All posts tagged Madhya Pradesh

Press Release- Is organising for proper health services for a poor a `criminal activity’ ? #Vaw #Stateoppression


Release Madhuri immediately

 

New Delhi, May 20th , New Delhi

National Alliance for Maternal Health and Human Rights (NAMHHR), a group of civil society organisations from across the country have come together as a broad alliance, that strongly condemn the use of court proceedings against maternal health activist, Ms Madhuri working in Jagrit Adivasi Dalit Sangathan(JADS1) who has been arrested on 16th of May 2013. She has been arrested for forcing a pregnant woman i.e. Baniya Bai who was in a critical condition and was in labour to deliver in full public view just outside the Menimata PHC. The case was filed against Madhuri, Baniya Bai’s Husband, Basant and others by the compounder and was registered as FIR No 93 of 2008. This case of Baniya Bai is also part of the writ petition filed in the High Court of MP, Indore Bench in which the status of maternal health services was raised in light of 29 maternal deaths recorded in a span of 9 months in Barwani DH.

Madhuri appeared in the court on 16th May at Shri D.P. Singh Sewach, JMFC and informed, that the police had filed a closure report (khatma) but had not stated clear reasons for the closure and therefore the report was refused. Madhuri was arrested from the court complex and has been remanded in JC till 30th May 2013 and will be placed in Khargone women’s Jail.

As social health activists, many of us are witness to the fact that the area has a history of organised action and peaceful protests for improvement of rural health services, specifically for maternal health services. The details of the case clearly show that Madhuri informed the police officials and helped the pregnant women and newborn to get emergency obstetric care after delivery. However, instead the administration who should have taken a stringent action against the hospital staff (the compounder and the nurse) who forced Baniya to leave the hospital and asked for informal fees from the family members have arrested Madhuri.

We, the civil society groups are extremely disturbed by it and need an answer from the administration as why helping and organising for proper health services for a poor vulnerable family can be construed as a `criminal activity’.

Details of the case are as follows:

A ST resident of of village Sukhpuri, Barwani. Baniya Bai was taken to the Menimata PHC for delivery by her father-in-law, Dalsingh, on the night of 11 November 2008.  They made the 15 km journey on a bullock cart because no other transport was available.  After admitting and taking a cursory look at her, the compounder, V.K. Chauhan, and nurse, Nirmala, left the PHC and went home.

The next morning, Baniya was forced by the compounder and the nurse to leave the hospital.  Her family was asked for Rs. 100, which they did not have and so Dalsing immediately went to get money from their village.  Despite attempts to re-admit Baniya Bai to the PHC, the compounder flatly refused saying that they could not manage the delivery so she would have to go to Barwani DH or Silawad Hospital.

Baniya’s relatives tried to get the Menimata hospital compounder, nurse and staff to call for the Janani Express, but were unsuccessful. The family was told to make its own arrangements to refer to a higher hospital.  When forced to leave the PHC Baniya Bai crawled out of the labour room, on to the road outside the PHC, where she lay down in severe pain.

Eventually, Baniya’s mother-in-law, Suvali Bai, went looking for a Dai in the marketplace and found Jambai Nana, who had come to market collect her wages. After hearing about Baniya Bai’s situation, Jambai agreed to assist her, and at around 12PM, conducted a normal delivery on the road outside the hospital. The father-in-law gave his dhoti (loin cloth) to provide cover for Baniya Bai during delivery. Following this incident, a crowd gathered outside the health centre.

Madhuri was passing by, inquired about what was happening. She then called up the Silawad CHC, the Silawad Police Station as well as health officials from Barwani. Upon being informed, senior officials from the health department ordered for a vehicle to be sent immediately to the Menimata PHC. After being denied emergency obstetric care and being forced to deliver in public view, Baniya Bai’s and her child were taken to the Silawad Hospital for admission. The compounder was suspended after repeated demands for action from JADS, but was soon reinstated.

1 JADS is a membership- based mass organisation of several thousand families, has been campaigning for over 14 years for the realisation of the constitutional and legal rights of adivasis in Barwani, Madhya Pradesh, one of the most backward districts of the country.

contact us –http://namhhr.blogspot.in/

SIGN PETITION FOR MADHURI HERE –http://petitions.halabol.com/2013/05/17/release-maternal-health-activist-madhuri-immediately

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Son molests Dalit girl, father sets her ablaze in Madhya Pradesh #Vaw #WTFnews


Last Updated: Sunday, May 19, 2013,
Zee Media Bureau

Bhopal: In a shocking incident, a 15-year-old Dalit girl was set afire by a youth’s father whose son was arrested by police on molestation charges filed by the victim.

