‘Aawaz – speak up against sexual violence’ is a music project from Eastern Fare Music Foundation to generate awareness about sexual violence and atrocities on women they bear in every walk of life.

‘Aawaz’ is composed by an Assamese musician Jim Ankhon Deka. The lyrics are penned together by Jim and singer Ritwika Bhattacharya. Antara Nandy, the Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Little Champs (2009) finalist from Kolkata has rendered her vocals to this cause along with Ritwika and Queen Hazarika (a familiar face in the music scenario of Assam).

The song aims to sensitize people of various social evils such as sexual violence, child abuse and marital rape. The core idea behind the song is to encourage people to speak up and not hush up matters like this. 

The video is directed by script-writer and film-maker Parmita Borah. The song is recorded at Eastern Fare Music Studio, Madcat Music Studio, Sargam Audiocraft and Centerstage Studio.

L oyal H. Lall

Additional District and Sessions Judge Rahiman sentenced the man, who worked as a labourer, to the term and also slapped a fine of Rs 60,000 on him with a directive to hand over Rs 50,000 to the girl and Rs 10,000 to a government-run scheme.

New Delhi:

“The empowered group of ministers (EGoM) has agreed to allocation of additional 5 million tonnes of foodgrains to BPL families. It has also agreed to allow 3 million tonnes of wheat through OMSS (open market sale scheme),” food minister KV Thomas said.

For APL (above poverty line) families, Thomas said the government had allocated two million tonnes of foodgrains last fiscal, but only about 50% were lifted by states. Hence, the EGoM allocated the remaining one million tonnes for this year.

The decision comes in the backdrop of government facing a storage crunch. Foodgrain stocks in godowns are piling up and hold a record 82 million tonnes against a capacity of 63 million tonnes.

According to sources, the allocation of five million tonnes of foodgrains to BPL (below poverty line) families would cost exchequer Rs 8,500 crore, while the sale of three million tonnes through OMSS would have a subsidy burden of Rs 1,900 crore.

Under the public distribution system, BPL families get wheat at Rs 4.15 per kg and rice at Rs 5.65 per kg. The rate for APL is Rs 6.10 for wheat and Rs 8.30 for rice. The EGoM fixed the wheat price in OMSS at Rs 1,170 per quintal against the current support price of Rs 1,285 per quintal.

The entire freight cost would be borne by the government, sources said. India harvested a record rice and wheat production in the 2011-12 crop year (July-June) which led to bumper procurement and record stocks in government godowns.

New Delhi:

Stating that a final decision on the new definition for disability will be taken in a year’s time as the current criteria does not reflect the true picture, Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh today said incidences of disability are far more than what are shown in official surveys.

“We have an atrocious definition (of disability). You have to be 80 per cent disabled to be eligible for disability pension, which anyway you get once in seven months,” he said.

Addressing a gathering of social activists or ‘change agents’ who overcame various handicap to bring development in the society, Ramesh said, “One of the things we are contemplating, in fact I am hopeful that we will soon announce this decision, is changing the definition of who is disabled.” When asked to elaborate further, he said, “The new definition will include all forms of disability and will be introduced, hopefully, in a year’s time.” He stated that the step will enable more people to avail benefits of the schemes run for disabled people, specially the adolescent girls.

“Liberalisation of definition of what is disability will make more people eligible, particularly younger girls or adolescent girls for disability pension,” Ramesh said.

He termed the quotas and reservations run for disabled people as inadequate.

“The incidence of disability is far greater than all the official surveys bring out to be. It is far more prevalent than what we think. Therefore all the action programmes and quotas we have, such as three per cent reservation for disabled, are clearly inadequate,” he said.

Guwahati:

“In matters relating to starvation deaths in Cachar district, the Commission has asked the state government to pay Rs two lakh each to two poor and malnourished tea garden workers and Re one lakh each to about 13 dependents of the workers who had died due to starvation,” an NHRC team said in an order here.

“The commission has also directed the state government to inquire whether the Tea Association of India was distributing foodgrains properly among the workers,” the order said.

