Obama checks out a girl

Don't they look like a couple of college boys?

It doesn't matter - you may have a Michelle or Carla by your side...

I loved the photo. It is one of those photos that brings an instant smile. The photographer was alert and fantastic at his job.

But of course, the media has to be condemned... now I see stories on the net that the photograph was doctored! Does the photo make the Americans uncomfortable? The speed with which the video appeared saying that the photo is lying ...excuse me, he wasn't looking at her behind, but watching his step, or ,or , or ... watch the video and decide... maybe he didn't mean to see her rear, it just appeared in his line of vision!
The video clears Obama, but poor Sarkozy is framed.

Another police excess

More on police brutality. This time from the eastern part of the country. A truck driver was shot dead by a policeman because he hit the police car! Cases like these show how those in power deal with common people. The incident shows their utter brutality towards defenceless persons who are not in a position to retaliate.

It is indeed sad that the police meant to protect people do just the opposite and become perpetrators of crime.

Do you think that the punishment for those in uniform, or those who hold posts of power and responsibility, should be stiffer than that slapped on ordinary persons who commit an offence?

Earlier posts
Cops as criminals
Haryana police needs better training

The ghost employees of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi

You must have heard of employees not showing up for work.
Even heard of employees that shirk work.
But have you ever heard of phantom employees? Employees that draw their salary every month but do not exist in human form? Well our Municipal Corporation of Delhi has thousands of such ghost employees.
But what is the number of the ghosts that inhabit the payment rolls of the corporation, no one knows, least of all the MCD.

The Times of India has been carrying a series of articles on the rot in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, which Delhiwallahs have nicknamed the Most Corrupt Department - where things move only by palm grease.

This corporation we are informed has two kinds of employees - the permanent ones and the daily wagers. Many of them do not show up for work. The report says that thousands of them may not even exist, but their names appear on the rolls and these phantoms draw salary!!

No wonder I have not seen a safai karamchari ( the sweeper) ever on the lane on which my house stands... though MCD has assigned sweepers to every street. On record there are hundreds of these workers. So no surprise that you see Delhi's streets so piled up with filth and the municipal parks neglected. The gardeners too exist only on the salary rolls and are not seen in the parks. If they were you would not find them neglected and overgrown. If you see a well laid out park, you can be sure, the residents' association is taking care of it by hiring its own gardeners.

One estimate is that the phantom employees could number around 45,000. Though they never show up for work, they draw their salaries, milking the system dry of crores of rupees every month, according to these reports. The rot has been known to our political masters, the councillors who we elect. The paper says that the move to weed away these fictitious workers was opposed by these councillors and MCD staff way back in 2002.

And by the look of things, the councillors are once again trying to stop the enquiry, says the Times of India today.

The MCD needs to come clear on many fronts. The people of Delhi need to know --
The number of employees the corporation has
The total salary bill of these employees
How many of them are permanent and how many temporary
What is the need to have 'temporary' workers if there are posts that are still lying vacant (according to some reports)
The residents associations need to be given the names of the sweepers and gardeners assigned to their locality, so that a check can be kept on their attendance and to confirm that they do exist!

Earlier posts on the MCD -
The most corrrupt Municipal Corporation of Delhi
Where is my leader

A later post
Shocking scandal - Over 22,000 ghost employees in MCD

Want to work for a better India?

Unnati Features and Women’s Feature Service are looking for dynamic young persons for an exciting short-term project that reaches out to young people

TWO POSTS (Based in Delhi)
The person, between 20 to 30 years old, should be -
* proficient in the use of web-based software for audio, video and data integration
* a good communicator in English and Hindi with an ability to address small and large groups
* able to interact personally with young people/students in particular
* available for the project from mid-July to mid-November to work on part-time basis
Postgraduate students/research scholars are welcome to apply. Salary will be based on ability and experience.


