An officer and a scapegoat

 (Statesman March 2014)

The accident on the Indian Naval ship the Sindhuratna and the aftermath stirred the emotions of many. Two young officers lost their lives and seven sailors were injured in a freak accident while performing their appointed duties sincerely. The navy chief took moral responsibility and resigned. All the people involved suffered, some tragically. Their families, well-wishers and countrymen felt very disturbed by what had happened.

This incident has served to highlight the jarring disparity between the thoughts and feelings of the leaders and the led. Young people who join the armed services are typically idealistic and brave, with high integrity and high institutional loyalty. Their political leaders seem to take their fine feelings and their lives for granted.

 There is an example from Mohammed Bin Tughlaq’s reign where the peasants who were forced to pay taxes despite having suffered famine just ran away and hid in the forests. Agriculture came to a standstill. There may come a time when people do not feel safe enough to encourage their children to join the services if good quality leadership is not provided at the very top of the command chain.

From what we read and hear it becomes quite apparent that some old navy vessels are in a worn down condition and some outright unsafe. Some of the spare parts are of such an antiquated vintage that they are not manufactured any more. Procurement of parts or vessels has not been given the expert consideration it deserves. Expecting sailors to commandeer unsafe ships is callous.

Procurement and repair of naval vessels to my mind should be the sole prerogative of senior naval officers and should not be left to beaurocrats or politicians. Someone who has spent a lifetime knowing the ins and outs of vessels clearly has a better perspective.  Officers who have reached senior positions have passed rigorous boards at several levels and have the capability and the intelligence to handle big decisions themselves.

The current hierarchy which puts most of the decision making in the hands of the minister and beaurocrats holding the defence portfolio does not seem to be working too well. The navy service professionals spend most of their time in work related tasks, but increasingly, their political masters are burdened with political turmoils leaving less time for understanding the finer intricacies of naval functioning.

Immediate and corrective steps should be taken in view of this incident. An urgent evaluation of all vessels by technically competent personnel and the ones declared unfit should be condemned. No personnel should be allowed to be on board an unfit vessel.

The services and their officers have always enjoyed a fine reputation and enviable traditions. Officers have a well- deserved special aura about them as they are brave people of high integrity who give a lot and ask for very little in return. It is extremely demoralising for them when they are treated like cannon fodder and their safety disregarded. It is also a sad culmination, when an officer by dint of hard work and capability reaches the rank of chief, only to be made a scapegoat for the inefficiencies of others. I feel our officers command and deserve far far greater respect than that.

The accident on the Indian Naval ship the Sindhuratna and the aftermath stirred the emotions of many. Two young officers lost their lives and seven sailors were injured in a freak accident while performing their appointed duties sincerely. The navy chief took moral responsibility and resigned. All the people involved suffered, some tragically. Their families, well-wishers and countrymen felt very disturbed by what had happened.

This incident has served to highlight the jarring disparity between the thoughts and feelings of the leaders and the led. Young people who join the armed services are typically idealistic and brave, with high integrity and high institutional loyalty. Their political leaders seem to take their fine feelings and their lives for granted.

 There is an example from Mohammed Bin Tughlaq’s reign where the peasants who were forced to pay taxes despite having suffered famine just ran away and hid in the forests. Agriculture came to a standstill. There may come a time when people do not feel safe enough to encourage their children to join the services if good quality leadership is not provided at the very top of the command chain.

From what we read and hear it becomes quite apparent that some old navy vessels are in a worn down condition and some outright unsafe. Some of the spare parts are of such an antiquated vintage that they are not manufactured any more. Procurement of parts or vessels has not been given the expert consideration it deserves. Expecting sailors to commandeer unsafe ships is callous.

Procurement and repair of naval vessels to my mind should be the sole prerogative of senior naval officers and should not be left to beaurocrats or politicians. Someone who has spent a lifetime knowing the ins and outs of vessels clearly has a better perspective.  Officers who have reached senior positions have passed rigorous boards at several levels and have the capability and the intelligence to handle big decisions themselves.

The current hierarchy which puts most of the decision making in the hands of the minister and beaurocrats holding the defence portfolio does not seem to be working too well. The navy service professionals spend most of their time in work related tasks, but increasingly, their political masters are burdened with political turmoils leaving less time for understanding the finer intricacies of naval functioning.

Immediate and corrective steps should be taken in view of this incident. An urgent evaluation of all vessels by technically competent personnel and the ones declared unfit should be condemned. No personnel should be allowed to be on board an unfit vessel.

