Mino-View-July-Sept
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Vol: 03 Issue: 03 QUARTERLY July-Sept 2015 MINO-VIEW LAHORE VoicVeo icoef mofi nmoinriotireitsie asn adn do popprperessseedd p peeooppllee iinn sSoouutth Asiiaann sSooccieities Delhi is Now India’s Rape Capital Caste-Based Slavery In Pakistan Caste And Gender-Based Bonded Labour UN 2015 Side Event In Thy Name Ambedkar By, Anand Teltumbde Dalit Children In Bangladesh Police Action Against Kathmandu Protest Produced by: Sir Ganga Ram Heritage Foundation,Lahore Editor Syed Shaheen Hassan CONTENTS Editorial I Caste-Based Slavery in Pakistan (Pakistan) 1 Title Story (India) Delhi is Now India’s Rape Capital, Show NCRB 4 Data 5 1 0 Bonded labour · Report – Caste and Gender- (International) 2 6 t p Based Forced and Bonded Labour – UN 2015 3 e 0 3 S 0 Side-event e - : y u l l s o u (India) s Low Caste Children Suffer in India’s Cottonseed V I J 8 Industry e Police Action Against Kathmandu Protest (Nepal) r 10 o Organized By Dalit Lawmakers and Rights W h a Activists L E I (India) In Thy Name, Ambedkar 12 V (South Asia) Dalit Watch 16 - (Bangladesh) Dalit Children in Bangladesh 20 O (India) Steep Rise in Dalit Murders In 2014 23 N I y l r e t r a u Q M Sir Ganga Ram Heritage Foundation 2-Court Street, Lower Mall, Lahore. Ph: +92 42 37115810 37115230 Web: sgrhf.org.pk, E-mail: [email protected] MINO-VIEW i July-September 2015 EDITORIAL Violence against women and girls is not However, 13.8% (4,648 victims) victims were confined to any particular political or in the age-group of 30–50 years while 0.7% economic system, but it is prevalent in every (256 victims) was over 50 years of age. The society in the world. It cuts across boundaries Indian Newspaper The Hindu published report of wealth, race and culture. It is an expression in which Delhi declared as rape capital of of historically and culturally specific values India where in 2014 not only total number of and standards which are today still executed rape cases but also the number of such cases through many social and political institutions proportionate to its women population was that foster women‟s subservience and higher than for any other city or State. Mino– discrimination against women and girls. In View also highlighted Caste and Gender- many parts of the world, rape is very rarely Based Forced and Bonded Labour UN reported, due to the extreme social stigma cast 2015Side-event. The new report „Cotton‟s on women who have been raped, or the fear of Forgotten Children, released by the Stop Child being disowned by their families, or subjected Labour Campaign and the India Committee on to violence, including honor killings. Up to 7 the Netherlands (ICN), finds that almost half a in 10 women around the world experience million children in India work as child physical and/or sexual violence at some point labourers in the cottonseed production in their life time. Rape and Violence against industry. Most of them are Dalits, Adivasis or women are a massive problem in India. other low caste children (OBCs). The report According to the National Crime Record warns that most of these children are not in Bureau of India, crime against women has school and are subjected to hazardous work increased by 7.1 percent since 2010. The and harmful chemicals. Caste-based salary in number of rapes reported has also risen. Pakistan, dalit children in Bangladesh, dalit Nearly one in three rape victims in India is lawmaker and activists organized protest under the age of 18. One in 10 is under 14. march against police action in Kathmandu is Every 20 seconds in India, women raped. also included in this issue of Mino-View. We According to UN report India, is third in rape also thankful to Mr. Anand Teltumbde from cases, second in murder in the world. The India for his article “In Thy Name, yearly data of National Crime Records Bureau Ambedkar”. This current issue of Mino-View highlighted that in 2011, 24206 rapes were is a minor attempt to raise the voice for the reported and in 2012 the reported cases were cause of down trodden people. The main 24923. NCRB latest 2014 report shows that purpose for this magazine is to bring into there were 33,707 reported rape cases in the limelight the brutal system i.e. oppression, country during the year 2013. 13.1% (4,427 atrocities and discrimination which low caste out of 33,764) of the total victims of rape were suffer. Through the platform of Mino-View girls under 14 years of age, while 26.3% we invite people all over that world to join (8,877 victims out of 33,764) were teenage hands and take positive step to end this girls (14–18 years). 