(FIELD WORKERS IN OTHER INDIAN CITIES)
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Please send your CV by July 7, 2009 to -
unnatifeatures@gmail.com

Cops as criminals

Another of my favourite topics - of the way we train our police. Looking at how they behave with the public, their training needs to be overhauled.

Time and again we come across cases where the police become perpetrators of crime. The police record of the way they deal with women is terrible, and downright atrocious if they happen to be poor and illiterate.. Apart from being brutal, as noted in an earlier post, there have been cases of the police resorting to sexual harassment and even rape. The police stations in India are the most women unfriendly places. Women are reluctant to walk into police stations to seek help or lodge a complaint. For the demeanor and the manner in which the policemen in India behave with women is downright crude (for want of a more apt word).

Last week, on June 18 we learnt of how two policemen threw a pregnant woman and her three-year-old daughter off the running Mailani-Gonda passenger train near Lucknow, after she and her husband refused to bribe them for travelling without a ticket. The woman came under the wheels of the train and died. The little girl miraculously escaped.

The public is so fed up with the high handed ways of the police force that neighbours and relatives of the couple caught hold of the two cops and beat them up mercilessly. They are said to have suffered multiple injuries and had to be admitted to hospital.

Our police trainers need to pay particular attention to the manner in which uniformed men should interact with the public. They need lessons on how to deal with law breakers, especially women, in a firm manner without getting physical. Some years ago I saw the police conduct a raid on a brothel on Brigade Road in Bangalore. The manner in which they were pulling out the sex workers from a building and pushing them into the police van was a terrible sight indeed. Most of the women appeared to be in their mid teens and with the brutal handling their clothes were torn. Some of them could not even cover themselves up properly. The policemen were dragging them by their hair, hitting them with lathis and shepherding them into the van while shouting filthy expletives. As happens in India a huge crowd had gathered to see what was going on and all the women looked really frigthened. They were facing a public humiliation of the worst kind. It doesn't need much imagination to know that the ordeal of these women would have continued into the police station.

Every other day, there are cases of women being raped by the police or security personnel. Increasingly one is seeing the public hit back, in the form of protests and demonstrations, so fed up are they of the way the men who should be protecting turn aggressors.

Look what happened in Kashmir following the rape and murder of two women in Shopian district allegedly by security forces.

In Bhopal recently, a 48-year-old woman, arrested in connection with a dowry case, alleged that four policemen raped her inside a police station in Betul district. The woman said she was forced to spend the night in the Amla police station because the police told her it was too late to go to Betul, after a court sent her to judicial custody. The victim alleged that the cops were drunk and had raped her at night. The next morning when she was taken to the Betul jail, she told the jailer about the incident. Her statement was recorded.

Probably, the cops think the women they harass won't complain and that emboldens them. Recently, sons of two policemen in Gujarat were apprehended for raping a teenage girl. The public thrashed the alleged culprits when they were brought to the hospital for a medical examination. While the crowd that thrashed them consisted mainly of men, one could see some women vent their anger against the culprits.

But the biggest shocker was yet to come. There is reason to believe that the culprits were involved in at least seven cases of rape, including one of a mentally challenged girl. The investigators have recovered clippings of the gangrapes from their phones and laptops. After all these alleged culprits are the sons of policemen!

Advice for Indian students going to Australia

The attacks on Indian students in Australia go on unabated. Today, Hardik Bipinbhai Patel, a commercial cookery student at Melbourne University, was attacked and robbed. A group of Sri Lankans were attacked in Canberra. Yesterday, a student was beaten up in a mall in Adelaide.

By the Australian police own admission, there have been 1447 reported attacks on Indians last year. This year, the number is all set to rise. For finally, the Indians are reporting the attacks, which they might not have earlier.