Reports indicate the Dalit girl suffered 90 percent burn injuries and is battling for her life at a hospital in Bhopal.

The teenage girl was molested by the youth when she had gone out of house for some work, following which her family lodged a FIR against the accused.

Enraged with his son’s arrest, the youth’s father reached at the girl’s place on Saturday and poured kerosene on her and set her ablaze.

The police have registered attempt to murder case against the person.

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Tribals protest over Madhuri being sent to Jail for speaking for the ‘right of pregnant women #Vaw


PLEASE SIGN PETITION FOR HER RELEASE HERE

http://petitions.halabol.com/2013/05/17/release-maternal-health-activist-madhuri-immediately

May 18, 2013, 03.55AM IST TNN

INDORE: Tribals from different villages of Barwani are on an indefinite dharna in front of police stations in the district protesting judicial remand of Jagrit Adivasi Dalit Sangathan (JADS) leader Madhuri. Different social organizations from the state have come under the banner of Jan Sangharsh Morcha to protest against the development.

Alok Agrawal of Jan Sangarsh Morcha said the incident of sending Madhuri to judicial custody has exposed the ‘Janani Suraksha Scheme’ of Madhya Pradesh government. He said an activist is sent to jail for speaking for the ‘right of pregnant women.’

Har Singh of JADS said, tribals are sitting in front of different police stations of the district including Pati, Silawad, Pansemal and Niwali. He said the protests will continue till fake cases against Madhuri were not revoked and guilty are punished.

Madhuri had refused bail in a five-year-old case registered against her and four other persons at Menimata under Silawad police stations. She was sent to Khargone jail on judicial custody on Thursday.

Social organizations claimed that the incident has once again highlighted the apathetic condition of health services and schemes like rural health mission in tribal areas. A case under sections of 353, 332, 147, 148 and 342 of IPC was registered against Madhuri in 2008 for raising question mark on health service and system.

On November 12, 2008 a pregnant tribal women Baniya Bai of Shukpuri village was forced out of Public Health Service (PHC) of Menimata. Despite repeated request she was not taken in and Baniya Bai delivered her child on the road in front of PHC. Madhuri of JADS was passing by and immediately summoned an ambulance and took the tribal woman to the hospital. Thereafter, she launched a protest against the PHC.

Irked over a compounder of PHC Menimata Vijay Kumar filed a complain under a non- bailable offence against the social activist Madhuri.

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Man gets 10-year RI for locking wife’s private parts #VAW #WTFnews


TNN | May 18, 2013, 05.07 AM IST

Man gets 10-year RI for locking wife's private parts
Chouhan’s cruelty had come to light after his wife tried to commit suicide by consuming poison.
INDORE: The district court on Friday sentenced a 45-year-old man to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment for putting a ‘chastity lock’ on his wife’s private parts.

Special additional sessions judge A K Singh found Sohan Lal Chouhan guilty under sections 326 (causing grievous hurt) and 498 A (subjecting married woman to cruelty) of the IPC. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 1,000 on him.

Public prosecutor Jyoti Tomar said Chouhan was arrested in July 2012. Out of the 14 witnesses presented before the court, three — including the couple’s son and daughter — had turned hostile. “However, the son admitted Chouhan hadn’t allowed him to meet his mother in the last four years,” Tomar said. “Besides, the statements of the doctor who had removed the ‘lock’, the policeman who had recovered the key from Chouhan and an independent witness helped in nailing Chouhan.”

Chouhan’s cruelty had come to light after his wife tried to commit suicide by consuming poison. While trying to insert a tube to extract the poison, hospital doctors were stunned to see the ‘locked’ genitals. She then revealed her husband had performed a crude surgery on her to ‘lock’ her private parts four years ago. In a statement, she said he suspected her of having an extramarital relationship.

The woman was married to Chouhan when she was 16 years old. She had consumed pesticide after Chouhan tried to rape their elder daughter.

 

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Gandhian activist arrested in MP, adivasis up in arms


Bhopal, May 17, 2013

 

Staff Reporter

 
A file picture of Gandhian activist Madhuri Krishnaswami who was arrested for fighting against the injustice meted out to adviasis in Madhya Pradesh.
The Hindu A file picture of Gandhian activist Madhuri Krishnaswami who was arrested for fighting against the injustice meted out to adviasis in Madhya Pradesh.
 
