rights, advocacy,
movement-building, health, and the
arts, has taken place annually in Beirut
since 2013 and includes people of
diverse sexual orientations and
gender identities.
The General Security Forces’ reasons
for trying to shut down the conference
are unclear, but they followed public
statements from the Muslim Scholars
Association accusing NEDWA
organizers of promoting
homosexuality and drug abuse. The
Muslim Scholars Association called
for the organizers’ arrest and the
cancellation of the conference on the
grounds of “incitement to immorality.”
The General Security Forces have a
responsibility to protect everyone’s
rights, not to act on the basis of
spurious and unfounded allegations,
Human Rights Watch said.
Lebanese government interference has
previously put a stop to human rights
23
events around gender and sexuality in
the name of “preserving public
morality.” On May 14, the Internal
Security Forces, detained a prominent
LGBT rights activist and pressured
him to cancel some events associated
with Beirut Pride. In August 2017,
General Security Forces ordered a
hotel to cancel a human rights
workshop organized by AFE.
Government disruptions of peaceful
human rights activities violate the
rights to non-discrimination and
freedom of assembly, expression,
and association in a country that has
witnessed progress in the courts
toward respecting the rights of LGBT
people. In July, a district court of
appeal issued a groundbreaking ruling
that same-sex conduct is not
unlawful, dismissing charges under
article 534 of the Penal Code, which
criminalizes “any sexual intercourse
contrary to the order of nature” and
provides for sentence of up to one
year in prison. The appeals court
judge denounced the law’s
discriminatory intrusion in people’s
private lives and declared that
homosexuality is not “unnatural.”
The Lebanese government should
take immediate steps toward
repealing laws that criminalize
consensual adult sexual conduct,
Human Rights Watch said. While
these laws are being reviewed, the
minister of interior, public prosecutor
and the general director of General
Security Forces should ensure that
groups can organize around LGBT
rights without official interference
and intimidation.
Visit our website at :
www.masmindia.org
for online human rights updates.
 Inside Chhattisgarh:
A Paean to Chhattisgarh from an Exiled Lover
I
n November 2000, the state of
Chhattisgarh was carved out of
16 eastern districts of Madhya
Pradesh. At that time noted
sociologist Dr Ilina Sen and her
husband Dr Binayak Sen, who had
chosen to make it their home and
share the lives of its people, had no
inkling, perhaps, of how this political
act would one day so dramatically
impact their own lives.
Barely seven years later, Dr Binayak
Sen was arrested and charged with
sedition. The manner in which he
was branded as the “mastermind of
the Naxalites” and the case built
around him by the state and a
compliant local media had a marked
impact. For one, it generated a
vigorous campaign in defence of the
couple’s work while at another level,
it raised several important issues
regarding the state of Chhattisgarh
itself.
Several human rights activists and
thousands of ordinary citizens
protested in India and abroad and
questioned the laws on sedition,
governance and the role of the state
in silencing dissent.
The case is still being heard in the
Supreme Court and Dr Binayak Sen
and Ilina Sen are now forced to live
outside Chhattisgarh. Ironically their
fate is very similar to those of other
internally displaced Chhattisgarhis,
who were forced out of their villages
into camps or those who fled the
state because of repression by the
Salwa Judum, the state-created
“people’s revolt” against Maoists.
Vol. XV No. 10 October 2018
Dr Ilina Sen who claims passionately
that Chhattisgarh is “an ishq I have
not outgrown,” and who proudly
sports a tribal bracelet, has sought
catharsis in her book, Inside
Chhattisgarh A Political Memoir
(Penguin Books). It recreates the
“bittersweet cocktail” of living
through those times.
Released last month, the book does
not dwell much on the arrest and trial
of Binayak Sen. Instead, it is an
engrossing account of the couple’s
engagement with the land and its
people. The personal journey is
inextricably linked with a sociological
understanding and political journey of
Chhattisgarh itself: the working class
movements it had fostered and the
24
struggles of the Adivasi communities
who had their own unique blueprint
of what constitutes development.
The early years
At the book launch held in Mumbai’s
press club, Ilina Sen spoke of the
early years in Dalli-Rajhara, the small
bustling mining town, where the
legendary Shankar Guha Niyogi had
attempted to take a labour union far
beyond an economic struggle and into
the realms of real cultural and social
change. It was, she reminisced, a
brief shining moment of Camelot, a
glimpse of promise and idealism.