Meanwhile the Indian government has come up with an advisory. It gives the Indian students some tips, which are reproduced here --

Before leaving for Australia

• Be fully informed of all actual costs involved, as also of relevant rules governing work, housing and other aspects of living in Australia. You are strongly advised to do adequate research.
• Study the official website of the Government of Australia for international students.
• Make sure institution offering the course has good reputation, especially if it is private.
• Go through website of educational institution and cross check if needed with the Education Officer at the Australian High Commission in Delhi or consulates in Mumbai and Chennai.
• Make sure you have written agreement from the institution before paying any fees. This will be especially helpful in settling disputes if any.

After you arrive in Australia

• Please register with Indian High Commission / Consulate as soon as possible.
• Familiarise yourself with the student services offered by your educational institution, such as counselling services, help in finding suitable accommodation and jobs, assistance in improving your English etc.
• Whatever accommodation you choose, remember it is your responsibility to maintain it and keep it clean.
• Seek details about the security situation in and around your university and place of stay, as well as, local policing arrangements from the university authorities.
• You should also contact local Indian associations and keep in touch with them.

The government means well. But these guidelines are not going to stop the attacks. One of the reasons we learn Indians are being attacked is because they are considered "passive", easy targets. They are not being attacked because their houses are not clean. The problem lies with the Australian society and is best tackled from their end.

The only advice to students still contemplating admission in a univeristy in Australia -- Get admission into a good university and stay on the campus. If you cannot, stay away from Australia. You will save your parents many sleepless, stomach churning nights and lakhs of rupees.

To read more on the subject -

http://shreevenkatram.blogspot.com/2009/06/opportunistic-crime-or-racial-violence.html

http://shreevenkatram.blogspot.com/2009/06/attack-on-indians-now-in-canada.html

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1020986/Have-the-attacks-on-Indian-students-hurt-Australia-s-image
http://www.benjaminsolah.com/blog/?p=1188

 

Further developments

The number of Indian students to fall in Australia

A mother-daughter relationship

CNN has a very touching story on how a woman in Tel Aviv, Israel, decided to give a new mattress to her mother as a surprise present, and threw out her old tattered mattress. When the mother realised what the daughter had done, which was the following morning, she told her that the old mattress that she had been using for decades contained over one million dollars - her entire life's savings. The daughter ran downstairs to find that the mattress had been taken away. The mother than told the daughter to "leave it".

This mother is truly admirable. She tells her daughter to 'leave it'. Forget it, in other words. The daughter must have been feeling so miserable. And the mother's response was keeping her daughter's feelings in mind. She did not want her to feel bad about it - so like a mother.

The report had me thinking. Would an Indian mother have responded the same way? Indian mothers undergo great sacrifices for their children. I feel an Indian woman could possibly respond in a similar way if it had been a son. But if it had been a daughter? What do you think?

The Israel mother explained her reaction as, "the heart is crying, but we could have been in a car accident or had terminal disease."

Do you think that her response is conditioned by the violence in the region?

I hope they find the mattress.

The incident also shows that all good intentions and deeds do not necessarily benefit the person for whom they are intended or done.

The most corrupt Municipal Corporation of Delhi

Finally a confirmation of what is already known, but little is done about.
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) is the most corrupt body in the country, possibly the world. A recent Right to Information query has confirmed widespread graft in the municipal corporation with as many as 4,400 corruption cases pending against about 3,400 employees, who range from peons to junior engineers. Strangely they are still employed and continuing with their money making rackets.

Try and get a housing plan passed. Or get a completion certificate for a building....and you will have to deal with these corrupt government officials. Nothing moves without greasing their palms. Refer to my story of how buildings that openly flout all norms and a great show was made of knocking down portions, stand today all patched up, mocking the citizens of Delhi. The corporation has allowed 3000 unauthorised colonies to spring up, violating Delhi's master plan. There are thousands of buildings which extend on to government land and this has been done in connivance of the junior engineers of the corporation, who are supposed to keep watch on the building activity in the city.