The services and their officers have always enjoyed a fine reputation and enviable traditions. Officers have a well- deserved special aura about them as they are brave people of high integrity who give a lot and ask for very little in return. It is extremely demoralising for them when they are treated like cannon fodder and their safety disregarded. It is also a sad culmination, when an officer by dint of hard work and capability reaches the rank of chief, only to be made a scapegoat for the inefficiencies of others. I feel our officers command and deserve far far greater respect than that.

A winter’s day spent at home ….sometime in November 2012…..

I recently gave up a bi-weekly hospital attachment and am not contemplating a structured work plan on those two mornings as yet. This allows me to be a home bird for the day till the evening OPD time. I am thoroughly enjoying the new experience and this is what a ‘home’ day sometimes looks like…

I wake up early and get ready for yoga class. Ideally, yoga is performed after a bath but since we are in the middle of a cold winter a face wash is going to have to suffice! I try to look and feel as alert as possible in front of the teacher. For an hour, Kapil and I try to twist and bend our non-compliant bodies into various asanas. The clicking and creaking sounds given out by our bodies make it clear to the teacher that this is not a cakewalk for us! Some asanas are executed correctly enough by us and some not. The balancing ones in particular see us teetering and swaying from left to right like drunken beings. Trouble brews when we get to the lion pose. This involves squatting in a particular way and making roaring noises with your mouth wide open. Kapil thinks my roar sounds more like singing and starts laughing. I see our pet dog staring at us through the glass with his ears cocking up in amazement at the strange noises we seem to be making. The reactions of husband and dog are enough to set off an acute attack of giggles, just like my schooldays….. we finally give up on this asana as we can’t stop laughing. The teacher, instead of disapproving of this disruption, also joins in and tells us that laughing is excellent for health! The session ends with yoganidra, a deep relaxation technique. We tend to drift off to sleep and are caught out by our snores.

Later, I walk with the children to the stop near the main colony gate to await the school bus. The stray dog outside our home gives us company for the first few metres, then decides against getting a formal education and runs off. My daughter tells me to do a headcount of all the puppies on my way back to ensure that all are safe and sound. She regularly appoints me as a grandmother to all the puppies produced in our colony. My son shows me the paper origami boomerangs he has made and wants to throw them on the road to demonstrate how well they return to the sender. I am able to convince him to defer the time and venue of this demonstration to home, in the afternoon.

When I get back home, I catch up on the daily news by reading the papers over a cup of coffee. My better half, Kapil gives me an envious look as he heads out to his office. However my leisure is short-lived and very soon I get sucked into the daily chores of a person spending a day at home.

Our bathroom is undergoing repairs as a leaking pipe had led to seepage in the flat below ; the floor is lying completely dug up with pipes surrounded by debris .Two leaky pipes have been identified but the suspense is apparently not over .There is a small chance that a third pipe may also have contributed to the seepage. The head workman says that the only way to be absolutely sure is to break the side façade of the building where the pipe is going down. I tell him there has to be a better way. We have a long discussion. Finally I use a professional example to drive home my point. After all, doctors don’t open bodies of patients and look inside every time. They figure out from the surface. It’s called having good diagnostic abilities. He gets my point now and gives a presumptive ‘diagnosis ‘that the pipe must be fine. I sigh with relief… I am eagerly waiting to get back possession of my bathroom. Currently I am sharing my son’s toilet and find myself surrounded by Rubik’s cubes, baby Colgate gel and ladybird bath towels… I am missing my old familiar crèmes and perfumes…

I then drive down to the market to buy a pair of shorts for my daughter. She has emphasised that I must keep an open mind on the length. She disapproves of parental shopping instincts: “you all tend to choose shorts which end close to the knee rather than those which are stylish!” Her lecture to me the evening before about not being too old fashioned has the desired effect and I end up buying a pretty and rather short pair.

Later in the afternoon, when she’s back from school, she inspects the shorts and says she is delighted with my choice but I will have to return them. She says they are not long enough. At this point I remind her of last evening’s brainwashing session. How she spent hours convincing me to keep an open mind and not reject a pair simply because it fell half or one inch short of my expectations! “Yes indeed!” says the wise one … “but there is a difference between being flexible and not using your common sense!” There’s no getting it right with this age group!! 

