Human Rights Leader Facing False Charges in Delhi Street Vendor Campaign
Friday, June 6th, 2008NEW DELHI, INDIA, June 6, 2008: The prominent human rights organization, Manushi, issued the following press release call for protests against false charges lodged against its founder, Madhu Kishwar:
“Manushi, a nationally acclaimed women’s rights and human rights organization, led by Madhu Kishwar, a Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of Developing Societies, has been engaged for the last four years in a project to create a model street hawker market in Sewa Nagar in Delhi as part of a larger endeavour to reform the exploitative street vendor policy in India.
“Today street vendors throughout India are trapped in a web of illegality and therefore vulnerable to extortion and blackmail. In Delhi alone, street vendors are robbed of at least Rs.500 crores every year by way of bribes and confiscation of goods, in addition to being subjected to routine beatings and other human rights abuses. The Sewa Nagar Project aims to change this scenario by providing security of livelihood to street vendors, and also showing them the advantages of observing civic discipline and making them responsible stakeholders in cities.
“On Dec 31st 2007, as Prof. Madhu Kishwar was taking some pictures in the Sewa Nagar street vendor market, she was attacked by Mahipal Basoya’s mother. Prof. Kishwar’s hair was pulled; she was hit, and pushed into a drain. Other members of the Basoya gang joined in punching and kicking her. The attackers joined in a chorus, shouting ‘we will not let this randi (Hindi for prostitute) go out alive from here.’ When Prof. Kishwar’s associate, Sheeshpal, attempted to rescue her, he too was beaten up. The Basoya gang tried to break open Prof. Kishwar’s car so that they could shove her in and set it on fire. Prof. Kishwar suffered several injuries including torn ligaments in her right arm. That day Prof. Kishwar and Sheeshpal barely escaped with their lives. On that same evening, this gang went and looted the stalls of three street vendors and threatened them with dire consequences if they dared give testimonies against any of the gang members. This attack had been preceded by several earlier life threatening attacks.
“With a great deal of difficulty, Prof. Kishwar was able to register an FIR with the police. However, in a shocking turn of events, turning the very notion of justice upside-down, the police allowed the perpetrators of this brutal assault to lodge a blatantly false charge of “attempt to murder” against Prof. Kishwar. They further assisted the Basoya gang in misusing the process of law to file a patently bogus case in the Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court so that on 30th May 2008, Metropolitan Magistrate Manish Yaduvanshi passed an order that an FIR be registered against Prof. Kishwar on the “attempt to murder” charge filed by the Basoya family.
This has been a standard pattern. Each time the Basoyas attacked Madhu Kishwar or other members of Manushi Sangathan, they instantly filed false counter cases against Prof. Kishwar with the active connivance of the police.
“The fact that it was Prof. Kishwar who was the victim of the brutal attack on Dec. 31st, and not the other way around, is something that is fully acknowledged even by the local police (who accompanied her to the Trauma Centre for medical treatment) and the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP). Ever since Dec. 31st, the DCP, recognizing that her life is threatened by the Basoya gang, has on his own provided Prof.. Kishwar with round-the-clock police security. It is indeed strange that on the one hand, the DCP, recognizing the Basoya gang’s threats against her life, has provided her with 24 hour security, while at the same time the Station House Officer (SHO) manipulates things in such a manner as to get the Metropolitan Magistrate to order registering an FIR based on trumped up charges by the same gang that is perceived to be a threat to her life.”
The Changing Face of Faith in Melbourne
http://www.theage.com.au/national/the-changing-face-of-faith-in-melbourne-20080606-2my4.html
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA, June 7, 2008: Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam are Melbourne’s fastest growing religions. Though the city is still predominantly Catholic, the 2006 census also found that fewer people identify as Christians — down from 66% in 1996 to 59% a decade later.
With in impressive growth of 157%, the local Hindu community is now more numerous than the Jews (40,000, up 12.6%) and Pentecostals (30,000, up 36%).
Monash University demographer Bob Birrell said, “We have two ends of the spectrum, that migration is fueling the ranks of religious groups, and yet at the other end, the secular trends are diminishing the ranks of people committed to religious faith.”
