Make pepper spray available at low price: Police study

New Delhi, Sep 20 (PTI) Making small bottles of pepper spray available at a very low price is a "key strategy" for enhancing the security of the fairer sex proposed by a police- backed study, which found that markets and colleges are the places where the capital's women feel most insecure.

This and many other recommendations form part of the study "How secure or insecure are women in the city of Delhi" conducted by the National Institute of Criminology and Forensic Science for the police think-tank Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD).

"Every girl should carry pepper spray and it should be available in a small bottle at a very low price ... Easily available in the market," said the study, for which 70 women each were interviewed in markets, colleges, railway stations, malls, ISBT, airport, slums and villages.

The study recommends that women should always move in groups if possible and should carry contact numbers of women helpline and police besides having "some basic knowledge" of law.

About 80.40% of women interviewed at market places said they felt insecure at the place while the figure for colleges was 72.10 per cent. Shopping malls came third where 60 per cent of respondents said they felt insecurity.

Level of insecurity was lowest among slum dwellers (8.70 per cent) followed by respondents from village (22.8 per cent).

Personal facts like low level of confidence and alcoholic spouses made slum dwellers (80 per cent of the respondents) insecure, the study said.

I want to teach men what their mothers didn't

Shemin Joy

New Delhi, Aug 29 (PTI)

"I am here to teach men what their mothers didn't teach them," declared Women and Child Development Minister Renuka Chaudhury at a function in New Delhi on Wednesday. Chaudhury has been at the receiving end of numerous hate mails after taking certain pro-women initiatives.

"Women are the worst sufferers of verbal and physical abuse and they need protection," said Chaudhury. She added that she got the distasteful mails after the recent implementation of the Domestic Violence (Prevention) Act.

Chaudhury was speaking at a function to award the ISO 9001:2000 certificate for Delhi Police's Parivartan, an initiative to combat voilence against women.

The choicest abuses used by men during altercations are based on women and their relationships with them, she said, adding that pro-women initiatives aimed at teaching men what their mothers have not taught them.

"People say pro-women legislations are often misused and abused. Yes, there is a handful of them, but one thing that we should keep in mind is that millions of women also need help," she said.

Many men were "upset" at the implementation of the Domestic Violence (Prevention) Act, claimed Chaudhury. "Gauging by the number of e-mails I have received and their content, I think I need the maximum security in the country," she added in a lighter vein.

"You see many things in Hindi movies. It is okay in movies but not in real life," she said. Men often assume that women have always played second fiddle to them and will continue to do so, she added.

"Can you think of life without women? Now, it is the era of feminisation of the globe and you see women everywhere. They lead the struggle for a decent livelihood," said Chaudhury.

"It is not that we don't want men. We need their help and they need to understand that women are not mere objects," she said.

Contact details of police stations a click away

Shemin Joy

New Delhi, Sep 04 (PTI)

Are you searching for the telephone number of the Rangpo police station in Sikkim or the residence number of the officer-in-charge of Kiltan police station in Lakshadweep?

The contact details of the police stations and officials across the country are now just a click away, the first time in the history of policing in the country.

The Bureau of Police Research and Development, government's police think-tank, has already uploaded contact details of police stations of six states and four Union territories on its website www.bprd.gov.in.

The postal address of police station with phone and fax numbers and residential phone numbers of station in-charges can be accessed through the Internet now, a senior BPRD official said.

It also has the contact details of offices of assistant police commissioners and deputy superintendents of police of respective areas. Some police stations have provided their e-mail IDs also.

The contact details of Andaman and Nicobar (20 police stations), Daman and Diu (2), Dadra Nagar Haveli (2), Delhi (116), Lakshadweep (9), Goa [Images] (24), Meghalaya (30), Mizoram (37), Sikkim (26) and Tripura (58) are provided in the site.

"This is a beginning to get police stations connected through the Internet which will improve connectivity and access and making policing in the country transparent," Kiran Bedi, BPRD director general, told PTI.

Bedi said BPRD envisages a scenario when all police stations across the country could be connected through e-mails where people can sent information to investigators and lodge complaints.

"We should develop a software such that a mail, which is a complaint or information, received at the police station is acknowledged automatically," Bedi said.

