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Showing posts from July, 2014

Criminal Amendment Act leads to increase in registration of rape offences

Excerpts from “Preliminary Analysis of Statistics Relating to the Offence of Rape as Reported by the National Crime Records Bureau for 2001‐13”. Research and report by Venkatesh Nayak, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), New Delhi, and Data Analytics, SS Tech Point, New Delhi: *** According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, during the period 2001‐2013, a total of 2,72,844 cases were reported across the 28 states and 7 UTs in India. On an average, a little more than 57 rapes are reported to have occurred every day across the country during this 13 year period. That averages to more than 2 rapes across the country, every hour, every day, during the last 13 years. If the figure for 2013 – the year in which the list of offences that constitute rape was expanded – is discounted, the total for the 12‐year period between 2001‐2012 becomes 2,39,137 cases across all States and UTs. The daily and hourly averages reduce by a few decimal points only . The total figure for

Victory for industrial lobby: Govt of India lifts moratolrium on most polluted Vapi

By Rohit Prajapati* Union environment minister Prakash Javadekar’s decision to lift the moratorium of eight critically polluted clusters of the country is inexplicable. The ministry took the decision on June 10 2014 but announced it publicly on July 24 2014 on MoEF’s website. Narendra Modi took oath as Prime Minister of India on 26 May 2014 and Prakash Javadekar took charge as the Minister of Environment & Forests and Climate change on 30 May 2014. Immediately Javadekar started fulfilling Modi’s commitment given to the industrialists during the election campaign in return for their “support” to BJP during the election. Javadekar decided to lift the moratorium from some of the critically polluted industrial clusters as a first step within 11 days in the ministry. On June 10, 2014 he suspended the September 17, 2013 order extending a moratorium on 8 critically polluted industrial clusters. That order related to “Re-imposing of Moratorium in respect of critically polluted areas namely

Does Govt of India intend assets disclosure public servants other than civil servants?

By Venkatesh Nayak* The media has reported about the Rules notified by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), Government of India, for the filing of information and annual returns relating to assets and liabilities for all public servants covered by the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013. What is good about this notification? The notification of these Rules is a step forward from the statutory requirement under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005. Under Section 4(1(b)(x) of this law, every public authority is required to proactively disclose details of salary paid and the compensation package offered to every civil servant who is its employee. However, there was no statutory compulsion on civil servants to publicly disclose information about their movable and immovable properties inherited or acquired. So several RTI users demanded the publication of this information under the RTI Act by filing formal requests. While some Information Commissions ordered disclosure of inform

Stop work for Statue of Unity, environmental clearance plea hasn’t been moved

Letter to Prakash Javdekar, minister for Environment, Forests & Climate Change, Government of India, by Rohit Prajapati, Girish Patel and Himanshu Thakkar, seeking detailed environmental scrutiny of the Statue of Unity Project planned inside Narmada River, 3.2 Kms downstream of Sardar Sarovar Dam and Shoolpaneshwar Sanctuary: This is to once again remind you of our letter dated November 7, 2013 and our reminder dated February 5, 2014 sent to the Secretary of MoEF and copy to the concerned authorities of Gujarat Government. In these letters we had called your attention to glaring gaps in meeting environmental, social and safeguard norms in the ‘Statue of Unity Project’ planned inside Narmada River, 3.2 kms downstream of Sardar Sarovar Dam and Shoolpaneshwar Sanctuary. Till date, we have received no response from your office on issue that concerns statutory social and environmental safeguards. We had sought your authority to stop all activities related to this project in absence of

Moratorium on industrial clusters: Union ministry should clarify stance

By Rohit Prajapati* In May 2002, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) released an extensive report saying that “there was a growing gap between the efforts to reduce the impact of business and industry on nature and the worsening state of the planet”. The Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) in its press release dated April 13, 2014 stated, “A new report by the IPCC shows that global emissions of greenhouse gases have risen to unprecedented levels despite a growing number of policies to reduce climate change. Emissions grew more quickly between 2000 and 2010 than in each of the three previous decades.” The IPCC added, “There is a clear message from science: To avoid dangerous interference with the climate system, we need to move away from business as usual… Stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere requires emissions reductions from energy production and use, transport, buildings, industry, land use, and human settlements.” Formal token capital