 

Madhuri Krishnaswamy, a leader of the Jagrit Adivasi Dalit Sangathan (JADS) – which works for health and labour rights in the south-western Madhya Pradesh – was sent to judicial custody for a fortnight, on Thursday. Ms. Krishnaswamy, popularly called Madhuri Ben, and four others were summoned by Judicial Magistrate First Class D. P. Singh Sewach in Barwani on Thursday for a 2008 case of rioting and assaulting a public servant.

The police, in fact, had filed a closure report for lack of evidence, but the court took cognizance of the testimony of plaintiff Vijay Chouhan and summoned the respondents. Only Madhuri Ben appeared and was sent to Khargone Women’s Prison after she refused to seek bail. Two of the four others are already on bail. The others are expected to be arrested soon.

In 2008, Madhuri had alerted health and police officials after a tribal woman was forced to deliver her child on the road, after been evicted from a primary health centre by the compounder Mr. Chouhan. He also filed the case against the JADS, was suspended only to be reinstated later.

JADS activists picketed at six police stations in Barwani district on Friday. Union rural development minister was also in the district for the Congress’ Parivartan Yatra. “We told him that arresting the person who exposed the government is injustice. He said he spoke to the chief secretary. We also told him that we are only getting Rs. 22 to 26 as MNREGA wages (instead of the stipulated Rs. 100). He did not say anything,” Harsing Jamre of the JADS told The Hindu.

District superintendent of police R. C. Burra told this reporter, “We had to arrest her as the court ordered it… He (Mr. Jairam Ramesh) asked about her and we gave him all the details of the case.”

Ms. Krishnaswamy is scheduled to appear before the Chief Judicial Magistrate on May 30.

She was served a show-cause notice of externment from the district administration, last year, which accused her of preventing officials from doing their duties. This came after she protested against the death of a tribal woman after 27 hours of labour without medical help. Mr. Ramesh had then too written to chief secretary R. Parasuram to intervene.

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Controversy looming large over Chutka nuclear project


Shashikant Trivedi  |  Bhopal  May 15, 2013 Last Updated at 09:23 IST

Upcoming project in MP to displace local tribal population; proposed site in highly seismic zone near Kanha National Par

Locals of Mandla district will once again raise their voices against 1400 MW NPCIL (Nuclear Power Corporation India Limited) Chutka project which is coming up in highly seismic zone, near Kanha national park and adjacent  to one of the least polluted river Narmada. State government officials have already issued land acquisition notices to local people, almost all of them are tribal, and have slapped a NEERI (National Environmental Engineering Research Institute) report which is Greek to them.

The district administration has called a public hearing on 24th of this month to invite claims, objections and suggestions suggestion on the project that pose risk to rich diversity and more importantly pre-historic evidences of human civilization in the area. Members of Chutka Parmanu Sangharsh Samiti, have demanded immediate cancellation of the meeting and threatened to stage dharna from 20th of this month if their demand is not met.

NEERI has readied environment impact assessment report on the project.  On the other hand district collector told BS that all formalities and documentation procedures have been completed and there are people who want this project to come up.

Interestingly, when world is debating safety of nuclear power project after 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan, Jabalpur-Mandla belt also experienced an earthquake on 22 May 1997 of 7 magnitude on Richter. The epicenter of this earthquake was at Kosamghat –hardly 20 kilometers away from the proposed site.

According to Navratan Dubey, secretary of Chutkha Parmanu Sangharsh Samiti, the district collector handed over the NEERI report on 21 April 2013 to them and gave one month period to study it. “Entire report is in English and is in scientific terms, how can villagers study it and come up with even suggestions? He asks, “The NEERI took two years to prepare it and they want us to analyse it in one month. We have demanded the district collector to give a Hindi version of the report and a time of two months so that villagers can understand it. It would be impossible for them even if they are in favour of the project,” Dubey said, “We will launch our protest from 20 of this month if they do not listen to us. We want the public hearing to be cancelled.”

Villagers of Chutka, Tatighat, Kunda, Bhaliwara and Patha are in the core area of the project. Villagers are more enraged as they have already been displaced due to Bargi dam on Narmada River. The project site also falls under the scheduled area.

The district collector Lokendra Singh Jatav told BS telephonically from Mandla, “We have given them enough copies of the NEERI report in Hindi and enough time. There are people who want development and they are in favour of the project, we will go ahead as per schedule. We have already issued land acquisition notifications and few with vested interest are opposing it.”