Incidents like refusal by officials to file FIRs on missing children and women in Uttar Pradesh's Nithari could have been avoided if there was a "fool-proof" mechanism to ensure accountability, she said.

"We should utilise available technology to plug the loopholes in the system and open it up," she said.
BPRD feels that providing contact details of police stations across the country would bring people and police together.

"We are now providing postal and telephone contacts. We are looking at a time of e-connectivity and e-interaction, a time when common people can come on a group chat and interact with the local Station House Officer," she said.

The BPRD is expected to provide contact details of police stations in the remaining states and union territories soon.

If you are a woman, be ready to face problems in filing FIR

If you are a woman, be ready to face problems in filing FIR

Shemin Joy

New Delhi, Aug 8 (PTI) If you are a woman approachinga police station to get an FIR lodged, chances are that youmay go unheard or be ill-treated by the men and women inkhaki.

But if a person is accompanied by a group of socialactivists or local politicians, the treatment he or she getsat the police station is different, according to a studycommissioned by the Bureau of Police Research and Development(BPRD).

The pilot study on "Registration of FIRs by Police ina Metropolitan City" was conducted by Mumbai's Tata Instituteof Social Sciences.

"If a woman goes on her own then she is abused or notheard...foul language is sometimes used and uncomfortablecomments may be passed when a woman visits police station,"the report authored by Vijay Raghavan and Kavisha Mann states.

BPRD Director General Kiran Bedi says this trend isnot confined to a particular region or area. "You can see itall across the country. To get an FIR registered is aherculean task for anyone these days."

Advocating the need for reforms in police, Bedi toldPTI, "the common man is individually weak and FIR is a statemonopoly. Everyone cannot approach a magistrate to get his orher complaint registered and even organised groups have theirlimitations."

The study, which covered a number of police stationsin an undisclosed region in Mumbai, also says the behaviour ofwomen constables was "equally rude and not different" fromthat of their male counterparts.

The educational and social background of thecomplainant also influences the police in how they deal withthe case, says the report.

It also states political pressure from within thesystem not to file FIRs was "high" as the registration ofcrime was an indicator of the performance of the ruling party.

"One of the police personnel interviewed hinted thatthere is no freedom with the police at the ground level toregister FIRs as this leads to 'rising crime rates' which isfrowned upon by their seniors and political bosses," it says.

There were also instances that FIRs were not filedbecause the accused had a "very good rapport" with the policeand a "regular source of income" for them.

The study states police informers could also influencethe registration of case.

In one particular incident recorded in the report, aninformer got a woman arrested in a case of kidnapping, wherethere was a possibility that he was taking revenge for a fightthat took place between two parties.

"Factors such as overload of cases, under staffing,cumbersome procedures and red tape, mischievous and falsecomplaints, pressure from political masters to under reportcrime...(are) leading to the reluctance on the part of thepolice to register complaints," it says.

The Supreme Court, in its judgement last year, had said that it is the "statutory" duty of the police to registerand investigate a case on receipt of an information. PTI

(Photo: FIR on Indira Gandhi's assassination)

Mahatma Gandhi Assassination FIR - 1948

I could not resist when I saw this in some one else's blog. This is the English translation of the FIR...

Rgds Shemin

English translation of original F.I.R. of Mahatma Gandhi Assassination Case - 1948

First Information of a Cognizable Crime Reported under Section 154, C.P.C.Police Station : Tughlak RoadDistrict : CentralNo. : 68Date and hour of occurence : 30.1.1948 / 5:45 P.M.

1. Date and hour when reported

2. Name and residence of informant /complainant: Shri Nand Lal Mehta, son of Shri Natha Lal Mehta, Indian, Building Lala Suraj Prasad M Block, Connaught Circus

3. Brief description of offence (with section) and of property carried off, if any:302 I.P.C.

4 . Place of occurence and distance/ direction from Police Station: Birla House, distance 2 furlongs

5. Name and address of the criminal:

6. Steps taken regarding investigation/ explanation of delay in recording information

Statement of Shri Nand Lal Mehta, son of Shri Natha Lal Mehta, Indian, resident of Connaught Circus Building Lala Sarju Prasad:

Today I was present at Birla House. Around ten minutes past five in the evening, Mahatma Gandhi left his room in Birla House for the Prayer Ground. Sister Abha Gandhi and sister Sanno Gandhi were accompanying him. Mahatma was walking with his hands on the shoulders of the two sisters. Two more girls were there in the group.