I also pick up my son separately from the bus stop. He tells me about his day. It seems to have passed off peacefully and I heave a sigh of relief. I look at his blackened knees and wonder how he manages this on a daily basis. At home, the children change clothes and go and investigate what is in the fridge to eat. They are presented with a bowl of fruit and a bowl of beetroot. They screw up their noses and exchange glances. I inspect their tiffin boxes; I complement my daughter on actually eating her food for a change. She coolly and truthfully tells me that it’s her friends who love paranthas… 

I go off to settle my wardrobe with the help of the nanny. I need to wear a sari for a reception and haven’t worn one in a while as I usually wear other traditional dresses. I take out my old blouses and start trying them out one by one to see which still fits. Archana looks at the fashionable blouses with a sense of wonderment. She finds it difficult to believe that at some point in my life I could have been slender enough to fit into these or even remotely glamorous enough to carry them off! One blouse which she is riveted by has two flimsy side panels held together only by a lace string in criss cross fashion. She repeatedly looks from it to my frame! I am reminded of the tailor in the small town I was posted to who stitched some of these. We would have these intractably long measurement sessions which were more of bargaining sessions. I would ask for a particular depth of neckline and he would disapprovingly insist that no one there kept it that way. I would point out that I would return to Delhi in a year or two and there the high neck blouses suggested by him would be considered too dull and unfashionable. He however considered it his duty to protect me from what he considered was moral degradation. Sometimes, though, I did manage to convince him and these more elegant blouses are testimonies to my little victories.

In the evening, I get ready to go to the clinic and the kids to the park. I apply perfume and they grumblingly, odomos. Their homework is set by their father or me and involves a fair amount of bargaining and compromise - ‘compromising’ as my son wrongly calls it! Kapil will be coming in soon and they will settle down for their homework.

At night, once I am back, we watch the children’s favourite TV serial, Master Chef with them. They keep the remote with them at all times and like to replay dramatic moments again and again-a habit we are unable to get them to give up. At least the habit is a milder version of their very young days when they wanted to hear the same story every night!

After TV, we tuck them into bed, and occasionally tell them stories…it’s usually different episodes of a seafaring group (based loosely on Sinbad’s tales). They sometimes get fully engrossed and are wide awake, completely engaged with the sailors’ lives…. and sometimes the adventures thankfully lull them to sleep soon…

Finally after a busy day, I curl up in bed with a good storybook. I have stopped reading scary mysteries at night ; I once read a scary murder mystery aptly titled ‘night time is my time’ where the killer uses the cover of darkness to bump off people rather than getting his hours under the sheets. I took a long long while to drift off to sleep as my fearful brain misinterpreted every night time sound in our house! I now confine myself to more sedate stuff, which eases me into a restful state….in preparation for the next day…..

EIGHTEEN TILL I DIE?

 (PERSPECTIVE ON INADEQUACY OF CURRENT JUVENILE JUSTICE LAWS)

BY

Sujata Khanna, Bhavna Sharma and Anjali Mehta

The honourable Minister for Child and Women’s development caught us a bit by surprise. We read in the newspapers, her announcement that the age for trial in an adult court by an offender would stand firm at 18 years. This statement seemed to want to close the juvenile justice debate which is raging in India after a juvenile aged 17 years enticed a woman into a bus and brutally raped her along with five of his adult friends. A few weeks prior to the minister’s announcement, Justice Verma was asked to give a report on the circumstances surrounding this gangrape case and the prevailing lapses. To his credit, the learned justice reached out to each and every citizen of India, inviting their views and observations. His team and he painstakingly read through the scores of emails which reached them and in a months’ time gave their recommendations. In stark contrast, the honourable minister did not choose to reach out to her electorate at large for their views before pronouncing her statement. No doubt she was advised by experts in the field of juvenile justice and she is likely well - intentioned. Her good intentions however, though they may have pleased some of the NGO’s directly looking after juvenile delinquents, have left thousands of ordinary citizens deeply dismayed. We feel left out of the ambit of her concern. Why have our views not been taken into consideration? Does one have to be a juvenile or a delinquent to have the minister’s ear or sympathy?

However, this debate cannot and must not be swept under the carpet. We, the authors (and I am sure we speak for several others), feel the age limit for punishing juveniles for heinous crimes must be lowered to 16 years. Here are FIVE compelling reasons why;

1.       EVOLUTION IS AN ONGOING PHENOMENON

We simply cannot ignore the scientific fact that evolution is a still on-going process. Pick up any edition of a good scientific magazine and you will find articles replete with examples of how evolution is proceeding. It never stopped. Here are a few examples of such articles, amongst scores written on the subject. Peter Ward in the January 2009 edition of the Scientific American reiterates that not only are humans evolving continuously but the rate of human evolution may have increased. He says that humans continue to show genetically induced changes to their physiology and perhaps to behaviour as well. Dr. Rebecca Rogers Ackermann, Department of Archaeology at the University of Cape Town in her compelling article in the September 2006 online issue of Science in Africa, says that evolution and environment impact each other and future evolution may be possible even in our life time.