Though the project is yet to come out of the drawing board, the district administration has issued notices under the 1994 land acquisition Act. Members of Chutka Parmanu Sangharsh Samiti also allege that district administration officials are forcefully moving ahead without taking them into confident. “They have not taken permission from gram sabhas and ignored decisions and resolutions of villagers in contrast to the fact that Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996, has vested all rights on deciding developmental activities to the gram sabhas,” said Rajkumar Sinha, who is fighting for rights of oustees of Bargi dam. He is advising villagers on Chutka Parmanu Sangharsh Samiti on environment and other issues.

The samiti members said they were already displaced when the Bargi dam on Narmada River was conceived. “We are strictly against the project as we do not want to move for another project,” Dubey added. The district collector was not available for comment. However the district collector clarified that all legal and documentary procedures have been completed.

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#India – Sites scouted for biggest nuclear fuel fabrication plant #WTFnews


HYDERABAD, May 14, 2013

Y. Mallikarjun, The Hindu

N. Sai Baba— Photo: By Special Arrangement

N. Sai Baba— Photo: By Special Arrangement

Sites in Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan are on the radar for setting up a third nuclear fuel fabrication facility to meet requirements of nuclear power reactors, even as the Ministry of Environment and Forests’ approval for the second unit at Kota, Rajasthan is awaited.

The site selection committee of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) visited Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh and few other places in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh to find a suitable site for what will be the biggest nuclear fuel fabrication facility, with an envisaged production of 1,250 tonnes a year.

The Nuclear Fuel Complex (NFC) in Hyderabad, with an installed capacity of 4,780 MW, is currently meeting the fuel requirements of 20 nuclear reactors. Of them, 18 are Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs) and two are Boiling Water Reactors.

NFC chief executive N. Sai Baba told The Hindu here on Monday that the NFC produced 812 tonnes of fabricated fuel — the highest ever — in 2012-13 and was aiming for an output of 900 tonnes this year. He said the Kota facility, with an investment of Rs. 1,600 crore, was envisaged to produce 500 tonnes per year and expected to be operational by 2017.

Four PHWR units of 700 MW each — the third and fourth units of Kakrapar (Gujarat) and seventh and eighth units of the Rajasthan Atomic Power Station — are under construction and expected to go on stream in the next few years. By 2020, a total of 2,000 tonnes of fuel would be required by various reactors and the NFC was gearing up to meet the needs, Mr. Sai Baba said.

At present, 60 per cent of the raw material for nuclear fuel is being met indigenously and the rest imported mainly from Russia and Kazakhstan. The DAE is looking for more vendors from countries such as Uzbekistan and Namibia.

Mr. Sai Baba said the NFC had achieved a good recovery from the first consignment of uranium ore concentrate received from the Tummalapalle uranium mine and the processing plant located in Kadapa district of Andhra Pradesh. Of the estimated 1.5 lakh tonnes of uranium reserves identified in the country, 72,000 tonnesare from Tummalapalle. Another one lakh tonnes were expected from this place as only 10 km area of the total 35 km had been explored so far.

Besides the four upcoming PHWRs, the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited is building 10 more 700 MW reactors for commissioning between 2020 and 2022.

  • DAE team visits places in Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh
  • The proposed plant will have an envisaged production capacity of 1,250 tonnes a year

The DAE has already scouted for sites in Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh

 

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#RIP- Renowned Islamic scholar, progressive thinker, author Asghar Ali Engineer no more


RIP Asghar Ali (1)

 

Mumbai, May 14 (IANS) Renowned Islamic scholar, progressive thinker, author and Dawoodi Bohra reformist leader Asghar Ali Engineer passed away here Tuesday after a prolonged illness, family members said. He was 74.

Engineer, a widower, is survived his son Irfaan and daughter Seema Indorewala. He was ailing for several months and breathed his last at his Santacruz East home around 8 a.m. The funeral is likely to be held Wednesday, Irfaan indicated.

Born in Salumbar, Rajasthan, in a Dawoodi Bohra Amil (priest) family March 10, 1939, Engineer acquired his training in Quranic tafsir (commentary), tawil (hidden interpretations of Quran), fiqh (jurisprudence) and hadith (Prophet’s teachings, sayings) during his early days.

His father, Sheikh Qurban Husain, was the Amil who also taught the young Engineer Arabic. Later, Engineer studied all the major religious works and scriptures by eminent scholars.

