Redefining courts---ecourts

Social control become possible only when we can ensure an efficient justice delivery system for the people. We can do so with good courts. But biggest problems is in resolving disputes and in solving crimes come because of delays in judicial procedures. That is solved by e-courts. There are 14,209 district and 'Taluka' courts in India. Computerization has taken place in 12,229 of them. In 11,810 courts software has been installed and they are ready for use. The application software has been developed and standardized by E-committee of 'e courts' project. Now the transition to 'e courts' will be made smooth. Case management system will make this transition easy. Judicial information grid has been made.Websites have been made.All district courts have access to information through the internet.
All Judicial Officers now have laptops. They are being taught to use the laptops and are now orienting themselves to access information in the websites. To introduce the changes, 'Change Management Program' has been made.Within four months,all Judicial Officers will be using computers which has revolutionized their profession.E-committee has conducted awareness program to Judicial officers and carried out training. 60 master trainers will give training in an effective way.E-committee will teach them to use the special software designed.High court are now entering data on court cases.
Justice delayed is justice denied; over 43 lakh cases are pending in the India's courts.Such monumental numbers can be dealt by computerization alone.There is no other way. Accurate data must be entered for this to work.Data is being entered on a daily basis, as they are filed. Police stations have been connected, you can find out if a convict would be given bail, and when he can be bailed out.A litigant can know when his appeal will come.Litigant can monitor his case and avoid paper work.There is going to be digital signature of the judge when case is over. All this will will speed up the litigatory process and provide district and 'Taluka' courts greater transparency.There is going to be Complaint Management System through which you can seek redressal.  Computerization would be done very rapidly,so that all courts become fast track courts.Taking technology to the people is the way to overcome hurdles to progress.Modernization has been made from the viewpoint of the citizens.That is, it is citizen centric. India's future is bright, thanks to technocrats who have brought good governance through most modern technology in most needed areas.Addtional news on this topic was written on July 19,2012 in this blog under the title,ICT enabled courts.

Lost childhoods

Many children get lost in the crowds and are never found. They never return to their homes. Missing children have very very hard lives, they become child labourers or beggars; later on they resort to crime. Many times they are victims of crime.Last year alone 71,000 children were lost and search is still on.On August 10, 2012 Supreme Court had issued notices to state and central government that this is the most urgent matter; and that these missing children are small and cannot express their own plight, they should be heard.40% of the reported missing children are never found. Not all missing children are reported;when little boys are lost, it is reported immediately. If girls are missing, there are very few who report it; taking care of girl children is held as a burden in patriarchy.Missing child is lowest in the priority for a big family. Most important aspect of the missing children is that these children are from poor families.There is lesser response from the police. Children are from vulnerable background.Police should not ignore it;it is compulsory to register it;FIR is made.There is no law on how to deal with missing children. This is the biggest hurdle.So the law is missing is the case of the missing children.Missing children have not been defined in any law in India.
Missing children do not go missing in jungle or from a rural place, they are lost amid well connected urban areas with good road networks and railways.States in border have more children missing than others. And they are never traced or found.Mafia of eunuchs recruit them many times.
There is computer linkage among all police stations in India, by which photos of missing children are displayed and constantly updated. Ministry for Women and child Development has has "child tracking" project which traces children in 14 states in which it was made available.  Where there is child tracking applications available tracing the missing child becomes easy. In those states where this is used, missing children have been restored 30% more cases(90% rescued instead of 60%).The "Bachpan Bacho Andolan" as voice to the plight of missing children had made a PIL and had asked "why are these children missing?". Every day 14 children are lost in New Delhi alone. They end up as servants or child slaves. They are treated cruelly and they are deprived of basic needs. The issue of missing children overlaps with human trafficking. Children grow up "missing" living in the streets and never have had a home, they never have had a childhood; they end up as criminals or as victims of crime. Victims becomes criminals when they grow up.This  is very sad.Some times gangs are involved in kidnapping children.Girl children are used as domestic servants and sold for profits.Then the cases becomes bigger and CBI has to deal with them. When families look for their missing children, then there is hope. But these children are from poor families who cannot support them, so they do not look for them.Many come from border countries as refugees.We can give 'right to education' to a child but can we allow it to languish in the streets,? We have only guaranteed them right to perish in the streets.To see a poor child alone in the streets is most the depressing sight. A human child is too precious to be wasted away.Government has to make more juvenile homes and teach vocational skills to these children.Till they are adults they could be given a small pension.If we do not spend on them now, we may have to pay dearly when they grow up. Rehabilitation is most needed.As adults they must become good citizens as they too are the future people of India. In the future they will be asking us "what did you do for us then(in 2013). And we will have no answer.....  