Mumbai:

In a letter to Khan, state Health Minister Suresh Shetty, while highlighting the steps taken by the government in this regard, congratulated him on raising the issue of female foeticide in his TV show Satyamev Jayate.

The programme (Satyamev Jayate) on female foeticide has been able to generate an overwhelming response from all sections of the society and will go a long way in complimenting the state government’s efforts to address the issue, he said in the letter.

“As many as 27 doctors and four family members have been convicted with fine and imprisonment in 25 cases under the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act in Maharashtra. Four doctors have been deregistered from the state medical council and names of 40 doctors have been submitted to the council for deregistration after charges against them were framed under the Act,” he mentioned.

In the recent past, Maharashtra has seen landmark convictions for advertisement, improper maintenance of records and revealing sex of the foetus to decoy clients, Shetty said.

Maharashtra was the first state where bail of four doctors was rejected during judicial proceedings, he said, adding that so far, 317 cases have been registered against sonography centres.

He said the state was also first in issuing guidelines and providing funds to NGOs for conducting “sting operations on erring doctors.”

“So far, 34 sting operations have been conducted involving decoy clients. Seven doctors have been convicted with fine and imprisonment for revealing sex of the foetus to the decoy clients. Other cases are awaiting trial in the court,” he added.

A special scheme has been launched for identification and deterrent punishment to the violators of PCPNDT Act. Under the scheme, Rs25,000 is paid to the informer (against sonography centres practicising illegal sex determinations). During the year 2011-12, the award has been given to ten informers, he said.

The health minister also highlighted various steps taken by his department to address the issue of sex selection, though he admitted that all efforts have not yet had the desired level of impact in reversing the child sex ratio in the state.

“However, a marginal change is visible in sex ratio at birth in urban areas where the problem has been more acute. The Centre has appreciated our efforts and made a deliberate endeavour to showcase it to other states through a special meeting of central supervisory board held twice a year under the chairmanship of the union health minister,” Shetty said.

He said in the coming years the state government will continue to work harder for changing mindset, improving implementation of the law and undertaking research to understand the rootcause of girl child discrimination so that future programmes will prove to be more effective in addressing the issue.

He requested Aamir to support and associate with the government of Maharashtra for the cause of elevating the status of the girl child and campaign against sex determination.

New Delhi:

“Enough is enough, you were not present on earlier occasions. Having regard to your age, we told you to give sample in a sealed cover. We gave you protection under Article 21, but enough is enough,” said a bench of Justice Aftab Alam and Justice CK Prasad.

The direction was given on a paternity suit filed by Rohit Shekhar, who claims himself to be the biological son of 86-year-old Tiwari.

“Give the blood sample, what is the problem with that?” the bench told Tiwari’s counsel Sushil Jain during the hearing of Tiwari’s last year’s plea, still pending with the apex court.

Tiwari had challenged the high court’s December 23, 2010 order, asking him to undergo the DNA test.

On the last hearings of his plea in March 2011, the Supreme Court had given Tiwari the option to convey to the high court his preferred mode of undergoing DNA test – either through examination of the blood sample or his saliva or hair strand.

The apex court had earlier also assured Tiwari that his DNA test result would not be made public unless it would be unavoidable in the interest of justice.

But with Tiwari not agreeing to undergo a DNA test, the apex court had asked him to go back to the high court with his plea.

In the high court, Tiwari contended that he cannot be physically compelled to give his blood sample for his DNA test.

He even won on this count with a single-judge bench of the high court ruling that he cannot be physically challenged to give his blood sample.

Apart from Banerjee, advocate Anjali Gopalan, who works for the rights of gays and the transgendered in India, is the only other Indian in the list released by the magazine today.

The 2012 list is topped by American basketball sensation Jeremy Lin.

In recent days, Banerjee’s government has been criticised for choice of newspapers for state and state-aided libraries and a professor’s arrest over circulation of a cartoon featuring the chief minister.

Time said Banerjee, 57, spent years struggling on the margins but ultimately she proved to be the “consummate politician.”