He graduated as a civil engineer from Indore, Madhya Pradesh, and went on to work for nearly two decades in the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

In the early 1970s, he sought voluntary retirement from his BMC service and plunged into the reformist movement in the miniscule Dawood Bohra community, estimated at around 1.20 million worldwide.

In 1972, he assumed a leading role in the movement from Udaipur and also mobilised national and international public opinion through media articles and speeches.

In 1977, he was elected general secretary of Central Board of Dawoodi Bohra Community at its maiden conference in Udaipur and guided the reformist movement.

Later, Engineer devoted his time and energies to work for communal harmony and combat communalist forces in the country.

The recipient of several awards and honours from around the world, Engineer travelled across the globe speaking at international conferences, seminars and universities on Islam, peace, human rights and other issues.

He founded the Institute of Islamic Studies (1980) and the Centre for Study of Society and Secularism (1993), and also authored around 50 books on various topics and believed in treating all religions with equality.

According to reformists, Engineer never believed in blind acceptance of dogmas inherited from the past but strived to rethink issues and reinterpret Islam in keeping with modern times.

Asghar Ali Engineer, leader of the Progressive Dawoodi Borah movement speaks to Madhu Trehan on how priestly families in the community are distorting Islam, challenging fatwas, how Satanic Verses should be challenged but not banned & more.

 

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India – Who decides what we eat?


The new biotechnology Bill will allow biotech firms to tamper with our food
Devinder Sharma

Devinder Sharma

11-05-2013, Issue 19 Volume 10

Illustration: Vikram NongmaithemIllustration: Vikram Nongmaithem

In March, US President Barack Obama signed the HR 933 continuing resolution — popularly known as the Monsanto Protection Act — that effectively divests the federal courts of their constitutional power to stop the planting or sale of genetically modified (GM) seeds and crops regardless of the health and environmental consequences. In other words, whether you like it or not, despite the havoc it can play with your life and environment, you have no choice but to quietly accept GM foods.

On 22 April, amidst the noise over the 2G Spectrum and Coal blocks scams, the government introduced in Parliament the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI) Bill, 2013. The jubilation that followed in the Association for Biotechnology-Led Enterprises (ABLE) was telling of how industry and the government work in tandem in this country.

Setting aside all concerns expressed by the 2004 Task Force on Agricultural Biotechnology, led by eminent scientist MS Swaminathan, the Bill is a hurried attempt to remove all possible obstacles in the promotion of the risky and controversial technology. In a lot of ways, the BRAI Bill is a precursor to the Monsanto Protection Act in the US. While the US government has removed all regulatory hurdles in the promotion of GM crops, the BRAI Bill too makes the task much easier for biotech firms by providing a single-window, fast-track clearance for GM crops. In the garb of “confidential commercial information”, it imposes restrictions on the application of the Right to Information Act. It also has certain clauses that limit the jurisdiction of the courts. The BRAI Bill, therefore, provides a strong and legally-tight protective shield to biotechnology companies.

The need to curb transparency and accountability arises only when something dangerous has to be kept hidden from public glare. It first begins by pro-industry scientists occupying senior government and university positions to create scare by misrepresenting facts in the name of ‘science-based’ debates.

Writing in The Guardian, George Monbiot points to the particular instance when the chief veterinary officer of UK had “discounted fears that BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) could jump from one species to another”. The failure to acknowledge a scientific fact led to the emergence of mad cow disease.

In India, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research has been aggressively pushing for the use of GM crops in the name of food security. When the environment ministry questioned the veracity of scientific claims, and imposed in 2010 a moratorium on the genetically engineered food crop — Bt Brinjal — the GM industry was pushed on the backfoot. Adding to its woes was the 2012 report of the Standing Parliamentary Committee, which found “biotechnology regulation to be too small a focus on the vast canvas of biodiversity, environment, human and livestock health and therefore recommended an all-encompassing Biosafety Authority”.

Subsequently, after seven states — West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Kerala — refused to go in for open field trials of GM crops, the only option left was to bulldoze public resistance through a legally binding mechanism. The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) then swung into action, and knowing that the MOEF is no longer a natural ally, moved the introduction of the Bill to the Department of Science & Technology, which incidentally is a promoter of the technology. The conflict of interest is clearly visible. But a defiant PMO continues to look the other way.

At the same time, citing “public interest”, the Bill has taken away the hold states have over agriculture and health. States can no longer refuse permission; they are left with only an advisory role.