Even if we just look around us in everyday life, it is clearly noticeable that children are maturing faster... While many of us were ‘simpletons’ well into our teens, we can’t overlook the obvious fact that the current generation seems to be able to process information faster and seem more ‘aware’ of things at an earlier age. Babies today are born with a head full of hair and long nails. Gone is the bald pate of yesteryears! Sandra Steingraber Ph.D., author of a research paper “The Falling Age of Puberty in U.S. Girls” published by the Breast Cancer Fund (2007) outlines how the average age of menarche among U.S. girls has declined steadily.

Seeing that humans are evolving, it stands to reason that our laws must evolve in tandem with us. The laws of any country reflect the changes in the country and the times we live in. There was a time when slavery was legal, when shooting a native was legal and when apartheid was regularly practised. It was when people stood up and questioned these laws that things changed. People must keep reflecting and changing with the times. We can’t expect laws to be meaningful if they are not re-evaluated at regular intervals.

2. SEVERAL COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD PROSECUTE OFFENDERS YOUNGER THAN 18 YEARS OF AGE

Here is a look at how some other countries deal with juvenile offenders;

Juvenile law in the UK

There is a provision in the juvenile laws in UK to acknowledge and try juveniles with exceptionally serious crimes differently, disregarding age as the sole factor. More than enough examples are available of children 14 years or below who have been convicted for rape and indecent assault as the children were found of guilty mind (mens rea) . Much of the discussion about reforming the system centres on lowering the age to 14 or even 12 so that younger murderers may be sent to adult court. Attempts by several legislators in 1993-94 to adjust age provisions resulted in some changes, although not the sweeping across-the-board reforms many had argued for. In effect from January 1 is a law that lowers the applicable age of 707a provisions to 14 (from the present 16) and allows the use of the 707b-c process for 14-and 15-year-olds who are accused of committing murder (although not for the other serious crimes listed in 707b).

Juvenile justice law in the US

In some cases, (usually when the crime is particularly heinous), a juvenile may be tried as an adult, in which case they are subject to all the expectations, punishment, fines, and sentences of an adult court.

Juvenile laws in China

Out of step with UN rules calling for the “least possible use of institutionalization” (i.e., the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice or the Beijing Rules), China holds more than 60 percent of juvenile offenders in custody (either in prison or administrative detention) and places only 30 percent on probation.

There is, however, no universally defined age for when a young person stops becoming a juvenile and starts becoming an adult. In many cases the age is 18, but there is a great deal of variety throughout the world and even variations on juvenile law within the US

As far as the current Indian juvenile justice system is concerned, children are put into reformatory homes for three years or until they reach the age of 18. Sadly, these homes serve more to corrupt those who enter their portals than help them in any way. They are under staffed, under financed and suffer from an acute shortage of counsellors. Several children’s rights activists have made compelling and wonderful points on how it is the system which is at fault and not the child. True. However, we can’t ignore the fact that innocent people can’t be made to pay the price for failed reform systems either.

So we need to find a meeting ground where all these points are factored in: namely that the child gets a chance to reform but not at the expense of innocent citizens. Two ways to ensure this would be

1.      To segregate the mild – level offenders from the ones who commit heinous crimes

2.      Have very stringent criteria about who can leave a reform home after being thus ‘reformed’. It stands to reason that different levels of diseases require different treatments. For example, if someone has entered a reform home because hunger caused him to indulge in stealing, it is likely that he may need a lesser period of reform time than someone who has committed a heinous crime. To be truly ‘reformed’ a child committing offences like rape and murder may need 10-15 years of reform and counselling. Child rights activists should recognise this logic. Giving everyone a similar three year period of reform is illogical. Even if the desire is to avoid adult jails, at least the treatment and counselling has to follow a logical pattern. We would also benefit from high quality reform homes. If we can have world class IIT and IIM’s, why can’t we be truly democratic and have world class reform homes??

The bottom line:

Though the focus should remain on rehabilitation rather than punitive action, especially for the juvenile mind, ignoring the degree of crime committed by the same is not acceptable.
For e.g. The Penn state juvenile justice system’s main goal is "imposition of accountability for offences committed"….The idea being that the offender must repair the harm caused by their behaviour. They must be made to acknowledge the wrong impact of the crime on the community.