“Though much of Indian society remains hidebound in patriarchy and tradition, strong women still prevail in the nation’s political life. Mamata Banerjee rose to the fore last year when she and a movement she built from the grassroots wrested control of her home state of West Bengal, ending three and a half decades of sclerotic communist rule,” Time said.

Referred to by her supporters as ‘Didi’, Banerjee was labelled by critics as a “mercurial oddball and a shrieking street fighter”.

Through successive elections, she steadily expanded her power base while chipping away at those of her opponents, Time said adding that her lower-middle-class background was no obstacle in a country “notorious for its dynasties”.

“She out-Marxed the Marxists. And as chief minister of her home state, she has emerged as a populist woman of action — strident and divisive but poised to play an even greater role in the world’s largest democracy,” the magazine said.

On Gopalan, 54, Time said through her work at the Naz Foundation, she has done more than anyone else to advance the rights of gays and the transgendered in India, successfully petitioning the courts to get rid of a British-era law against sodomy.

“Gopalan has brought about a revolution in the status of sexual minorities in India — and has done so joyously, dancing,” it said.

The list comprising people “who inspire us, entertain us, challenge us and change our world,” includes Pakistan’s first Oscar winner filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Chaudhry.

In his commentary on Chaudhry for Time, former Pakistani cricketer and politician Imran Khan said he has become the first head of Pakistan’s Supreme Court to attempt to bring the powerful to justice, taking on the Prime Minister and the President in an effort to hold them to account.

“It’s not just the politicians either. Chaudhry, 63, is also seeking to take Pakistan’s intelligence agencies to task for their human-rights abuses,” Khan said in the magazine.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry asked Rinkle Kumari alias Faryal Bibi, Lata Kumari alias Hafsa Bibi and Asha Kumari alias Haleema Bibi to inform the court registrar’s office whether they want to live with their husbands or their families.

The bench ordered police to provide complete security to the women and warned that police officials would be held responsible for negligence if they were harmed.

The court said the women were old enough to make the right decisions for themselves.

The women were later taken to the registrar’s office for recording their statements.

The Supreme Court also directed authorities to submit a report in two weeks on the implementation of its orders in the case.

The parents of the three women expressed disappointment at the judgment, saying they had been denied justice.

The three women have been at the centre of a controversy over the alleged abduction and forcible conversion of Hindu girls and women in southern Sindh province.

In the case of 19-year-old Rinkle Kumari, rights groups and civil society activists have alleged that she was abducted by persons with links to Pakistan People’s Party parliamentarian Mian Abdul Haq alias Mian Mithoo.

Mithoo and his brother have been accused of kidnapping and converting several Hindu women in Ghotki area of Sindh.

Rights activists have alleged that these women were forcibly married to Muslim men.

Matters were further compounded when Rinkle made different statements during news conferences and her appearances in court. The apex court had earlier sent Rinkle and Lata Kumari to a women’s shelter in Karachi to give them time to decide about their future free from pressure.

The court gave its ruling today in response to a Constitutional petition filed by the Pakistan Hindu Council.

Ramesh Kumar, patron-in-chief of the Council, had approached the court to direct authorities to recover the three Hindu women.

Rinkle’s family has said that she was abducted and forced to convert and marry a Muslim man. A similar claim was made by Lata’s family.

“Due to the previous BSP regime, the state government is facing resource crunch. It did nothing to increase revenue…”, Yadav said, addressing party workers here.

Despite this, the state government will increase resources and meet its promises, he said.

“You all will not have to come to Lucknow to get your work done. Such an arrangement would be made that there will be timely action on applications. You can also ask your CM on when your work will be completed,” Yadav said.

Yadav said he did not become chief minister as by remaining outside, “I will keep an eye on government’s functioning and ensure that the promises in manifesto are fulfilled in five years”.

He alleged that BSP government had spent over Rs 45 thousand crores on construction of parks and memorials.

“If this money would have been used in development works, the state would have worn a different look. The creation of new districts has also added to financial miseries,” he said.

Yadav also said “fake cases” lodged against party workers in the previous regime would be reviewed and withdrawn.

