Sunday, Nov 17, 2002
Sunday, Nov 17, 2002 |
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Tamil Nadu
By Our Tamil Nadu Bureau
Though the sentence in Salem district has been put off and the farmers' body will review its decision to come up with "appropriate punishment" to two of its members, who influenced the ayacutdars to vote for the Finance Minister, C. Ponnaiyan, in last year's Assembly elections on the basis of some assurances, the very decision to go in for `public whipping' has shocked human rights groups. As for the modified ritual in a couple of temples in Madurai district, child rights and human rights organisations have urged the State Government to come down heavily on "primitive and barbaric" practices. On the punishment for farmers, the activists, however, wonder whether the police would have responded the same way had a Minister's name not been involved in the episode. As for the other issue, a senior Additional Director-General of Police, who has worked in the areas of civil liberties and social justice, besides doing field work in southern districts, says: "The police alone cannot stop such practices. We have thousands of temples and places of worship all over the State. Some of them are under the control of the HR and CE department, but a majority of the smaller and village temples are under private care. It is the local, influential people who decide. It is only through education that we can stop these practices. We must start at least with the next generation." The State unit of the People's Union of Civil Liberties said that while the district administration had acted promptly in stopping the burial of children alive, police action alone was not sufficient. "We call on the State Government to act on the orders of the National Human Rights Commission, which urged it to take up educational efforts to end the rituals," the PUCL general secretary, V. Suresh, said. On the farmers' punishment, he said they should demand accountability from elected representatives. The All-India Democratic Women's Association general secretary, U. Vasuki, says the switch from child burial to child "jump" is just a shift in form and not in the content of the bizarre superstition. On the whipping sentence, she said direct action was a sine qua non of democracy. But its form should come under democratic norms. Whiplash was the antithesis of a civil and democratic practice. The Society for Community Organisation Trust, Madurai, which presented a report to the NHRC about the Perayur temple festival in 1995, said progressive forces should launch a "sustained awareness campaign against such dangerous practices" (child burial). Henri Tiphagne, Director, People's Watch, said the modification of the ritual was indicative of the people being amenable to change. On the whiplash punishment, he said it was a "dangerous trend" and a better option would be a "social boycott" or "right to recall". Ossie Fernandez, convener, Tamil Nadu Child Rights Protection network, says the temple practice was a violation of both the constitutional provisions and the United Nations Declaration on rights of a child, "whether it is a ritual of burial or jumping over". No child involved in the ritual had the freedom to express informed consent.
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