In the book, the author trains a keen
sociologist’s eye to analyse how
Niyogi had the ability to marry his
ideas with the imagination of the
workers to the extent that it was
impossible to point out where the
ownership of initiative lay.
“Between 1977 and 1988, the Dalli-
Rajhara workers started 11 schools,
built and put into place the Shaheed
hospital, created the cultural unit
known as Nawa Anjor and discovered
the history of Chhattisgarh’s iconic
leader in the person of Veer Narayan
Singh, besides honing their
experience of democracy through the
running of the Chhattisgarh Mines
Shramik Sangathan,” is how she
sums up their achievements.
Sen applies the same perspicacious
sociologist’s insight to make a critical
evaluation of where things went
wrong or to observe how power
struggles were played out, especially
related to gender. Indeed, much of

the book’s strength lies in the way
she brings in the woman’s
perspective, not just through her
insights and engagement with
women’s issues, but also through her
portraits of the women with whom
she forged such deep bonds.
There is also a passage in the book
that reveals the sensitivity needed to
understand the ways of the tribal
communities. The media reported on
a particular incident of suicide by a
young woman named Kesaribai after
she was auctioned to the highest
bidder by elders of the community.
As opposed to the judgmental stance
adopted by the media, Sen chose to
study the social norms that had
triggered this unfortunate tragedy.
She found that it gave a completely
different picture.
The harras marriage that Kesaribai
went through via an auction was the
community’s way of finding a partner
for pregnant, unmarried girls in cases
where the biological father of the
unborn child was unwilling to do so.
Kesaribai committed suicide probably
because she was in love with the man
who did not want to marry her
despite sexual relations, or because
Vol. XV No. 10 October 2018
she was out of tune with community
traditions, concludes Sen.
Such sensitive reading of tribal
communities helped the Sens to
combine progressive practices with
indigenous culture. Sadly, the
newfound state failed to understand and
meet the aspirations of the tribal peoples.
The changing face of the state
The last two chapters reflect on the
metamorphosis that began especially
after 2003 when the BJP won the
elections with a small majority. Sen
describes the saffronisation of urban
civil society and the manner in which
the cultural narrative of Chhattisgarh
was wrested away from tribal and
folk lore. There was a growing trend
of ‘Hindu-ization’ with sites of natural
beauty being linked to events in the
Ramayana.
The book speaks of the ghar wapasis
or conversions, (currently making
headlines) routinely organised on a
large scale by the late Dilip Singh
Judeo, former ruler and
parliamentarian from Jashpur and
how church properties in Surjuga and
Raigarh were systematically targeted
through legal cases.
25
Equally disturbing was the way the
state earmarked its natural assets as
more important than its people.
Forcible land acquisition for mining
and setting up of various plants were
accompanied by the state police
unleashing terror on the original
inhabitants. A PUCL team, that
included Dr Binayak Sen went to
investigate human rights abuses and
was physically attacked. This was the
beginning of the targeting of Dr
Binayak Sen and the employment of
“anti-development” rhetoric.
State violence reached a crescendo
in 2005 with the arrival of the Salwa
Judum (“sacred hunt” in Gondi).
Adivasi society was now split down
the middle with the state validating
the use of guns by Adivasi youth
against fellow adivasis, under the
guise of fighting Maoists.
The deep polarisation in the state is
further driven by the “development”
debate. Sen admits there are no easy
or quick answers, but wonders why
mainstream paths of development
find it necessary to demolish older
cultures.
At one point in her book, Ilina Sen
speaks of how Chhattisgarh’s women
have the talent to not only sing but
also write their own songs and how
they once asked her why she doesn’t
do so. Perhaps, this book is Ilina’s
song to Chhattisgarh: sung in a quiet,
measured, reflective, and sometimes
elegiac way…..a song that resonates
lyrically across its borders to reach
the rest of India and beyond.
Support us for the
creation of a just and
equitable society
 Infertility Clinics:
The Truth Behind the Screen
I
n several societies, infertile
couples face uphill social and
family pressure and are treated
as outcasts in many social events.
They carry this socio-psychological
burden on their head, which often
forces them to knock at the doors of
infertility clinics. This scenario is in
its worst form in India, where
marriage is considered by many as a
means of procreation for next
generation.
