Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Law does not have all the answers

I have been trying to tell a story for many days now. What has been holding me back? The reluctance of the people involved in having their lives made public. In fact, they are still not willing to come out into the open. There is no need to spin a lurid story out of the lives of these young twins, my social activist friend says emphatically. This friend has been closely related with the riddle for the past many months.

There will be no names in this story, for very obvious reasons. The fight is yet to begin and those involved wouldn’t like to spoil it this early. This is not an unfamiliar story for those who have an insight into the world of destitute children. I must tell you before I start that the twins in question are in safe hands, though their present guardians are clueless about their future. The organisation where these children are currently sheltered is far from being just another destitute shelter. Their ‘home’ is pleasant and blooming with warmth.

Several months ago, the police found these angel-faced twins on a street, abandoned by their parents. The children were fortunate enough to land in caring hands. The whole routine of enquiry and investigation started then. Those running the shelter tried to locate the parents of these abandoned children. The parents were out there, somewhere. Police records showed that the couple had some kind of criminal history, and that they were in prison when these babies were found on the road. As per the existing legal system, the parental rights of the couple are still intact. But nobody knows where he or she is. Neither parent has approached the police or the shelter home to demand custody of the children.

Now for the legal records. There is a criminal case pending against the couple for abandoning their children. Under the Indian Penal Code, Section 317 prescribes a seven-year prison term for parents or caretakers who abandon children under 12 years of age. With every passing day, the twins are getting further entangled in a web of legalities. No one can adopt them, because legally, they are not orphans. They cannot stay at the shelter home beyond a certain age - the law doesn’t approve. They will be ‘transferred’ to a remand home. We all know that there is nothing reassuring about government-run remand homes in this State. The way out might be to find foster parents willing to take them in. But even so, the legal status of the children does not change. Their natural parents still retain the right to claim their custody till they attain majority as per the law.

Legal wrangles can be fought. But there are certain human issues here that go beyond the dry legal frame. There are issues about raising a growing child that law cannot deal with. I didn’t meet the twins since they were away at school when I visited their home. “They have their highs and lows,” says my friend. One is extremely reclusive. The other is a live wire, full of questions.

The trauma is yet to begin. These children are a challenge for the entire juvenile justice system. There are many socially aware people who nurse abandoned children, raise them with love and compassion and seek a secure future for them. Why should these twins be denied good and safe parentage? Just to ensure that the line drawn by a bunch of people we have elected to make policies is toed? Most of them are anyway busy fighting non-issues in assemblies and Parliament. I’ve no answer to this conundrum, but I know that together we will have to find one. After all, these twins too are part of tomorrow’s India.

(First published in the Maharashtra Herald on August 11, 2005)

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Lakshmi Mukti - Trail-blazing Farm Reform

Sita’s story is the basic premise for Shetkari Sanghata’s Lakshmi Mukti programme, probably a pioneering campaign empowering women with land rights. In Queen Sita's story, even the fire of an agnipariksha could not touch her but when she and her husband return to their kingdom from Ravana's Lanka, it just takes a slanderous remark for Rama to banish her to a forest. Rama never explains anything to his wife.

Shetkari Sanghatana founder leader Sharad Joshi used this story to explain the point behind his Lakshmi Mukti project. Overnight, he would say, Sita is left with no future simply because her husband turned against her. Then referring to a Sita temple at Raveri, Joshi would conclude by saying that the purpose of the Lakshmi Mukti programme was to see that no modern-day Sita would ever have to suffer Sita's fate because she had nothing to call her own. By transferring land to their wives, farmers were paying off "a long overdue debt" to Sita mata, he would say.

Lakshmi Mukti campaign kicked off a silent revolution in late ’80s from Vitner, a little known village in north Maharashtra. It was then an experiment, unheard of in traditionally patriarchal farming communities. In later years, there were title changes for several hundred acres of land in the agrarian hinterlands of Maharashtra, empowering women. But the leaders were unsuccessful in sustaining the campaign's momentum for various reasons.

There were arguments... The predicament of women in agricultural hinterland was worst than that of landless labourers. They did two-thirds of the work but owned no assets and enjoyed no credit worthiness. Joshi then had another argument. Family economics improves when the quality of woman's life improves.

The Sanghatana’s first women’s rally at Chandwad demanded that the cost of agricultural produce should include the worth of a woman’s domestic work too. The Chandwad Declaration took a serious view of the inequitable circumstances that daughters were left with in property disputes. Rural women then also demanded partnership rights with parents and husbands.

Interestingly, even in progressive Maharashtra despite many men finding the Sita story touching, they still found the message difficult to support. As a senior Sanghatana leader had put it, in the early days of the campaign people even suspected the Sanghatana's motives. Still Sanghatana leaders were successful in convincing many in the rural areas. To begin, with people were urged to pledge some part of their lands to their wives. It was then decided that this could be with or without the formal transfer of title, but necessarily be with a formal conferment of the gross proceeds in her favour.

Maharashtra later gave daughters their rightful dues in their fathers' properties. This somewhat resolved the issue, yet the need is to change the mindset of the people. Law alone may not be sufficient.

(First published in The Maharashtra Herald on April 4, 2005)