3 ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES IN GOVERNMENT HAVE A DUTY TO ALL CITIZENS, NOT ONLY TO DELINQUENTS.

The honourable minister, when explaining her stance, said she felt a need to protect the interests of juveniles. However we cannot take a narrow view and protect the interests of only juvenile delinquents. The government has a responsibility to all citizens. When particularly violent youngsters are given light sentences and let off on parole or set totally free, they pose a risk to other citizens who are not able to match them in violence. Especially at risk are other teenagers who are likely to be the social group these teenagers hang out with. There are several examples where criminals have been let off on parole and have been found to commit the same offences again.

We also need stricter parole laws:

In most American states, aftercare, termed re-entry of the juvenile after remand is closelysupervised by juvenile parole officers. Juvenile parole counsellors reintegrate offendersinto the community through various rehabilitation programmes. In Washington, there are 4 types of parole..intensive, enhanced, 30 day transition and sex offender parole.

(The Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act ("SORNA"), requires sex offenders convicted before its enactment, including adults and juveniles, to register with the National Sex Offender Registry.

4.A HIGH PERCENTAGE OF PEOPLE COMMITTING CRIMES FALL IN THE 16-18 YEAR AGE GROUP AND STATISTICS REVEAL THE NUMBER IS RISING.

It has become a cause of concern that many crimes are being committed by youngsters. They have the physical strength to execute them and a greater degree of the recklessness of youth.It is believed that many smart alec criminals get youngsters to ‘execute’ the crime for them on payment knowing full well that the chap will be out fairly soon. The sons of well-placed people in cities and villages who have a ‘go’ at girls before their 18^th birthday don’t suffer from any terrible consequences. Rather it is the poor girl victim who pays the physical and mental price for the young boys’ uncontrollable hormonal urges. It would be kind to remember that the victim has feelings too! When someone who does this to her gets away lightly, what is it going to do to her self-esteem? Or do girls not deserve a mention when worrying about juvenile delinquent laws? Why is the justice system not focused on the victim when the justice is ostensibly being gained for the victim?

Here are some statistics on the trend of juvenile crimes in India

In 2001, juvenile crimes in India were pegged at 16,509.

In 2011, that figure stood at 25,125.

This reflects an increase of 65% in 10 years.

NCRB( National Crimes Record Bureau) data for Delhi suggests that cases of murder committed by people younger than 18 increased by 85% between 2001 and 2011, robbery by 540%, cheating by 211% and theft by 51.46%. Amod Kanth, general secretary at the Prayas Institute of Juvenile Justice, says 16-18 is usually the age when teens become violent.

The country’s crime bureau recorded the following number of rape cases involving juveniles which sure a clear upward trend over the years:

Year       Rape Cases   

2011 ….1,210

2010…….858

2009 ……798

2008…….776

 The NCRB data for 2011 also shows that 64 per cent of all juvenile criminals fall in the age group of 16-18.This should send a warning signal to law makers of our country about the need to look at framing a more effective juvenile law.

5.WE HAVE AN OBLIGATION TO INTERPRET LAWS IN STANDARD WAYS AND NOT SUBVERT JUSTICE

The public is baffled about the legality of interpreting the law in completely opposite ways in similar types of cases.  Is the law supposed to change with a judge’s own interpretation of it? That would make for a very chaotic legal system!

In the Suryanelli rape case, the accused were acquitted on the premise that the sex was consensual and agreed to by the 16 year old girl. The judgement in that case therefore seemed to indicate that at 16 years of age, the juvenile is deemed responsible for her actions. In rape cases involving 17-18 year old boys, the boys are given juvenile sentences as they are not deemed fit enough to really know the consequences of their actions. The public would beg to ask of the legal system:

Is a 16 year old a juvenile or an adult? If a juvenile, how can consent have been given?

 Are laws meant to protect and secure us or to be such as to provide loopholes for offenders to slip through easily?

Also, if the age of childhood is 18 years then why is right to education for all ‘children’ implemented only till 14 years of age? Why this dichotomy of interpretation when talking about legal and constitutional rights of children? Why does the child labour act talk about 17 years being the age under which a child cannot work? Why not 18 years?

These are questions we definitely hope to have an answer to.

Acknowledgement: The authors wish to thank Dr Amarjeet, gen secy INTUC (CPI) for her valuable time and suggestions.

Address for correspondence: mehtanjali@gmail.com