Spectacular changes have taken place
in the field of reproductive
technology due to advanced research
in medical science. Reproductive
sciences have come in with
techniques like donor insemination
and embryo transfer that have
completely revolutionized the
reproductive environment. These
techniques have infused hope into the
minds of many infertile couples, who
long to have a child of their own.
Assisted Reproductive Technique or
ART has become the most sought
after technique for the childless
couples. According to the World
Health Organization, 80 million
couples worldwide are infertile, of
whom 15 % belong to India. The
increasing demand for ART resulted
in mushrooming of ART clinics all
over India. On a conservative basis,
the market for infertility treatment
could be plugged at over Rs.25,000
crores.
The magnitude of infertility can be
judged from the case of Kerala. About
20 years ago the infertility rate in
couples, in the State was only 10 but
Vol. XV No. 10 October 2018
now it has doubled. With infertility in
Kerala population on the rise,
fertilization centres across the state
are drawing childless couples in big
numbers. Just this state has an annual
market worth Rs.120 crore.
According to rough estimates, over
2000-invitro fertilization and nearly
five-lakh intra uterine inseminations
are done in Kerala annually.
With the growth of ART centres in
the country, exploitation of vulnerable
couples has also increased by leaps
and bounds. With a success rate of
less than 30% for the ART
procedures, the whole exercise is
draining both money and emotions of
thousands of couples. There are
many incidences of eggs and
embryos stolen from women and
given to others or to researchers.
Fertility drugs are being sold illegally.
India has been known to play host to
visiting foreign In-Vitro fertilization
(IVF) experts to carry out those
procedures that have been banned in
the home country of the visiting
experts. Sale of eggs and embryos is
subtly advertised over the Internet by
some IVF clinics in India.
Genuine practitioners in the field of
infertility have been marginalised in
the race to notch up profit, often at
the expenses of vulnerable patients.
Widespread and no-expenses-spared
advertising and the projections of an
inflated success rate that is even more
than the internationally acceptable
26
standards, help net many customers
who come quietly.
Not only is the success rate of ART
exaggerated, even the cost of
treatment (which is only Rs.2,000 for
the first cycle of tests) is inflated. In
vitro fertilization (IVF) may be
required only in 10 to 15 per cent of
the cases and not in all cases and cost
up to Rs.65,000. Patients often have
to pay Rs.1 to 2 lakh and even when
IVF is not required; they might be
told that it is. Not only this, people
are also hired to pose for stage-
managed photographs proclaiming
the efficacy of the treatment.
Irrespective of the fact that whether
they are literate or illiterate, people are
not bothered about the science and
technology of treatment. Only thing
they know is that in order to hold
child in their arms, they are willing
to bear any amount of pain and spend
as much as is needed. Woman often
feels that husband will stray if she
does not produce a child. The reasons
vary from the fear of losing one’s
husband to facing the wrath and
disapproval of the mother-in-law.
It is stated in the national guidelines
to regulate ART clinics to deal with
surrogacy arrangements that an ART
centre has to possess a license, be
monitored and be constantly
upgraded. But the practice in this
regard is questionable. Infertility
treatment is a highly specialized field
and only being a gynaecologist is not
sufficient. The treatment has to be
individual-specific. It is said that even
though the success rate the world

over is 35 to 40 per cent, it is being
projected as 80 to 85 per cent in India
by those keen to cash in on the
emotive nature of the issue of
infertility.
Unlike the West, where it is a
commercial practice and legal codes
have been framed and implemented,
in India there is no law on ART. It is
only now that ICMR- the Indian
Council for Medical Research- (see
box for code) has framed national
guidelines. A draft of the Bill will be
given to the Ministry of Health,
Government of India. There is a felt
need for bringing out formal legislation
to regulate a process that has deep and
widespread social, legal, psychological
as well as cultural implications.
Reproductive infertility has always
put unwanted pressure on young cou-
ples, causing much anxiety in their
minds. With radical developments in
Vol. XV No. 10 October 2018
condemning such concepts have
taken affirmative steps to legislate in
this regard. In India also the National
Guidelines have been drawn to regu-
late ART clinics to deal with surro-
gacy arrangements.
It is unfortunate that some business-
men are playing with the emotion of
the hapless couples, who after god,
depend on the ART centers to bring
happiness in their lives. A smile of a
baby only can bring fresh shower in
the desert of their hearts. The mere
existence of legislation is not enough.
