Friday, December 11, 2009

India court raises question of legalising prostitution

India's Supreme Court has asked the government to consider whether it might legalise prostitution if it is unable to curb it effectively.

The court said legalising prostitution would help in the monitoring of the trade and rehabilitating sex workers.

Although illegal, prostitution is a thriving business in cities and towns across India.

It is estimated that there are more than two million female sex workers in the country.

The court's remarks came while dealing with a public interest litigation filed by an NGO about child trafficking.

The court said child trafficking and prostitution were flourishing because of poverty.

"When you say it is the world's oldest profession and you are not able to curb it by laws, why don't you legalise it?" Judges Dalveer Bhandari and AK Patnaik asked a government solicitor.

"You can then monitor the trade, rehabilitate and provide medical aid to those involved."

The solicitor said that he would look into the court's suggestions.

"The [sex workers] have been operating in one way or the other and nowhere in the world have they been able to curb it by legislation," the judges said.

"In some cases, [the trade] is carried out in a sophisticated manner. So, why don't you legalise it?"

A government-commissioned study says that the number of sex workers has risen from two million in 1997 to three million in 2003-04.

Many prostitutes are said to be underage, entering the sex trade as young as 12.

Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal states together account for 26% of the total number of prostitutes in the country.

GJM negotiators will be hanged: UGPF

The United Gorkha Revolutionary Front (UGRF), a Gorkha outfit, on Thursday threatened to 'hang' Gorkha Jan Mukti Morkha (GJM) negotiators if they failed to secure a separate Gorkhaland state at the December 21 tripartite talks with the Center.

"The GJM negotiators will be deemed as traitors and hanged in the event of their failure to usher in a separate state for the Gorkha people," the UGRF President Ajay Dahal said in a statement in Gangtok.

The Gorkha community is pinning its hope that their long standing aspiration for a separate state will be fulfilled at the talks, he said, adding creation of the Gorkhaland state will be a 'fitting tribute' to those pro-statehood supporters who have laid down their lives for the cause in the past decades.

Dahal also threatened to launch a militant struggle on the statehood demand in the wake of an unsatisfatory outcome at the crucial tripartite talks later this month.

Assam MLAs to volunteer for vasectomy

Birth control begins at House. This is what a majority of legislators decided while deliberating on vasectomy and population explosion in the Assam Assembly on Friday.

The issue of sterilization and contraception cropped up after Tarun Gogoi’s Congress-led government was chided for encouraging reproduction through populist schemes such as Janani Suraksha Yojana.

“The Janani scheme entails financial rewards for women belonging to economically weaker sections who opt for institutional delivery instead of giving birth at home. The scheme was conceived to ensure better health for both mother and child, and not to encourage large-scale human reproduction. On the contrary, doctors and health workers are using such schemes to counsel on the benefits of smaller families,’ said Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in reply to a question from Independent legislator Pranab Kalita.

Such counseling, he added, has led to over 50,000 males and females undergoing sterilization and vasectomy in Assam. “The figure is expected to cross 1 lakh in the current fiscal,” he said.

The sterilization drive, the House was told, has been more popular in the tea-growing belts inhabited by Adivasis and the Muslim-dominated river sandbars (chars). These two communities have been at the focus of drastic changes in Assam’s demography.

“As representatives of the people, we should set a precedent by going for sterilization ourselves instead of preaching,” said Sarma. Most legislators in the 126-member House agreed. “Show us the way, and we’ll follow,” said Aditya Langthasa of the minority-heavy All India United Democratic Front.

According to data tabled in the House, the population of Assam increases daily by an average 20,131 births against an average daily death of 7,244 persons. The birth rate thus works out 23.9 per 1000 live births and the death rate 8.6 per 1000 live births.

Assam has a population of 26,655,528 as per the 2001 census. At a growth rate of 1.8 per cent, the projected population for the current year is 30,744647. Health officials said the large of population in the reproductive age group contributes to 58 per cent of the growth rate in the State.

Early marriage is also a factor, with 38 per cent girls marrying below the age of 18.

Telengana effect: Division bell rings in Assam, too

GUWAHATI: Barely 12 hours after the Centre decided to initiate the process of forming a separate Telengana state, the Congress ally in Assam,
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Bodo People's Front (BPF), has renewed its demand for Bodoland a separate state for the Bodos.

Formed by members of the now-disbanded Bodo Liberation Tiger (BLT), BPF is currently ruling the autonomous Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC), besides sharing power with Congress in the state government.

Former BLT commander and now BPF chief Hagrama Mohilary on Thursday said his party MLAs would raise the demand for a separate Bodoland state in the Assembly on Friday. He is the chief administrator of the BTC, which was set up under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution in 2003.

"When we had gone into negotiations with the state and the NDA government in Delhi, we were told that the Central policy did not permit division of any state to form a new one," Mohilary said.

"We therefore agreed to an autonomous set-up under the Sixth Schedule. But now, with the UPA mulling a separate Telengana state by dividing Andhra Pradesh, we think that the Centre has changed its policy and is now in favour of creating new states," he added.

"We welcome the UPA's decision to create Telengana. But, at the same time, the Bodos want a similar privilege. Our demand for Bodoland has been there for a long time," Mohilary added.

On the other hand, chief minister Tarun Gogoi, too, seems to have sensed the repercussions of the Centre's decision on the Telengana issue in the state. On Thursday, he urged New Delhi to pump in "enough funds" for the development of tribal areas in the state "if it wants these people not to raise similar demands".

Gogoi said, "For instance, the population of Karbi Anglong and North Cachar Hills districts in Assam is almost the same as Mizoram. If Mizoram can be a full-fledged state, the people of Karbi Anglong and NC Hills will certainly feel deprived. Their resentment is natural."

Gogoi is also aware of the long-pending demand of a separate state in the Bodo heartland. Political observers say it would be interesting to see how Gogoi tackles the demand raised by the coalition partner of Congress.

Biswajit Daimary, the BPF member in Rajya Sabha, has already raised the demand for a separate Bodoland in the House.