Joblessness, marginalization among Gujarat tribals, as govt schemes fail

By Rajiv Shah  The latest Census of India figures have revealed that, despite tall claims of the Gujarat government of development having touched marginalized groups of the state, large sections of the state’s tribal population is facing unprecedented unemployment and marginalization of workforce. An analysis of Census’ data on workers suggests that in the total population of the age group 15 to 34, 2.17 crore, 7.13 lakh persons, or around 3.29 per cent, are found to be seeking jobs. Then there is 9.65 per cent of the population – or 20.93 lakh – in this age group which is forced to work as marginal workers for a period of three to six months in a year. However, a comparison drawn with the two most neglected social groups reveals that while the Dalits of the age group face almost a similar proportion of joblessness and marginalization, the tribals’ predicament remains extremely pitiable. The Census data go to show that 9.34 per cent of the tribals (2.70 lakh out of 29.67 lakh) – almos

New Rangarajan committee report on BPL suggests Gujarat has slipped in rural poverty

By Rajiv Shah  Prof Bibek Debroy, an economist who is known to have taken a leading role in “authoring” the concept what came to be known as “Gujarat model”, said in his book “Gujarat: Governance for Growth and Development”, released in 2012, that the real growth in Gujarat could be found in rural areas, where poverty reduction has come about as a “trickle-down effect.” Quoting National Sample Survey (NSS) figures, he said, “In rural Gujarat, there has been a very sharp drop in poverty, significantly more than all-India trends. In 2004-05, the below poverty line (BPL) number for rural Gujarat was 9.2 million. That’s still a large number, but is significantly smaller than the 12.9 million in 2004-05.” Based on this, he said, the poverty in Gujarat had gone down during that period by 12.4 per cent, which was one of the highest in India. It seems, however, that in just about two years of his drastic observation, which Prof Debroy kept repeating at several forums, things appear to be look

Cases pile up as govts fail to appoint information commissioners

Excerpts from “Information Commissions and the Use of RTI Laws in India: Rapid Study 2.0”, by Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) team consisting of Aneesha Johny, Amrita Paul, Seema Choudhary, Venkatesh Nayak and Maja Daruwala: *** On June 23, 2014, the Right to Information Act (RTI Act) stepped into its 10th year of implementation. The text of this law was published in the Official Gazette on that day in 2005 and some provisions became operational. Other provisions detailing the procedures through which people can access information or file appeals and complaints against delays in and denials of access became operational a hundred and twenty days later. The current study is based several parameters which are fundamental to such an assessment exercise. In 2013-14 a total of 138 posts of Information Commissioners (including the Chief Information Commissioners) had been created across the country. This is 20 more than the tally of 118 in 2012. Five additional posts of Informat

High incidence of marginalization, child labour characterize Gujarat’s jobs scenario

By Rajiv Shah  New data released by the Census of India have suggested a strange fact. While the percentage of those who have been identified as “seeking” jobs or are “available for work” out of the total population in the age-group 15-59 in Gujarat is one of the lowest in India – suggesting a much lower unemployment rate than most Indian states – this does not tell the full story. No doubt, both in the working age-group of 15-59 and in the “job-seeking” younger age-group of 20-25, Gujarat appears to have fared considerably better than the rest of India. Thus, as against nearly seven per cent job-seekers in the country as a whole out of the total population of about 73 crore in the age-group 15-59, Gujarat’s jobseekers are just 2.61 per cent – or less than half of the country – in its population of 3.8 crore in this age-group. In the age-group 20-24, too, the situation is more or less than same. In this age group, there are nearly four per cent job seekers in Gujarat compared to 8.6 pe