There should also be mechanism for
close monitoring of its implementa-
tion. Hastily drafted laws consisting
of ambiguous provisions create more
problems than solving any. Therefore
instead of letting ambiguity prevail, a
well-structured legislation is an im-
mediate necessity.
- HT Bureau
the field of medical technology, so-
lutions to the problem of infertility Support us for the
have changed. Concepts such as sur-
rogacy arrangements (hiring uterus) creation of a just and
have shaken the foundations of pre- equitable society
determined parental roles and respon-
sibilities. The optimistic streak is that
Code of conduct for ART
 The ART clinic is not a commercial party in donor programme or
surrogacy.
 No ART procedure can be done without the spouse’s consent.
 The sperm donor and surrogate should not be a relative or a friend of
the couple.
 Sex selection is not permitted. There should be pre-implantation
diagnosis testing of parents for genetic abnormalities.
 The consent of couples for the use of embryos is a must.
 Biological parents must adopt a child born through surrogacy.
 The sale or transfer of human embryos outside the country is prohibited.
 Donors should be screened for HIV and hepatitis B/C infections.
 ART clinic has to get approval from the appropriate accreditation
authority.
 The records have to be maintained and regularly checked to guard
against tampering.
certain developed nations instead of
27
 Godmen and Gurus:
G
uru Gobindh dou khade kaake
lagau paaye..balihari gur aap
hi jonhe gobindh dikhaye...
This is a famous doha phrased by
Sant Kabirdas. Guru or teacher in our
Indian context has always been given
the value of being equal to god since
medieval periods. But, are we really
transparent in the guru and shishya
relationship?
The time has come to remove the veil
from the fancied and glittering
godmen of India enjoying lavish
livestyles, living in mansions and
acquiring priceless gold, silver and
other liquid wealth. Godman is an
Indian term used in a derogatory
way for a charismatic type of guru.
Godmen are revered as special human
beings and often worshipped by their
devotees and followers. They have
a high-profile presence and are
capable of attracting attention and
support from large sections of the
society. These Godmen claim to
possess supernatural powers, such
as the ability to heal, the ability to see
or influence future events, and also
the ability to read your mind.
Some godmen come from established
schools of spirituality, but often they
do not belong to any religious order. In
recent years, many godmen have gained
followers outside of India too, which
has increased their fame .To name a
few, Satya Sai Baba (1926–2011) was
a notable godman with a very large
following. He was known for his
miracles like getting sacred ash (vibhuti)
from thin air and other objects like
watches and jewels. He was also
involved in charitable work, which
include a hospital and a university.
Vol. XV No. 10 October 2018
India’s Bane
These Godmen or Spiritual Gurus in
India are treated and respected as
demigods by the people. For the
innocent public, Godmen are men
sent by GOD to show them the right
path but today spiritual gurus,
Godmen and astrologers have
become professionals, because few
people have made it a profession to
play with innocent people and their
faith.
In 2012, a Hindi Bollywood movie
came with the title, ‘OMG-Oh My
God!’ directed by Umesh Shukla and
produced by Paresh Rawal. This
movie very clearly showed how these
Godmen, Astrologers and Spiritual
gurus are fooling the innocent public.
After the arrest of the Indian Spiritual
Guru, Asaram Bapu, a question mark
has been put on every Indian mind.
Do we really need to follow Spiritual
Gurus or Godmen and Astrologers
blindly? If we are moving ahead and
calling our nation as modern India,
then why don’t we also move
forward with a broader concept of
our Indian religion and traditions? To
name a few, let us point out few so
called god incarnations of today.
Asaram Bapu - A young lad who used
to sell tea in front of a magistrate
office became a spiritual guru and
leader with time. Today Asaram Bapu
has assets worth crores. He has
around 400 ashrams in India and
abroad. He has been in the news
every now and then for his blatant
remarks and allegations.
28
- Akansha Vinay Agarwal
In 2001, Asaram was permitted to
use 100 acres of land of Mangalya
Temple for a Satsang for 11 days,
but Asaram encroached the land
worth 700 crores, which was later
taken over.