I alongwith Lala Brij Kishan, a silver merchant, resident of No. 1, Narendra Place, Parliament Street and Sardar Gurbachan Singh, resident of Timar Pur, Delhi were also there. Apart from us, women from the Birla household and two-three members of the staff were also present. Having crossed the garden, Mahatma climbed the concrete steps towards the prayer place.

People were standing on both the sides and approximately three feet of vacant space was left for the Mahatma to pass through. As per the custom the Mahatma greeted the people with folded hands.

He had barely covered six or seven steps when a person whose name I learnt later as Narayan Vinayak Godse, resident of Poona, stepped closer and fired three shots from a pistol at the Mahatma from barely 2 / 3 feet distance which hit the Mahatma in his stomach and chest and blood started flowing. Mahatma ji fell backwards, uttering "Raam - Raam".

The assailant was apprehended on the spot with the weapon. The Mahatma was carried away in an unconscious state towards the residential unit of the Birla House where he passed away instantly and the police took away the assailant.

Sd/-N.L. Mehta/30.1.1948.

Having received the information I rushed to the Birla House to find the dead body of the Mahatma at room No. 3. Met Shri Nand Lal Mehta, his statement recorded and got confirmed after reading it out to him. Copy of the statement handed over to him. Came to know that the assailant was whisked away by the Assistant Sub-Inspector. It was a case of Section 302 Indian Penal Code. All the case papers were sent to the Police Station Tughlak Road and I got engaged in conducting investigations. A special report may be forwarded through the police station.

Sd. in English/30 January

R u a journalist?

One of my friends SMSed me:

Are you emotionally numbed?

Creativley challenged?

Artistically void?

Socially outcast?

and

Financilally zero?

Congratulations

YOU ARE A JOURNALIST!!!

FCI official Ram's family demands CBI probe

Shemin Joy/PTI

New Delhi, July. 13 (PTI): The family of FCI official P C Ram today demanded a CBI probe into the gunbattle between police and ULFA in which he was killed, claiming the operation was aimed at eliminating him and not the militants who had kidnapped him.

Ram's son Prabin Gautam claimed photographs and video from the scene of yesterday's gunbattle suggested that his father was "brutally" murdered after he shouted to police that he was the kidnapped FCI official.

"It was a planned operation aimed at eliminating my father. Police knew he was in the house but went ahead with the operation. If they really wanted to save him, they could have. But their target was my father and not the ULFA," Prabin told PTI.

He said the family wanted a CBI inquiry into the gunbattle at Borkapanitenga village in Assam yesterday as it felt that it was a "pre-planned, purposeful mission to esure that Ram is killed". Two ULFA militants were also killed in the gunbattle.

Prabin also said the family is conducting another autopsy of Ram's body to "prove" that he was "deliberately" killed. "They have not provided us the post-mortem report. He was hit by bullets in the head and other parts of the body and we don't think this was accidental," he claimed.

"Assam Police faced embarrassment when they went to town saying that Ram's body was found on June 30 but ULFA said he was alive. And we think the embarrassment the police faced in this case was the reason for his killing," he claimed.

July 12: Kidnapped FCI official P C Ram died on Thursday after being caught in crossfire between a police team and a group of ULFA cadres in Assam's Kamrup district. (READ THE FULL STORY)

Wonder Taj! Nothing Official About It

By Shemin Joy/PTI

NEW DELHI: The Taj getting voted as one of the seven wonders in a worldwide poll may make many an Indian heart swell with pride, but the campaign has also drawn criticism for using sentiments of people around the world for commercial gains.

The UNESCO, which has the official mandate for recognising and preserving world heritage, has taken pains to distance itself from the campaign, saying the initiative cannot in any significant and sustainable manner contribute to the preservation of sites elected by the public.

There has been a big rush by Indians to register their vote for the Taj through SMS and the Internet.

There were also a number of promotional campaigns exhorting the people to vote for the white marble monument over the last one month, many of them involving Bollywood stars and other celebrities.