What makes the Bill a subject for a serious national debate, besides of course looking into the role being played by the PMO in promoting corporate welfare, is that it impacts everyone in the country. Whether you want to know or not, the Bill provides biotechnology companies with unlimited powers to tamper with your food, health and environment. In the end, the decision is ours whether you would like the government and the GM firms to decide what you eat.

letters@tehelka.com

(Published in Tehelka Magazine, Volume 10 Issue 19, Dated 11 May 2013)

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India Child Soldiers: Thousands recruited, Government defends the records of the terror groups


Asian Centre for Human Rights
(ACHR has Special Consultative Status with the UN ECOSOC)
C-3/441-C, Janakpuri, New Delhi-110058, India
Phone: +91-11-25620583, 25503624
Email: suhaschakma@achrweb.org; Website: www.achrweb.org;  Twitter: www.twitter.com/ACHRIndia

09 May 2013

PRESS RELEASE

 

Thousands recruited as child soldiers, India defends the records of the terror groups before the UN Child Rights Committee

New Delhi:  Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) today released its report, “India’s Child Soldiers” (http://achrweb.org/reports/india/JJ-IndiasChildSoldiers2013.pdf), the first ever comprehensive study on the subject in India, and accused the Government of India of defending the records of the armed opposition groups, officially designated as terrorist groups, on the recruitment of child soldiers before the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. India in its first report on the implementation of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict to the UN Committee in 2011 stated that there is no recruitment of child soldiers including by the armed groups in India. The first periodic report of India (http://wcd.nic.in/crc3n4/crc3n4_2r.pdf) will come for preliminary examination by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child during its 66th pre-sessional working group to be held in Geneva from 7-11 October 2013 while NGOs are required to submit their reports by 1 July 2013 (http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/crc/crcwg66.htm). ACHR submitted its report today to the UN CRC Committee.

 

“The recruitment of child soldiers by the armed groups including the Naxalites is rampant and at least 3,000 children i.e. 500 in the North East and Jammu and Kashmir and about 2,500 in the Naxal affected States currently remain involved in armed conflicts. This estimate of child soldiers is conservative considering that the Maoists follow the policy of forcibly recruiting at least one cadre from each Adivasi family. ”- stated Mr Suhas Chakma, Director of Asian Centre for Human Rights.

 

In addition to providing 11 cases of forcible recruitment of child soldiers by the armed groups, Asian Centre for Human Rights presented a number of photographs of child soldiers surrendering with their arms before then Home Minister P Chidambaram and Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi in 2011 and 2012.

 

“Regrettably,  the State Governments of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have been recruiting children below 18 years as “boy-orderlies”  under Section 60 of the Madhya Pradesh Police Regulation and deploying them for combat purposes. While hundreds of children below 18 years have been recruited as “boy orderlies” in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh over the years, the State government of Chhattisgarh on a complaint filed by Asian Centre for Human Rights before the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights admitted in June 2011 that there are approximately 300 “boy-orderlies” employed in the state police force at present and seven of them were posted with 4th Battalion of Chhattisgarh Police at Mana in Raipur. These children are not only denied the right to education but deployed with the forces who are engaged in counter insurgency.” –asserted Asian Centre for Human Rights.

 

Article 4 of the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict states that armed opposition groups should not, under any circumstance, recruit or use in hostilities persons under the age of 18 years and the government shall take all feasible measures to prevent such recruitment and use, including the adoption of legal measures necessary to prohibit and criminalize such practices.

 

The Government of India, however, in its first report of 2011 stated that there is no recruitment of child soldiers by the armed groups as “India does not face either international or non-international armed conflict situations”.

 

“This position of the Government of India is not only bizarre but also a case where the Government is actually defending the records of the armed groups on recruitment of child soldiers before the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. India effectively protected the officially designated terror groups from condemnation of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child for the recruitment of child soldiers, a war crime under the international law.”- further stated Mr Chakma.

 

Asian Centre for Human Rights urged the Government of India to inquire as to why the recruitment of child soldiers by the officially designated terror groups was concealed from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and take appropriate actions against the officials who are effectively ended up whitewashing the records of the armed groups on the recruitment of child soldiers

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by kracktivist on May 9, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Advocacy, Announcements, Justice, Kractivism, Law
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Posted by kracktivist on May 9, 2013

http://kractivist.wordpress.com/2013/05/09/india-child-soldiers-thousands-recruited-government-defends-the-records-of-the-terror-groups/

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