In 2008, mutilated bodies of two boys
studying at Asaram’s Gurukul were
found on the riverbed. Allegations of
black magic by Asaram and his staff
at the ashram started doing the
rounds, the city people protested
against it and demanded for the CBI
probe. In 2013, a 16 year old girl’s
parents had filed a complaint against
Asaram with rape charges. Medical
examination confirmed the assault.
Nirmal Baba - In 1981, Nirmaljit
Singh Nirula began a brick kiln
business but suffered loss and started
a cloth shop. He was then involved in
the mining of kyanite. But after all his
businesses flopped one after another,
he claimed that he has attained nirvana
and became Nirmal Baba. Nirmal
Baba started a trust named Nirmal
Darbar but faced legal complications
for its fraudulent activities. It was used
for charging exorbitant sum of money
in the name of solving problems with
Nirmal Baba’s self proclaimed, divine
powers.
Ramdev Baba - He is not a spiritual
leader but a yoga guru. Ramdev Baba
teaches meditation and yoga. He has
formed a trust with the name
Patanjali Yogpeeth and sells
ayurvedic medicines with the name
of Divya Pharmacy under the trust,
Divya Yog Mandir trust. Ramdev
Baba has been accused of numerous
financial irregularities and tax evasion.

Swami Nithyananda - Swami
Paramhansa Nithyananda has a big
following in India and abroad. The
main ashram of Swami Nityananda
is in Bangalore-Mysore highway with
the name of Nithyananda
Dhyanapeedam. He landed in trouble
when a news channel telecasted a
compromising video footage of
Swami ji with a south Indian actress
Ranjitha.
Osho Rajneesh - This Godman has
many names, Chandra Mohan Jain,
Acharya Rajneesh, Bhagwaan Shree
Rajneesh and Osho. Osho is an Indian
mystic guru, spiritual teacher and
philosopher. He has many followers
in India, but has a much bigger
international following.
Osho has written many controversial
books, which lead him into
controversies.
Sathya Sai Baba - The biggest
controversy about this Godman
(spiritual leader) was his claim that
he is the reincarnation of Sai Baba
of Shirdi. His magic tricks of getting
vibhuti (holy ash), rings, necklaces
and watches from thin air made him
all the more controversial. Sathya Sai
Vol. XV No. 10 October 2018
has his ashrams in about 126
countries and many free hospitals and
clinics etc.
Raadhe Maa - She is the woman who
changed the way of the profession
of spirituality. When everyone was
wearing saint like clothes, Radhe Maa
always comes in glittery attires, all
decked up with heavy jewellery and
make up. She woos the crowd and
her magnificent stages lures
everyone.
Ichchadhari Sant - A security guard
at a five star hotel in 1988, this
Godman also worked at a massage
parlour in New Delhi. He was even
arrested in 1997 with the allegation
of running a prostitute racket. He
changed his profession with saint
like clothes, a big beard, polite speech
and became, ‘Ichchadhari Sant
Swami Bhimanand Ji Maharaj
Chitrakoot’. Today he has assets
worth crores, a 200 bed hospital, a
huge temple, writes for magazines,
has video CDs with the name, ‘Shri
Sai Amrit Varsha’ and crores of
followers.
Baba Gurmeet Ram Rahim - Chief
of Dera Sacha Sauda, Baba Gurmeet
Ram Rahim was charged with a rape
case by the CBI, sexually assaulting
women followers at his Sirsa based
ashram. CBI has also charged him
for his alleged involvement in murder
conspiracy of a journalist, Ram
Chander Chatterpatti and Dera
manager Ranjit Singh. His recent
arrival in bollywood created more
buzz about his godman avatar.
Although few godmen have allowed
their powers to be examined
scientifically, Swami Rama became
famous by participating in the
biofeedback research conducted by
Elmer Green at the Menninger
Foundation around 1970.
29
Sri Sri Ravishankar - Sri Sri
Ravishankar has been calling himself
guru or sadhu but declined the use
of the name Godman. Ravishankar’s
organisation, the Art of Living, has
done much social work, promoting
spirituality, an important part of
India’s well-preserved heritage.
Several godmen have found
patronage among politicians and
other high-ranking officials. Sathya
Sai Baba had several devotees in the
political field. They include BJP leader
L. K. Advani and former President
A. P. J. Kalam. In 2001, an official
letter was issued that defended Sai
Baba against accusations, the
signatories included then Prime
Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, former
Chief Justices P. N. Bhagwati and
Ranganath Mishra, and former
Union Minister Shivraj Patil. In
2006, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar was
nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize
by an US Congressman.