But critics of the campaign complain that while there is nothing official about the new seven wonders of the world, the mobile phone companies and the Swiss organisation that conducted the poll have made a lot of money.

Mobile company Airtel offered the first SMS to its users to cast their vote for the Taj for free, but the subsequent SMSes were charged at Rs three. Normally, the SMS rate ranges from 50 paise to Rs one.

Asked if the company shared the revenue with the organisers of the campaign or with anyone else, an Airtel official refused to divulge the details.

However, generally, in case of such 'premium SMSes', there is an in-built system for sharing the revenue.

Media critic Sudhapradha Sengupta criticised the campaign, saying the media is celebrating non-news. "People will vote for sentimental reasons. And the organisers are cashing in on the hype that has been created by the media and using the sentiments of the people," he said.

UNESCO clearly dissociated itself from the campaign, saying, "There is no comparison between Mr (Bernard) Weber's mediatised campaign and the scientific and educational work resulting from the inscription of sites on UNESCO's World Heritage List."

The world cultural body said in a statement that attaching sentimental or emblematic value of sites and inscribing them on a new list is not enough. The list of seven new wonders of the world will be the result of a private undertaking reflecting only the opinions of those with access to the Internet and not the entire world, the UNESCO said.

Countering the criticism, I media Corp, the India representative of the Swiss organisation 'New7wonders of the World', said the campaign was aimed at increasing awareness of world heritage, which would help in preserving the monuments.

"The tourism industry and the government will benefit from it. Due to the campaign, more tourists would be attracted to India," said R D Bhatnagar, Vice President of I media Corp.

About the revenue earned through the campaign, Bhatnagar said 15 per cent of the amount earned would be given to the government, while 75 per cent was to be retained by the telecom operators. The rest ten per cent was to be shared by the technical associates and the organisation.

The organisation, he said, would in turn utilise its share of the earnings in preservation of heritage monuments around the world.

A free market for journalists!!!

Hammer and Tongs
ALOKE THAKORE

When companies decide that they agree not to hire from their competitors, it is clear that they are forming a cartel designed to suppress wages

A complaint often heard about journalists and how greedy they have become, especially the younger lot, comes in the form of: He took the offer letter from us and then showed it to his present employers and then took double the hike. How unethical. And then there is the other one who took our offer letter, showed it to her bosses, got a hike, came back to us and then asked for an even better offer. Presumably the listener is supposed to sympathize with the predicament of these senior journalists or the HR executives in the face of such practices.

Such complaints were heard when Divya Bhaskar was launched in Gujarat, when DNA was launched in Mumbai, and whenever there is talk of hiring good journalists. Presumably that is what the cricket coach did when he went back with the BCCI offer and negotiated his terms with Kent. Or at least that is what one newspaper reported.

But this is not about cricket and coaches. It is about the seeming horror of journalists at such a practice by their colleagues. Let us start with what is now the acknowledged position of most newspapers in their editorial pages and also in the way they run stories on the news pages: the belief and commitment to the idea that free markets are efficient in addressing economic problems and needs. One of things that those who write on the efficiency of markets talk about is the manner in which free markets, unfettered by government regulations and other coercive mechanisms, allow for the price discovery to take place. It is only in conditions of free market that the seller of a good or service is able to get the highest price that the buyer is able to afford. Since there will be numerous buyers and numerous sellers, so we are informed, the proper price will be found and given to the seller of the service. It is for this reason that reducing the number of buyers, or sellers, or collusion among buyers or among sellers is seen as being an impediment to the free market process. Such a primer would not be necessary were it not for the fact that journalists are apparently horrified at the prospect of journalists who have nothing better than their skills moving from buyer to buyer trying to command the right price. They are just trying to discover the price of their skills.

But what about ethics or double-crossing, or the like? It is certainly less unethical than companies who decide, for example, not to poach from each other. That to me is collusion. When companies, necessarily fewer in number and hence with the ability to both agree and enforce such agreements, decide that they agree not to hire from their competitors, whether it be in the news business or in any other business, it is clear that they are forming a cartel designed to suppress wages. It is analogous to the mandi where middlemen often keep the procurement price of a perishable commodity low by refusing to buy above a certain price.