New Delhi

A Bench of justices Dalveer Bhandari and Justice Dipak Misra asked governments to file their detailed report on the status of night shelters which are operating in their states by January 3 next year.

The Bench, which passed separate orders for different states, asked chief secretaries to ensure sufficient shelters were built for the homeless and poor.

“We direct the chief secretary to supervise and ensure that adequate number of night shelters are made available so that people are not compelled to spend nights on pavements and in parks,” the Bench said while passing the order for Delhi.

The court passed similar orders for other states and posted the matter for further hearing on January 9 when it would take stock of the situation.

The apex court passed the direction after counsel Colin Gonzalves, appearing for PUCL which filed the PIL on shelter facilities for the homeless in the country, brought to the court’s notice that state governments have so far not been able to build an adequate number of night shelters for the homeless.

The apex court had earlier passed a series of directions to states for setting up night shelters and permanent shelters for the homeless throughout the country following reports that a number of them have died due to biting cold wave conditions.

NEW DELHI

According to the study, 51 per cent of the women surveyed in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai felt unsafe while travelling on roads while 73 per cent said they were scared of travelling alone at night.

The study conducted by Navteq, global provider of navigation enabled maps, and TNS Market Research claims 87 per cent women regarded Delhi as most unsafe city while Mumbai was touted as the safest city by 74 per cent women.

While women in Kolkata felt safer than those in Delhi and Mumbai, most women in Chennai felt their city was safer than Delhi but not as safe as Mumbai.

The study also claimed that to find their way, most women preferred to seek direction from friends and family before setting out while en-route in unfamiliar areas, a similar number will seek directions from strangers with an aim to overcome the fear of losing their way.

The survey carried out across the four metro cities comprised of 760 respondents.

According to the FIR lodged at Focal Point police station against Dina Nath, the girl was playing outside her house when the accused took her to his room and raped her.

On hearing the cries of the baby girl, her mother caught the elderly man raping the child and handed him over to police this morning, they said. The girl has been admitted in a government hospital here.

“I am very happy that BJP has categorically supported Kejriwal. It has vindicated once again what I have been saying that the whole campaign of Anna Hazare and Ramdev has been conceived, planned and executed by RSS and the BJP,” Singh told reporters here.

“I have been saying since the very begninning that there is an alliance and the entire game is being played as part of the alliance. Whatever I had been saying has been proved correct,” he said.

Singh also wondered why the money which was meant for India Against Corruption was transferred to Kejriwal’s trust.

“For what reason money taken for India Against Corruption if is deposited in the bank account of another NGO. Kejriwalji talks about transparency and RTI. So, now he has to answer this,” Singh said.

The Congress leader also attacked another Team Anna member Kiran Bedi and pointed out that she now wants to return the additional money she had taken from other NGOs through inflated Bills.

“This means if the corrupt people return money, they will also be absolved of their crime. Then why has A Raja been kept in jail. Raja also returns money and comes out?” he contended.

“As far as the detention of Anna Hazare is concerned, we disagree with the approach of the government, though we have a different opinion on this subject (of Lokpal Bill),” state secretary of CPI(M) M Y Tarigami told reporters here.

“We have a different opinion about making this anti-corruption law effective but certainly there is a concern of the civil society represented by Anna Hazare, which we think must be considered,” he said.

The Prime Minister should come under the ambit of the Lokpal Bill, but there should be a separate judicial commission at the state-level and central-level which should keep checks on higher judiciary, he said.

On the resumption of talks between India and Pakistan, Tarigami said he welcomed the move, but the pace of dialogue process was slow which disappointed the people of Kashmir.

Tarigami also lashed out at the state government for failing to implement the eight-point proposal recommended by the Parliamentary Committee last year.

“What are the lessons we learnt during the last year’s unrest. Parliamentary delegation submitted an eight-point proposal but what happened. This government is silent,” he said.

Tarigami said the Centre’s three interlocutors “might have done some useful work but that was not enough.” He appealed to the Prime Minister to take an initiative to also hold talks with those who are not part of “democratic setup”.