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

Trafficking in women.

Did you know that India is a major destination for trafficking in women and children? So says a UN report. The country is a source and transit point as well.

Globally, human trafficking is the third largest criminal business after arms and drugs. It is estimated that annually this activity generates an income of 7 to 12 billion US Dollars. The International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates that the operators pocket an additional 32 billion USD when the victims are delivered at the destination.

I happened to look into this matter, on reading an article that is included in the January issue of Inside the Vatican. It is about the Italian nun, Sr. Eugenia Bonetti, M.C who is doing commendable work in the anti-trafficking field. What caught my attention particularly was the statement, “millions of women are trafficked in India”. It sounded exaggerated.

On cross-checking I found other sources endorsing the estimate. This involves men, women and children for work and sexual exploitation. 90% of India’s sex trafficking is internal according to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

However, Girija Vyas, Chairperson, National Commission for Women, is reported to have said, "All figures are rough estimates. But it's believed to run in hundreds of thousands."

Inside the Vatican says, “Trafficking thrives where poverty, economic disparity and lack of employment opportunities exist. Women make up 70% of the world’s poor and bear the heaviest burden.”

How to tackle the problem effectively? The INTERPOL wants improvement and increase in international collaboration and law enforcement. In India, the National Commission for Women has submitted some suggestions to the authorities.

Sr. Eugenia Bonetti, M.C. has inspired USMI, a coalition of 627 women’s congregations. It runs several shelters where the victims of trafficking are offered safety and help to rebuild their lives. Sr. Eugenia has also taken the leadership in launching an international anti-trafficking network, which is the first of its kind.

This good sister is on the list of Inside the Vatican’s top ten people of 2007.

Ends.

Also see:

Quick ways to make a difference

Savage Kerala

Updates

Gunboat Jack, a Bangalore hero of the past

In an article ‘POETIC LICENCE: Of Gunboat Jack and Princess Amina’, Kaleem Omar had mentioned that Gunboat Jack had, in his later years, worked at a boys boarding school at Madras (Chennai) as head of watch and ward and that the US Embassy shipped him back to the United States. Somehow I had missed this earlier. Apparently, Kaleem Omar and me are talking about the same Gunboat Jack. I had expressed some doubt about this in my original post.

This is further confirmed by a mail to me from Sheila Abraham, the daughter of ‘Tiger’ Nat Terry, the famous boxer and a contemporary of Gunboat Jack. Read below what Sheila wrote:

“My father and Gunboat Jack were good friends. Whenever we visited Bangalore, he would it a point to visit him at that hotel, take him for a meal and buy him cigars. We learnt later, while my father was still alive that the U.S. Government sent for him and he went back to the United States, as his health had deteriorated considerably. He apparently must have passed on even before my father, but we have had no news since he left.”

So Gunboat Jack finally went back home after many decades in India.

Sheila has also revealed that ‘Tiger’ Nat Terry scored a historic win over Gunboat Jack. Thank you Sheila for all the input.

Also see: Boxing: ‘Tiger’ Nat Terry – a champion and a gentl...

Savage Kerala

Today’s news paper carried more news about Malathi, the woman who was beaten up at Edapal, Kerala, on October 7. It seems that the Human Rights Commission had taken up the matter on a petition filed by two human rights activists.

The Commission has ordered that the five accused in the case who were arrested by the police, pay Rs.15, 000 each. The amount is to be kept in a nationalized bank. The interest from the deposit is to be utilized for the treatment of the women and the child.

This is an interim order. The Commission decided that there is no need to take evidence from the victims. The case will be finally disposed of after hearing the concerned doctor.

Good news, I must say.

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

Savage Kerala

Last Sunday’s evening news on a Malayalam TV channel showed shocking visuals of a fully pregnant woman, her 16 years old daughter and an even younger son being beaten up by a mob in broad daylight. The savagery started in a cloth shop. The woman was then dragged down to the road where the thrashing and stomping continued. Her clothes were pulled away partially and torn, exposing her lower belly and underclothes.

Initially I thought that the news was from some North Indian State where incidents involving men (not women) being beaten to death or lynched by angry mobs were reported recently. But I was sadly mistaken. The shocking scenes were from Kerala, the so called God’s Own Country.

The problem started when a woman customer at the shop reported that one anklet of her child was missing. Immediately suspicion turned to a group of females from a nearby State, who happened to be on the premises. In any civilized country, the proper drill would have been to inform the police and have the suspects searched by lady constables.

But not so in ‘literate’ Kerala. A mob gathered immediately and started beating the pregnant woman and her children with hands and rods, punching them and kicking them. According to the media, this show in Edapal Town went on uninterrupted for about 45 minutes. When the police finally arrived and searched the woman, the missing anklet was not found on her. She was reportedly hospitalized by the police.

The political reaction was predictable. Ministers condemned the assault, a couple of junior policemen were suspended, a case was registered and about half a dozen people arrested. The Human Rights Commission has also taken up the issue.

But what is the use? To convict an accused, credible witnesses are required. The people who were close enough to the scene were all busy sharing the action. The battered woman and her children would be the ideal persons to identify the culprits. But they are mysteriously missing from the hospital. Either they ran away to escape further torment or they were removed from the place to protect the assailants. The police are of course searching for the bruised pregnant woman and her children, identification photos in hand! These are the kind of things which happen in Kerala today.

Has there been any damage to the life that is growing in the womb of the assaulted woman? Who knows? Does any one care?

I feel that all of us Keralites should hang down our heads in shame.

Ends.

Also see:

Kerala: Onam goes up in spirit

Un-ploughed lies my land