Country of contradictions

We are in doubt.....are we truly a free country?....A music band comprising of girls was started.Soon after that their lives were threatened. Now they have stopped singing.This is not a small thing. Our freedom of expression is being controlled. A good art exhibition was held in the city of Bangalore in India; protesters try to shut it down as it bothers their religious feelings.Following this objectionable paintings were removed. Police now,invigilate the exhibition.Is such policing necessary in a free country? If a writer writes a great novel, he is persecuted by his own community; there is threat to his life. If a painter paints an extremely good painting, he is exiled because his painting is hurting the religious sentiments of the people. If there is good movie released (cleared by the censor board),its screening is postponed.Soon  religious leaders intervene and cut away sensitive scenes, they are not the "censor board". How could they do that? A good writer (whose comment is torn out of context) is in the middle of controversy regarding reserved category and corruption in India. His comments are disagreeable to the political class.An accomplished movie star is offered citizenship in a foreign country;he is asked if he want to leave for a foreign country where his ancestors had lived. This is his home country, why would he want to leave?
What is all this? Are we not a democracy? Can people not write, paint, sing, comment, and act as they please. Some word or some music will not be liked by a few persons; that does not mean we cannot have the right to expression.People can have sensitivities to anything and everything.  Nobody can say anything anymore. We are free yet we are tense on what restriction would come next. And we stop ourselves from talking about what we feel.This does not feel right.

We are evolving a new order

We are constantly evolving as a state. The political parties often do not share ideologies and split into smaller ones. Then there are which change their ideologies as exigencies make them. Some parties evolve due to a movement, and then the cause or spirit the movement is forgotten. All want upliftment of the poor, increased industrialization  development etc, but how they appeal to their voters is different. One cannot  even group them as 'left' or 'right' wing. Only commonality is that they are products of election machinery. Most parties breakup easily because one leader wants to dominate and keep the entire party under him/her. He/she wants to address the needs of his people his way. So there has been rise of innumerable parties and innumerable ideologies. But there was always party loyalties; voters devotedly vote for their party only. From 1971 to 2004, those who had affiliation to a single party has gone up from 5% to 15% So political parties will be always there and their steadfast supporters will always be there even when times change.
 We do not have a single truly national party, as this is difficult to evolve in India. We are so diverse, our needs are so varied, that homogeneity in appeal is difficult to attain. At local level, local people vote on local issues, and parties begin this way. Mainly these grass root parties are representative of the people. Large number of political parties does not mean that they not representative. They are representative. We have bigger choice. But different groups come up with similar policies as basic needs of the people is same everywhere. In the state of Andra Pradesh all the parties had come together to pass the "sub-plan" for upliftment of SCs,STs and tribals.
People want to vote to a person representative of them. If elected person is one  among them, voters have more satisfaction. But we need a fixed model through which we can make associations with different organizations(research and development of resources) so that we can make better policies for the people. Leaders have to collaborate with sociologists, statisticians, technocrats and other advisers.  Movements are essentially protests of the people. They should not be used as political capital. Problems of the people must be understood. .
Paid media also generates movements. Stiff resistance should be given to this Media is supported essentially by corporates. If movements created by the media is used in the development of a party's ideologies, soon it will wear out. Hollow parties without deeper values cannot last long.
Often protests are taught to the people. People themselves do nothing when their rights are taken away from them as they are not educated enough to know the repercussions. The plight of the people is used as political capital, then this cannot last long as newer protests and newer movements will be generated. And so many newer parties will be lost in chaos.
Coalition  government comes about in an environment like right now. And this has come to stay in the Indian political scene.With media scattering our attention at all times, many are disillusioned about political state of India. Many are worried about the future of political party in India. We need not encourage such disillusionment. Political parties will work well in India, no matter what. We cannot describe present state of the political party, but it will always be evolving into becoming more representative of the people.     

Land Acquisition at mid night.