On one hand we are rising as a nation
in terms of education, economic
growth rate, financial arena, global
markets and science and technology,
but on the other hand, we are getting
sucked ourselves into a dark pit of
ignorance, blind faith and narrow
mindedness by following these gurus.
If all of us pledge to devote our
money and time spent on these
fraudsters even on a single poor child,
then I can assure that India will never
have any poverty or any person living
below it.
- The author is a freelance
journalist
Visit our website at:
www.masmindia.org
for online human rights updates.
 Higher Education in India:
An Innovative Approach
- Dr. Prem Kumar Sinha

This article discusses an innovative approach, which is almost fail-safe, whereby sustainable reforms in higher
education can be executed in a cost-effective manner. It can ensure that (1) no meritorious student, howsoever
poor, will ever face difficulty in receiving higher education; (2) it will bring much needed accountability among
teachers, educational administrators as well as students, thereby raising quality of higher education and injecting
transparency in the whole system; (3) financial burden of the Government will not rise exponentially instead it
will reduce, thus more and more quality educational institutions can be established by the Government to provide
educational empowerment to a wider section of people, which will usher in an era of social harmony; (4)
students will be receiving more purposeful and focused education thereby boosting their employability.

I
t is a proven fact that education
and more education is the ultimate
panacea for curing the ills of the
people. Accordingly, governments of
various countries are making effort
to raise the quality of higher education
of their people.
Here, I dare to submit that a
simplistic solution for this complex
issue can be obtained to a large extent
simply by charging the cost of higher
education from its beneficiaries. And
this pay-back for the cost of higher
education can play a vital role in
improving quality of higher education
as well as create enabling
environment for facilitating much
needed reforms in higher education
sector in one comprehensive sweep.
The aforesaid approach will induce
self-sustainable reforms in the field
of higher education and there will be
quantum jump in quality of higher
education. The modalities for the
aforesaid are elaborated below, in the
context of India which is largely
applicable to other countries, also:
Recently, the Government of India
planned to establish 8 new Indian
Institutes of Technology, 7 new
Indian Institutes of Management, 15
Central Universities, 5 new Indian
Institutes of Science Education and
Research, and 14 World-class
Universities. However, it is unlikely
that the dream of setting up of
acknowledgeable world-class
institutions in India can be realized in
near foreseeable future, because it
appears to me that just by starting a
few more educational institutions and
investing huge sums of money in their
establishment or by allocating more
money for existing educational
institutions, and wishing that some
of these will rise to world-class,
nothing significant can be achieved.
Had money been the most significant
factor, many universities of oil-rich
West-Asian countries would have
been pushed in the top echelon of
world-class universities by now.
Moreover, the money and other
resources are also limited, thus these
should be judiciously employed with
a strategic view to ensure their
optimal utilization, or else we will end
up merely with a few more money
guzzling educational institutions.
Beyond the money and the resources,
there are two more significant factors,
viz., (i) “Frame-work of an
Institution” and (ii) “Performance of
Individuals”, which play important
role in raising the quality of an
educational institution.
In India, frame-work of a
government-aided educational
institution is bound by rigid
regulations which cannot be set aside
in the near future, like, reservation
quota for Scheduled Castes (SCs)/
Scheduled Tribes (STs)/Other
Backward Castes (OBCs), as well as
quota for minorities, for admission
of students as well as for
appointment of faculty members and
other administrative staff.
Reservation policies will stay in India,
till people of the reserved categories
achieve parity with those of the
general category. So, till, we continue
with the existing frame-work of our
government-aided educational
institutions, there is no scope for
raising the level of Indian Universities
to the world-class.
So presently, “Performance of
Individuals” is the only remaining factor
on which we can work upon and try
to raise the level of education as much
as possible, and it comprises three sets
of people, viz., Administrators,
Faculty-Members, and Students.

Vol. XV No. 10 October 2018 30

First, I briefly touch upon the attitude
of administrators of government-
aided educational institutions. Many
a time, heads of these institutions,
viz., Vice-chancellors/Principals are
themselves appointed with undue
interventions. Quite often, they have
their personal agenda to meet through
the process of appointment of
teachers and other staff. Also, many
a time, teachers do not care seriously
whether their pupils learn or not
because it does not have any
detrimental effect on their salaries (at
least in government-aided
institutions).
