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Letters

Medieval Barbarism
People want justice for the brutal murder and rape of a PGT–Doctor in the R G KAR Medical College Hospital when she was on duty. People wonder how College Hospital authorities can evade their responsibility. At the time of writing their activities seem very mysterious. Junior Doctors are continuing their movement including ceasing work. As a result, the health services and basic medical facilities virtually remain suspended. The poor who cannot afford private health care are in a helpless situation. Junior Doctors and their senior colleagues are demanding the suspension of the then Principal Dr Sandip Ghosh, removal of Mr Vineet Goel, Police Commissioner of Kolkata, providing adequate security and safety of doctors, nurses and health personnel in the hospital. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Miss Mamata Banerjee declared ‘she is fully supporting the Junior Doctors’ movement’. If she really supports the agitating doctors she could have shown her willingness by accepting a few demands of the protesters. Instead, she is issuing implied threats to the doctors who are protesting for justice.

R G Kar Medical College and Hospital rape & murder case is not an ordinary incident; it didn't occur in the house, roads or elsewhere. After all, this is a hospital run by the State Government. In the eyes of common people, R G Kar Medical College and Hospital administration, Health Department and Bengal Police–all are responsible for it. Had it been a Private Hospital, all the Directors of the hospital would have been arrested by this time. But nothing of that sort has happened. In truth, the authorities circulated fabricated stories to mislead his parents and the public. Kolkata Police arrested one civic Volunteer. Now CBI is investigating as per a court order. But CBI says they find difficulties in the investigation due to alteration of the crime scene. Nothing concrete has emerged from the court-monitored CBI investigation other than the arrest of the ex-principal of RG Kar.

In Kerala, a student leader Rajan died in police custody and the then chief minister Karunakaran resigned along with the cabinet taking moral responsibility. But the present chief minister of West Bengal is in no mood to take responsibility for the barbaric rape and murder, not to speak of quitting the post.
Surya Kashyap, Kolkata

Where is the Demographic Dividend?
By 2030, one out of every five working-age people on Earth will be Indian.

That astonishing projection is one reason why so many economists see the nation as the next big global growth engine. At the most elemental level, there are only two ways to grow an economy–add workers or boost output per worker–and India has more scope to do both in the years ahead than anywhere else. But delivering on the human potential will be a monumental challenge: India will need to create at least 115 million new jobs by 2030, according to a report by investment bank Natixis, a task it describes as “Herculean”.

Challenges include overcoming deeply engrained antipathy toward women participating in the work-force–that rate is just 33%, roughly half that of Ghana, which has a similar per-capita GDP. India also needs to shift more workers into the formal sector, which is now only about 10% of the labour force. With the BHP having lost its parliamentary majority in elections this year, Modi has his work cut out for him.

In what should be a sobering reminder to India bulls, a recent visit to a job fair in Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh, saw hundreds of young men and women lined up in the summer heat, nervously shuffling application papers. Their goal? A one-year contract job pays about 15,000 rupees ($178) a month.

Yet, the odds are against them. Since the start of Modi’s term to the end of March 2022, some 220 million people applied for federal jobs; just 722,000 were recruited, government data shows.

“This demographic dividend could easily become a demographic curse if the labour market gap is not handled well”. The greater the delay in job creation today, the more employment needs to be created in the future.

The overall jobless rate averaged 8.05% for the year through March, up from 7.56% in the prior 12-month period, according to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, which produces the country’s most-cited unemployment figures. For those aged 20 to 24, it was 42.8%. International Labour Organisation data show very little in the way of gains this century.
M S

Against Death Penalty
PUDR opposes the passage of The Aparajita Woman and Child (West Bengal Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill, 2024, which amends the BharatiyaNyayaSanhita (BNS), 2023, and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, in their application to West Bengal. The Bill enhances punishments for sexual offences, introduces the death penalty as the maximum sentence under the majority of the provisions, and fixes the mandatory death penalty for rape which results in the death of the woman or causes her to be in a vegetative state. Following the public outrage against the rape and murder of a trainee doctor in Kolkata on 9 August and the mishandling of the case investigation by the police, on 2 September the state legislative assembly passed the Aparajita Bill with an object of “creating a safer environment for women and children” on the belief that “maximising the punishment for sexual offenses will deter such deplorable acts”. The BNS while replacing the Indian Penal Code, had already increased the number of offences punishable by death from 11 to 15. Aparajita Bill increases the number to 18 along with the introduction of mandatory capital punishment for rape resulting in death/vegetative state, disregarding the fact that mandatory death penalty in India has been struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1983 in Mithuvs State of Punjab.