46.1% (15,556 victims) inhuman system by showing global solidarity. were women in the age-group 18–30 years. EDITOR MINO-VIEW 1 July-September 2015 PAKISTAN Caste-based Slavery in Pakistan Pakistan has ratified a particularly common in the Hence the calculated number number of international areas of agriculture, brick- of people kept in bondage covenants and conventions making, carpet-weaving, based on the PILER study which proscribe slavery, mining, tanning, cotton seed amounts to more than 8.6 forced labour, and debt- production, handicraft million. The Human Rights bondage. The Constitution of production, production of Commission of Pakistan in Pakistan forbids slavery and glass bangles, and domestic 1994estimated that forced labour, and the work, reports another ILO approximately 20 million are Bonded Labour System working paper. kept in forced labour. (Abolition) Act of 1992 along There is no exact calculation The majority of the bonded with the Bonded Labour of the number of bonded labour community belongs to System (Abolition) Rules of labourers. Research by the marginalized and excluded 1995 completely outlaw Pakistan Institute of Labour groups such as the scheduled bonded labour. They also Education and Research caste Hindus, Christians and cancel all existing bonded (PILER) in 2000 estimated Muslim Sheikhs. debts and forbid lawsuits for that the total number of the recovery of such debts. sharecroppers (haris) in debt Agriculture and brick kilns bondage across the whole of Worst forms of modern-day Pakistan was over 1.8 million The two most prominent slavery people. Furthermore, surveys sectors characterized by a Yet bonded labour in showed that more than 6.7 significant use of bonded Pakistan is widespread. The million people are involved labour are agriculture and in the practice of beggar, brick kilns. Research carried ILO assesses the problem of which refers to a traditional out by PILER in Pakistan in debt bondage in Pakistan as system of family labour 2000 indicates that up to 1 one of the worst in the world. which is unpaid, compulsory, million brick kiln workers in Bonded labour is and amounts to debt bondage. Pakistan are bonded. A 2004 MINO-VIEW 2 July-September 2015 survey of brick kilns in the geographical area of severe and Rehabilitation of freed Punjab district in Pakistan by oppression against brick-kiln bonded labourers (an the Federal Bureau of workers and their families. extension of the 1992 Bonded Statistics found that nearly 90 PILER estimates that these Labour System Abolition per cent of brick kiln workers sharecroppers will be Act)(12). were bonded. Also, surveys subjected to increased suggest that agriculture and excesses of bondage because In 2002, a Bonded Labour brick kiln work are of the landlords in recent times have Fund was established as part worst and harshest kinds due been facing adverse of the law for the welfare of to the physical strain, social economic pressures. the children of released discrimination and hazardous bonded labourers, the working conditions. Human The sharecroppers often live majority of whom are Rights Watch interviews with in camps, where they are also scheduled castes. Six years brick kiln forced labourers subjected to incarceration, later a substantial portion of reveal consistent cruel, and some report of being the funds remain unused and inhumane and degrading shackled and raped. As with held by government and the treatment, including physical the general scenario, children released bonded labourers punishment, detainment and are even more vulnerable continue to live in subhuman denial of the right to than their adult counterparts. conditions in temporary organize. Children in brick kilns report camps on the outskirts of of being beaten with sticks Hyderabad according to a Dalit Hindu minorities the and whipped to the point of joint NGO alternative report main target injury. They do not receive for CERD (13). compensation for their work, Bondage both in agriculture and are also sometimes kept UN Treaty body and in brick-kilns includes as insurance to prevent the recommendations severe forms of oppression. escape of adult family members, reports Human This ranges from physical In its review of Pakistan Rights Watch restraints upon the movement during its 74th session in of the workers and their February 2009, the UN families to beatings and Ineffective Legislation Committee on the sexual abuse of female Elimination of Racial workers. Dalits and other low The Bonded Labour (System) Discrimination (CERD) caste Hindus bear the brunt Abolition Act 1992, created addressed the persistence of of these abuses because of to eradicate this practice was bonded labour in the country. their minority status. The initially considered a major Some of its recommendations multiple disempowerment of intervention on the part of the on this topic were: being poor, low caste or Dalit State. However, 15 years as well as non-Muslim are down the road, bonded labour 1.