Now, I discuss the role of the students
who comprise the last but the most
important block of an educational
institution. People seldom discuss as
to how students can be made more
receptive towards the education
which is delivered to them in an
educational institution. It has been
noticed, in India, that they put up their
hardest efforts for ensuring their
admission in a government-aided
educational institution (where they are
imparted highly subsidized higher
education) but once they secure
admission in an educational institution
of higher education, their motivation
level drops. The very same students
when they go to U.S.A. for higher
studies, they again start working
harder because they pay dearly for
the cost of their education and thus
easily understand that the opportunity
granted to them for learning is not to
be wasted.
Generally, it costs Rs.50,000/- to
Rs.200,000/- per student per year
to the Government of India,
depending upon the academic
discipline, for providing higher
education in a medium level
government-aided educational
institution, whereas such students
are charged, each, around
Vol. XV No. 10 October 2018
Rs.5,000/- to Rs.20,000/-, only, per
year. One should provide free
education up to secondary level for
public good but for the higher
education, fruits of which are
mostly enjoyed by the concerned
students privately, its cost must be
charged from the students, not for
the sake of any monetary profit but
at least to promote further the cause
of education. So, it is argued that
actual cost of higher education
should be charged from the
students. One should not fear that
it would take away higher education
from the reach of the students as,
now, they should be charged for the
cost of their education only after
they have finished their studies, and
while they pursue for their studies,
they should be provided free
education, of course, without any
fees.
Now, a question arises as to how
the cost of education can be realized
from the students after they have
completed their studies. It is not
difficult anymore, because owing to
advancement of information
technology enabled services, now,
a person can be easily traced. Thus,
cost of his education can be directly
debited from his salary in the same
way as Income Tax is deducted.
No one should think that the pay-
back for the cost of higher
education delivered to a person is
any kind of hardship to him. Because
the person concerned would be
paying only for a thing which he has
already availed of and, now, reaping
its rich dividend which should
continue throughout his life.
Moreover, this pay-back will help in
spreading and strengthening higher
education for the benefit of his
remaining brethren, which will make
the entire society more prosperous
in due course of time and its rich
reward will be enjoyed by one and
31
all. Also, this pay-back for the cost
of higher education can play a very
dominant role as well as create an
enabling environment which can
facilitate purposeful and much
needed reforms in the higher
education sector, in one
comprehensive sweep, as is
illustrated below:
1. Students will not wile away
their time during their studies
because they will be aware
about the true cost of their
education in the beginning
itself. Therefore, they will not
fritter away the golden period
of their lives, when they can
naturally acquire skills/
knowledge in the most
efficient manner.
2. When the Government will be
spared from the burden of
meeting ever-increasing
recurring cost for maintaining
already established educational
institutions, it can spend more
money on establishment of
new institutions and thereafter
it can pass over its control to
selected educational bodies
(public or private or co-
operative or corporate) for
professional management. It
will increase availability of
more educational institutions
for our youngsters, thus
unburdening them from a lot
of anxiety in this respect.
3. When students are not
required to pay for higher
education, no meritorious
student, howsoever poor will
ever face difficulty in receiving
higher education. Instead, all
the meritorious students will
be preferred for granting
admission, since after their
studies, chances of their early

and decent employment will be
more which will ensure earlier
pay-back for the cost of their
education, which in turn will
directly benefit the institutions
from where they received their
higher education. So
meritorious students will not
be denied admission and
fairness in the selection
process during admissions
will get a boost.
4. Another benefit of setting up
of more and more educational
institutions by the
Government would be that
private un-aided educational
institutions, which are mostly
set up to mint money by
fleecing students, will have
some kind of check in
charging fees from the
students, as now students will
have more options to pursue
higher studies. Thus the fee
burden of those students, who
do not get admission in
Vol. XV No. 10 October 2018
government-aided educational
institutions, will also reduce.
5. As the money realized from
the students is to be
transferred to their alma mater
for paying salaries to their
teachers, staff, and other
recurring expenses, this factor
will act as a big catalyst in
increasing interest of the
teachers towards their
students because the better
they teach, the more their
students will learn, which will
help these students in getting
decent employment which will
ensure quick pay-back of the
cost of their education, which
will improve financial health
and growth of the concerned
educational institution and its
teachers. Similarly, now,
educational administrators
would also like to recruit the
best teachers. At the same
time, students will also like to
study in those institutions
32
where quality teaching is
imparted, so that chances of
their employability increase.
