Open Forum

By NS Venkataraman*   A well-researched study has been conducted about the linkages between global population growth and climate hazard. The study has been conducted by Nandini Consultancy Centre, a firm of chemical engineers based at Chennai and Singapore. The study report urges the UNO to recognize the inadequacies of the decisions taken during the Paris Climate Conference and convene another world conference to discuss the climate issues with focus on reducing global population growth and density of population, which is the ultimate way to solve the impending global climate crisis once for all. Global Climate Conference was organized in Paris in 2015, when various measures to protect climate were discussed and some steps were initiated with specific target and time frame. World leaders have committed themselves to keep global warming below 2 deg C, with an ambitious target to limit it to 1.5 degree Celsius. However, decisions taken during the Paris Climate Conference are not bei

Uphold forest rights act to secure rights, livelihood and forest conservation: A note by Community Forest Rights-Learning and Advocacy (CFRLA), All India Forum of Forest Movements (AIFFM), Mahila Kisan Adhikaar Manch (MAKAAM): The Forest Rights Act (FRA) was enacted to undo the historical injustice against Forest Dwelling Scheduled Tribe and other forest dwelling communities by recognizing their pre-existing rights over forest land and community forest resources. It provides for democratic governance of forests by vesting the rights and authority to manage and conserve forests in the Gram Sabha and forestdwellers. The law also recognizes and vests rights over community forest resources (CFR), individual/common rights over forests for cultivation and habitation, ownership and control over minor forest produce (MFP). FRA expressly recognizes women as equal participants in decisionmaking in the Gram Sabha, and their equal ownership in individual forest rights (IFR) and CFR. The FRA is fac

Excerpts from the Jaccha Baccha-Survey (JABS) of pregnant and nursing women in rural India conducted in June 2019, coordinated by Jean Drèze, Reetika Khera and Anmol Somanchi: The Jaccha-Baccha Survey (JABS), conducted by student volunteers in June 2019, took place in six states: Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh. In each state, the survey teams visited 10 to 12 randomly-selected anganwadis (spread over two blocks, in the same district) and interviewed as many as possible of the pregnant and nursing women (women who delivered a baby during the six months preceding the survey) registered at those anganwadis: 342 and 364 respondents, respectively. Special Needs Ignored We were shocked to find how little attention was paid, in the sample households, to the special needs of pregnancy – good food, extra rest and health care. Often, family members or even women themselves had little awareness of these special needs. For instance, 48% of pregn

By Venkatesh Nayak* “To be, or not to be, that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous (RTI applications) fortune, or to take arms against a sea of (information requesters) troubles and by opposing end (their right to know) them.” (With apologies to Shakespeare for a poor parody of his creative genius and “Hamlet — the brooding Prince of Denmark”) Unlike his contrarian predecessor, the present Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi has, in concert with four brother Justices, declared his august office, covered by the RTI Act. In its 15th year of implementation, this unanimous opinion of the Constitution Bench (CB) strengthens the transparency law in many ways and paves the way for bringing another constitutional authority, namely, the Governor of a State under its compass. That question of law opened up twelve years ago through an RTI application penned by a former Union Defence Minister when he was the Leader of Opposition in Goa.

Arkaprava Dass, Adnan Yousuf* In October 2019, dissident political leaders from the state of Manipur in India unilaterally declared independence from the country fearing the extinction of their culture and destruction of history. They further called for the de jure recognition of their government by the United Nations in London. In light of this incident, the debate around non-colonial unilateral declaration of secession through the exercise of self-determination has again come into focus. This Article attempts to answer if International law allows for the unilateral declaration of secession by states. In doing so, it first sheds light on the idea of unilateral declarations of secession under international law, and the exercise of such declarations in the context of self-determination, particularly through the means of remedial secession. Second, it gives an account of the international jurisprudence on secession and self-determination. Third, it addresses the clash between the princi

Police ranking By Akhilesh Patil, Radhika Jha, Devika Prasad, Devyani Srivastava* Efficient, responsive, and accountable policing is critical to achieving an enabling environment that assures safety, security and a setting within which everyone can enjoy their fundamental rights. Each state in India has its own autonomous police department made up of personnel from two distinct cadres—the state police service, and at higher levels, officers drawn from the Indian Police Service. The state police has two arms: civil police and armed police. This report considers only the former (which includes the district armed reserve) that is primarily tasked with the core police work of law enforcement, protection of life and property, and crime registration and investigation, among myriad other tasks. Each state fixes what its sanctioned human resources should be, based on several factors such as the available budget, areas to be covered, The bulk of the constabulary is involved in manning police st

BEL unit, Bengaluru By Venkatesh Nayak* Readers may remember reading my despatch from September 2019 in which I had explained how Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL) did a volte face under The Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act) about supplying information relating to Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and Voter Verified Paper Trail Units (VVPATs) deployed during the 2019 General Elections to the Lok Sabha. After demanding copying charges of Rs. 1,434, the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) returned the money claiming that BEL did not hold some of the information and that disclosing names of Engineers deputed to provide technical support for these machines at the constituency-level, would endanger their lives. The CPIO also refused access to operational manuals relating to these machines. The CPIO of Electronics Corporation Ltd. (ECIL) which also supplied EVMs and VVPATs for use during the same elections had also denied information sought in an identical RTI application. Now in a