One can understand the anxiety of those charged with profit and loss responsibility in news organizations or the human resource executives charged with getting competent candidates at racked down wages in moaning about the uppity journalist who is merely following the logic espoused in their newspapers and magazines. It is the journalist that one is surprised about and concerned.

Do these journalists not get it? If today they are bothered about junior journalists trying to find out what is the cost of their wares, it may well be that these senior journalists’ price is also likely to be depressed. After all, it does not take a lot of imagination to realize that if there is a problem with those lower down the rung finding their right price, so there would be with those higher in the hierarchy seeking a reasonably right recompense for their services.

But then again it may be not be a question of imagination. It may be simply a case of false consciousness. Marx has his uses. While the logic of free market is fine for the company, for the economy, for the country, it does not seem to be that there should be a free market for labour, which allows someone to get the highest price for her skills and services. If at all there should be any sympathy, it should be for those who cannot poach and get the right candidate and for those journalists stuck in such no-poaching markets, and any lack of formal recorded knowledge prohibits one from naming them, which do not allow them to command the wages they deserve.

Contact: hammerntongs@fastmail.com

BORN IN CHAINS by Lemyao Shimray

After long time, I am back on the blogosphere... this time with my naga friend's Lemyao's piece.
Rgds
Shemin

BORN IN CHAINS
Lemyao Shimray

'My name is Thilaw
I am ten years old.
I go to school and I am in class – III.
The name of my school is Somra Government Junior High School.'

Smile

Those are the only common lines he and his school shares with other of the world. For him, the young boy's picture in his Social Studies book, combing hair, with smart school Uniform lives in another world. Thilaw have never seen school uniform in his life nor has he worn shoes to school.

His daily routine starts before the rooster goes for hip-hop atop the tree and ends after the owl hoots. He collects wood or work at fields for his teachers after school. He has to compete with time by kicking the early dust. With his meager lunch and books, a bit- too-tight-pants which clings to his narrow, undernourished body, slimy green snake-like fluid rubbed away from his shirt sleeve, Thilaw gets ready to face another 15 kilometer of journey by foot through the forest to attend school.

Gone is the buffoonery line- 'Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and strong'.


Unlike other good boys, Thilaw hates vacation because during vacation he was not allowed to play. He has to work for his teachers as a mode of payment in spite of the fees paid by his parents to the teachers. No one questions the forced labour because people like Thilaw are not supposed to ask such thing; they are destine to do it as a volunteer work. Yes! Ten years old boy performing manual labour for his teacher after school is a volunteer work inspite of the urge to play 'warlord' like in his English-I book.

No one questioned the force labour. Like Thilaw's parents, many other Burmese had accepted the law since 1962. Gen Ne Win's draconian era, where the wicked General believes in Force labour and military regime.

His says his books were brought by his parents from far-far away place and that they are very precious.

Another Irony of truth.

His parents like many parents who reside in Eastern Nagaland in a village known as Phungtiere. They have to make two days journey to a place known as Layshi (North of Burma) to collect books for their children. It's a constant struggle. The thirst to educate their children makes them seek schools in the bordering villages of neighbouring country. It was not easy task as it's a constant struggle from getting books to trying to hire teachers for an abandoned school. Children monthly mid day meals were cut off to feed the teachers, Village development schemes are deducted to pay teachers salary and above that they sacrifice their sons and daughters for THE forced labour.

In the end when their children gain education they were frisk away by junta army to get enroll in Army schools and college, where they have to work under Military regime.

Some how it's hard to sing – We don't need no EDUCATION.

This child seems to have forgotten what its like to be free. They seem to have no fear of the prowling earthlings in the forest. Thirst and quest for knowledge were implanted on them so strongly, without them knowing. Sleep and darkness, play and day...all were robbed gently without them noticing.

Come children, angels from earth!
Let me cradle you to sleep.
place you
on the lap of the thunder.
Hear its roar and be afraid for once
'cos'
i saw in you
the lost of horrors.


As the schoool bell rang, Thilaw closes his books. He walks silently with a beaming smile to greet the terrace field of the Somra forest. Down below he saw what he had been seeing always - Chains and human beings, bending down, working hard, forced to please their masters.

June, 2007
Somra Village
Eastern Nagaland.

Lemyao Shimray