New method of land acquisition has been explored. When armed police violently came at 4 A.M in the morning to acquire land, the common people--women and children were the worse hit. About 10-15 people were hurt when the local officials 'lathi-charged' at the people who were protesting. As part of 'anti land acquisition' protest, the rural people had made a human wall to resist acquisition. Local people grew 'betel leaves' as it was their source of livelihood. But a privately owned steel plant in their locality needs the land cultivated by them. The people were part of movement against land acquisition. When they opposed the acquisition physically by making a "human wall", they did not expect that the police would pounce on their with their "lathis" They were removed and land was acquired for the steel plant, POSCO. Their betel leaf vines were removed physically and the land was cleared. For last one and a half years, people have been opposing it as it would affect their livelihoods; betel leaf farmers cannot work in steel plants. They were given cheques for their lands immediately. Such action for land acquisition was hated by the Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti(PPSS) But nothing can be done when they are physically removed from their lands.Already 2000 acres have been acquired and 700 more acres are left which the natives do not want to give up. These pieces of land provided livelihoods and residence to so many people; after becoming a steel plant the private firm(made from the land) would employ only few people but would make big profits. Steel plant would employ skilled people from somewhere else.Locals would be then left out.
When people are evicted in the name of development,it is very painful. Is development against the people for whom it is meant for? Where will these people live when removed from their lands? What will they do for a living? They only know how to farm betel leaves.
Development brings comforts for the urbanites--piped water, electricity, good roads, good schools, shopping malls etc. What does it bring for the rural people? landless ness. They are now nomads who have no place to go. Is this what future India going to be like? If people's rights are transgressed on the name of development, is development worth it?

Women's security is now top priority

Protection, security and support of women is the most important in any civilised land.Time bound action Plan has been made to strengthen police and government's administration to deal with crimes against women. Police force will be re-trained starting now.And most important part of institutionalising change is in treating offenders in sexual assault cases.Comprehensive  laws on punishments  have now been made. An ordinance has been promulgated by our President based on recommendations  made by Justice Verma.This ordinance deals with amendments in criminal procedures. Quick action will be taken in such crimes. Gender sensitive response mechanism are going to be made. In six months the ordinance will become law. The ordinance is made to amend the Indian Penal Code, Code of Procedure,1973 and Indian Evidence Act 1872. It is called Criminal  Law (Amendment) Ordinance,2013. And it has come into effect from this instant.This is going to bring phenomenal changes in upliftment of the status of women in India. Death penalty (for rape and murder of victim) will be the punishment. Such strong punishment will stop crimes against women. That is for sure, after death, rapist cannot inflict pain again.
In colleges and universities located in two tier/three tier cities and rural areas, women students complain of living with constant threats; there is deep-seated hatred/resentment against women because they are held to be "competition in job market"Women are also harassed at workplaces frequently. Long term social control mechanisms are needed to change mindsets. Total change in attitudes towards women must come about.
Now women need not feel insecure at all the time.Things will change as law has come to their aid and police forces will become more sensitised to this trend.
There are some setbacks as marital rape is not dealt with by this ordinance. Reviewing exemptions(of Armed Forces and Special Powers Act) are not dealt with.Politicians who are charged with such crimes are not stopped by contesting in elections.This is not good.Ordinance is open to alterations as needed.There is hope that all will be checked by law........ 

Euro-centric Forum

Meeting at Davos reveals that there is renewed attempt by European nations to conquer the world all over again. Leaders of the European nations ask why population of India is more than all the countries of Europe put together.They cannot affect population of India in any way. But they  feel that they are threatened by this.They feel that they cannot preserve their "culture gene"due to this.
How is population of India affecting them? We are not asking for anything from them. We have policies to deal with our problems ourselves.We have achieved bumper crops, we are providing for the poor through social security schemes, we provide medicine for our poor and we are a self sufficient economy,
The policies of the forum are Euro-centric, so instead of calling themselves World Economic Forum, they can be called European Economic Forum.Domination of world especially the third world countries is primary in the mind-set of such forums.
They reflect the fact that there is a long way to go before we really have a peaceful community of nations.Frequent words for addressing themselves are "fellow Anglo-Saxons". This is outrageous. We thought we are fellow humans.They are not united for common good. They are united for more sophisticated domination of the world. It is crisis that is uniting them. Economic downtrend has given them no alternatives but to unite against the developing world. Self interest is against humanity.The truth is that they are keenly looking for resources. They are looking for new ways to exploit the unwary, weak countries. We, Indians are too intelligent to be made slaves all over again. Demographic problem in Asia is of no concern to them, why are these issues on population brought up in a forum? At all times attention is on Europe's crisis and not world which is in crisis?
Another phrase frequently used is "our resources are between our ears" That means that they have intelligent brains.So these people are trying hard to think how to exploit the resources of Asia? We also have intelligent brains! Europe is not the world, they must know that.