The Kerala Scene: Girls forced to join convents?

Media reports say that the State Women’s Commission (SWC) has made, after studying a complaint it received, the following recommendations to the government regarding admitting nuns to the convents:

1. Ensure that girls below the age of 18 are not forcibly enrolled as nuns
2. Implement a scheme to rehabilitate women who leave the convents.

There cannot be any dispute on these. In fact, the first point should apply to marriages as well. No person should be compelled to act against her/his will. It is worthwhile noting here that a Catholic marriage is annulled by the Church if defective consent is proved.

Another suggestion by the SWC is that a girl’s share of her family wealth should remain in her own name and not vest with the convent she joins. This can raise some questions.

Would it interfere with the fundamental right of citizen to handle his/her wealth? What about the many poor girls who join as nuns? How would they be provided for? When a person joins a community with full consent is not that person bound to follow the rules of that community? Can there be a meaningful religious group consisting of rich members and poor members?

To a lay mind the effect of this recommendation would be that a nun’s share of her ancestral property could go to anyone else or to the government but not to the convent of which she is a member. Somehow that doesn’t seem fair.

The SWC affirms that it does not want to tamper with matters relating to faith.

The major churches in Kerala have come out with clarifications:

1. No person under the age of 18 can be accepted as priest or nun.
2. Only if there were full consent their training would start.
3. There is no compulsion that a girl should donate her share of the family wealth to the convent she joins.
4. Even after the final wows are taken, a person can leave the vocation.
5. Help is extended for rehabilitating those who leave the convents.

The Church authorities should have explained all these to the SWC. But it is not clear whether they were given a chance to do so.

Ends.

Also see: Vedas, Syrian Christians

Follow up

The Chicken & Egg Story

The Minister who made the now famous ‘eggs and chicken’ statement (See: Kerala: A Minister’s magic solution to food shortage) has come out with a clarification. He said some newspapers (I suppose he meant papers not owned by the Left Front) misquoted him. Unfortunately for him his Party’s General Secretary also condemned the statement. But that again could be based on ‘wrong reports’.

The ‘media mafia’ which is always for the bourgeois against the poor proletariat seem to be specializing in wrong reporting.

Now I am wondering whether there is something wrong with my eyes, ears and brain. I watched the clips of the Minister’s speech on different TV news bulletins. Did I see right, hear right and think right? Who knows?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Police woman bashing

A quo warranto writ was filed in the Kerala High Court stating that the two ministers who went to the Police Station allegedly to release the woman accused of slapping a lady constable in public (See Quo Vadis, Kerala?) have flouted the Oath of Office.. The petition has been rejected. The reported reason? The Police Department filed an affidavit stating that the ministers did not put any pressure on the police to release the accused; they went there only to meet their Party Secretary.

There certainly cannot be a law against someone meeting his boss at a Police Station or wherever. Why the boss was there is a different matter.

Also see: Savage Kerala

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Globalization hits the courts too?

A Kerala Minister who is famous for announcing daily dozes of wisdom to his people has reportedly said yesterday the courts did not do justice to the State’s Education Policy because globalization is influencing the judiciary as well. He quickly added that his respect for the courts is101%.

No complaints from me because I have only 100% respect for the judiciary.

Also see: Contempt of Court - express your views

Ends.

Savage Kerala continued

Last evening’s Malayalam news on TV chanels and today’s Malayalam papers prominently (front page four column) carried reports about the woman who was beaten up by a mob at Edapal on the 7^th of this month (see Savage Kerala).Her name is Malathi. She had disappeared from the hospital where she had been admitted after the assault.

On a tip off, the police picked her up yesterday along with a child near Kottakkal from the bus in which she was traveling to Calicut. Malathi was questioned and then taken to a hospital for a pregnancy test. A lady doctor had a scan and urine test done on her and pronounced that she was not pregnant. The doctor went on to explain that the bulging of the woman’s abdomen was because of a fatty tumor in her stomach. Now the world knows the medical condition of the woman who was savagely attacked. Malathi and the child were sent to a Rescue Home reportedly after informing the Women’s Commission.

I find all these shocking. There is no pending case or evidence against Malathi. She is the aggrieved person and a witness, not the accused. The police can pick up any person any where on pretexts that can range from terrorism to what not. But what was the need for the pregnancy tests? And under what provisions of law were the woman’s personal details made public? Obviously the police and the doctor did not follow the law and ethics.

Malathi, it is said, belongs to a poor nomadic group. However she claims that she was staying at a colony near the West Hill Railway Station in Calicut. All that is secondary. Her privacy is inviolable under law. Her personal details cannot be placed in the public domain by any one. Her rights, like that of any other citizen, have to be protected.

I hope that the Human Rights Commission or the High Court would also take cognizance of the matter.

Ends.
Also see:
Updates