The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) dominates the civic body having secured 164 seats in the 272-member MCD House in 2007. The Congress, had made a similar sweep in the 2002 polls.
Both the dominant parties are responsible for the state of things in the Capital.

The recent parliamentary elections in which the Congress swept all the seats in the Capital, has jolted the MCD into action. Check out the following item -
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Delhi/Poll-struck-MCD-jolted-into-action/articleshow/4572829.cms

Here is an old news item, but it tells you a lot of the attitude of those men and women responsible for overseeing the functioning of the corporation -
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/after-laptops-mcd-councillors-now-want-men/422418/

The vile men of religion

God help us from these men of religion.
You find these sorts everywhere.
Two stories below – one from India and the other from Ireland!
Does anyone have any views on why men who claim to show us the path to God, resort to abusing children?

First, the story from India.
A court in Kerala has sentenced self-styled Godman Swami Amrithachaithanya alias Santhosh Madhavan to 16 years rigorous imprisonment for raping two minor girls. He ran an orphanage, giving scholarships to orphan girls. This served as a smokescreen for the child abuse he indulged in.
The second story is about the bishops who regularly abused children in Ireland.
The children were regularly abused in the religious schools in Ireland run by the Roman Catholic Church. A nine-year investigation by Ireland’s Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse recently published its final results. The commission paints a horrible picture of these schools. “Sexual abuse was endemic in boys’ institutions,” states the Executive Summary of the report.

Why do these men of God do such things to children? Any answers?

Haryana police needs better training

The Haryana police has once again lived up to its reputation - of being the most gender- insensitive police force in the country. There have been two reported cases in the last one year of women, who had been raped, driven to suicide when the police refused to register their complaint.

It is tough for a woman to come out in the open and say she has been raped. When she plucks up enough courage and comes forward only to find that the authorities who are supposed to help her, turn a deaf ear, she finds herself all alone with no recourse for action against the culprits. Moreover, she lives in the dreaded fear that her tormentors who have escaped punishment, would be emboldened to rape her again.

That the police is insensitive to a woman's plight is to state the obvious. It also suffers from a great class bias. If the woman is from an economically poor strata of society, she has little chances of being heard. In all likelihood, she would be shooed away from the police station. There have been quite a number of cases of women being raped by the men in uniform, who were supposed to protect them.

In Haryana, the two women killed themselves when they found the police refused to listen to them in spite of them trying all means within their power to make themselves heard.

Alka and her husband, spent the past many months running around for justice. Failing in their effort, the couple who have two children below ten years old, consumed poison outside the office of the Inspector General of Police, Rohtak. While Alka died by the time she was taken to hospital, her husband lies critically ill.


According to media reports, Alka said she was gangraped by five men in Samalkha town in Karnal district last year. The police there did not register a case despite her complaint. She then met the IGP who forwarded her complaint to the Karnal district police chief. However, the case was later cancelled by the police who said that nothing could be found during investigations.
Senior Haryana police officials have refused to comment on Alka’s death.


In June last year, another young woman, Sarita, had consumed poison inside the Haryana police headquarters in Panchkula near Chandigarh, alleging that the police were not taking any action on two of its own personnel who had raped her inside a police station in Rohtak April last year.

 The action by Sarita and Alka and her husband, is a statement that a society that does not even hear them out is not worth living in.

These are just two cases that have come to the media's attention. There are bound to be many more cases, where women after failing to register complaints against their tormentors, just give up, picking up pieces of their lives as best as they can and living in constant dread of being bodily harmed and mentally tortured again. The culprits roam free, emboldened that they can target a woman.

Haryana is a state which has become synonymous with a desensitised police force. The selection of its personnel and their training need a urgent closer look and attention. Those who are in charge of selecting suitable men and women for the force, need to ensure that they pick the right candidates. Further, their training needs to be overhauled, so that the state raises a sensitised police force which women feel comfortable in approaching.
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/haryana-cops-ignore-rape-woman-kills-herself/91957-3.html