Because, now, education is not
free and thus they would not
like to pay for a thing which
does not yield value to them.
In this cycle of
(i) appointment of teachers
and staff;
(ii) admission of students;
(iii) teaching;
(iv) learning,
(v) placement for jobs;
(vi) pay-back of the cost of
education;
everyone’s interest will get
inseparably inter-twined,
which will infuse
transparency in the entire
process and usher in a new
era where everyone would feel
responsible for his actions.
Because now the teaching-
learning process would be
performance-oriented and will
be judged by the third party,
i.e., the employer, who will
measure the quality and
suitability of the students for
his organization. This in turn
will inculcate team spirit
among the teachers, the
educational administrators and
the students, and such a
scenario can certainly
galvanize rapid growth of
higher education by leaps and
bounds.
The first and foremost question
which arises in one’s mind is with
regard to feasibility and sustainability
of the scheme, which envisages that,
first, higher education should be
provided free, and later, its cost
should be charged from the
concerned students. People will
question what will happen if pay-back
for the cost of higher education is
received only from a minuscule

percentage of students and others are
unable to pay-back of their own or
simply express their inability to pay-
back by concealing their actual
income. My answer is as under: As
per the conservative estimates, at
least 50 percent students, who receive
higher education, are able to garner a
good job in public/private sector or
successful in establishing a profitable
venture, and thus they would be
earning more than Rs.20,000/- per
month. Thus, on an average a sum
of Rs.10,000/- per month or Rs.0.12
million per annum, can be charged
from such persons. Now, supposing,
Rs.0.1 million per annum is spent on
higher-education of a student by the
Government, for duration of 4 to 5
years, thus his pay-back for cost of
higher education will be over in about
4 years. In this fashion, at least 50
percent cost of higher education can
be collected by the Government in 4
years.
Now, considering that remaining 50
percent do not earn enough or their
earnings cannot be traced in black
and white then for these remaining
50 percent, there should be a
stipulation that if such people
transact any financial deal later in
Vol. XV No. 10 October 2018
their lives, like, sale or purchase or
inheritance of any property, motor-
driven vehicle, etc., then first charge
from their income should be
adjusted towards their outstanding
cost of higher education. In this way,
the Government will be able to
recover much more than the above
estimated conservative figure of 50
percent towards cost of higher-
education.
Presently, the Government is able to
realize less than 10 percent of the
total expenditure incurred by it
towards the higher education and still
maintaining its educational
institutions, therefore, the scenario
suggested above is much better
which enables the Government to
realize more than 50 percent cost of
higher education from the
beneficiaries in about four years as
well as reap a bigger reward by
inducing a culture of academic
accountability among the teachers as
well as the students. So, now, the
Government can maintain its
educational institutions for the initial
years, and thereafter these
institutions should be paid, only in
proportion to the remittances
collected from the students who
33
received education from these
institutions.
It would be worthwhile to mention
that, presently, the system of higher
education is skewed in favour of
those who are more empowered in
their respective categories (General/
SCs/STs/OBCs). First of all, those
few who hail from empowered
families are likely to receive better
education in their childhood which in
turn helps them in securing admission
in government-aided educational
institutions, with low fee-structure.
Later, it helps them in securing a
better job which naturally improves
their standing in the society even
more. Thus, presently, the
empowered ones receive higher
subsidy and opportunity for higher
growth vis-à-vis those who were
under privileged since birth, which
is not fair by any count.
Thus, in the nut-shell, it can be said
that if we fully charge the students
for the cost of their higher education,
it will help in creating a conducive
environment, whereby the following
twin objectives can be achieved: (i)
academic accountability of the
teachers as well as students will
increase thus raising the quality of
higher education in a sequential
manner and (ii) money collected from
those who have benefitted from the
higher education, can supplement
government efforts in spreading
higher education among all, which is
the ultimate panacea for uplift of
weaker sections in a shortest possible
time.
- The author is working as the
Assistant Registrar (Academic) at
Dayalbagh Educational Institute,
Agra.
The article is available online at
http://www.curingindia.com/
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 Advisors: Bejon Mishra
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