PUDR has long opposed the death penalty as a form of punishment due to the inherent possibility of miscarriage of justice and the irreversibility of errors. If deterrence is an argument in favour of the death penalty, the statistics reveal the contrary and only highlight the deficiencies and maladies of a justice system where the possibility of an innocent being sent to the gallows is ever-present.
Joseph Mathai
Paramjeet Singh
(Secretaries, PUDR)

“Democracy Disgraced”
Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankar condemned the Kolkata doctor rape & murder incident. He said ‘A place where women don’t find themselves safe cannot be a civilised society, that democracy is disgraced today, the fear in the minds of our girls and women is a cause of national concern. How can there be rape and murder in a hospital when the woman doctor is in service of humanity, saving the lives of others?’

People don’t forget that this gentleman had his lips sealed when the horrific incident of Manipur, under a double-engine government, took place wherein two women were publicly paraded naked and then raped. People don’t forget that right when honourable Vice-President was airing his outrage over the heinous Kolkata crime from a podium, two of the three accused (by the “survivor” herself) in the BHU gang-rape case have returned home on bail and have been duly garlanded too.

Of course, the independent women’s protests and especially the groundbreaking “Reclaim the Night” campaign over the brutal rape and murder in the R G Kar College and Hospital must be supported and strengthened to ensure justice for the victim, and even more importantly, a rational and viable national policy towards ensuring freedom and security for women–evolved on the basis of broad-based discussions involving the stakeholders i.e. the agitating women in particular.

But the saffron hoods trying to capture power by whipping up violence and mayhem in the state, as the necessary peg for invoking Article 356, must be ruthlessly exposed for what they really are.
Sukla Sen

Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay
Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay was a multifaceted personality. In 1927, she became a member of the Indian National Congress and was voted on by the All India Congress Committee the following year. Meanwhile, in 1926, she contested the Madras provincial election, thus becoming the first woman in India to fight a legislative election. When the Salt Satyagraha took the country by storm, Kamaladevi enthusiastically participated in it. By this time, impressed by socialist ideas, she became a founding member of the Congress Socialist Party, a socialist group within the Congress. In 1936, she served as the President of the Congress Socialist Party. Kamaladevi was a democratic socialist. In her work, Socialism and Society, she writes, ”In democratic socialism, the ideal is to evolve only such techniques and institutions as will smooth out the frictions with a minimum of coercion, overt or implicit, and a maximum of collective participation.” She argued that decentralisation can play a useful role in economic planning by ensuring social participation. Kamaladevi was also a founding member of the Women's Indian Association, headquartered at Adayar, Madras.

In independent India, Kamaladevi took on new responsibilities. She was instrumental in building the Faridabad Township with fifty thousand refugees from Pakistan. Her next big contribution came in the fields of art, handicraft, and handloom. She was the first chairperson of the All India Handicraft Board. Under her leadership, the board made every effort to connect with craft centers across India. The Board established Regional Design Centres in Delhi, Bombay, Bangalore, and Calcutta to help craftsmen improve their product designs. The Board also started cottage industries emporia around the country to market and exhibit handicraft and handloom products. The National Crafts Museum in New Delhi was the result of Kamaladevi’s abiding interest. She is also credited for the setting up of a theatre crafts museum in Delhi from her own private funds. In addition to these, she wrote many scholarly books on traditional crafts. For her invaluable contribution to Indian handicrafts, Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay is popularly known as Hastakala Mata.
Visakh S.M.

Tale of a Blind School
Eighty years ago, the Poona School and Home for the Blind was founded by the late Dr S R Machave, an ophthalmologist, with just six children. Today, the school not only provides education but most importantly, it also feeds every single child in their care.

Mr Krishna, currently in charge, has been with the school for 15 years. Before this, he served in the Indian Air Force for 21 years, participating in the Kargil War. His journey with the school began through a friend, Keshav Rai, who introduced him to this noble cause.

The school caters to children aged 5 to 18, providing them with education, lodging, boarding, and food–all free of cost. "We are more than just a school. We are a home and a future for these kids", he says. The school is working on expanding its education to include classes 9 and 10, so the children don’t have to seek education outside.

The impact of the school is profound. Many alumni have gone on to achieve great success. One is a chartered accountant, and another is a banker with HSBC. These successful alumni often return as guest speakers to inspire current students.

The school operates in one of the poorest regions, where many parents are labourers who can barely afford to feed their children. Due to malnutrition, many children are born blind. Initially, parents are reluctant to send their children, but once they see the positive changes, they are grateful.
A Reader

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Frontier
Vol 57, No. 13, Sep 22 - 28, 2024