Child labour: Remove with social participation

An individual with a clear vision can make a big difference in society. Anal Arasu is one such person trying to change the destiny of the villagers in Kancheepuram district.

The Project Manager for Hand in Hand, an NGO at Kancheepuram, Arasu strains to bring about a change, improve education among children, eradicate child labour and get micro financing take over the role of the money lender.

At a training centre in Chinna Kancheepuram where he addressed a seminar on, “Child Labour Elimination” he emphasised how parents and children needed to be aware of a world outside in order to aim for a better future. He explained, “A child drops out of school and starts working for a meagre amount, because staying in the school seems a waste of time. There are no guarantees, even after completing school; he will do the same job so he starts to supplement the family income. And with no one in the community to suggest otherwise, the child becomes a labourer. It is lack of social responsibility more than poverty that causes child labour.”

Amongst many projects that Arasu managed, giving ration supplies to the children in schools had yielded best results. Under the project funded by Hand in Hand, Sweden, each student’s family was granted ration worth Rs.500 every month. This rations included rice, millets, toothpaste, soap etc. Arasu said that he did not believe in forcibly keeping the children in school, he said, “There has to be incentive and motivation to go to school instead of punishment in failing to go.”

A firm believer in participatory learning, Arasu said that education needed to be associated with happiness instead of boredom. Keeping track of attendance and lecturing on the evils of child labour was not effective in solving the problem because it was just a link in the vicious circle of poverty, he explained. He added that because child labour was only a link, one had to pay attention to all the other links like occupation, poverty, health, micro credit etc. Arasu is also heading projects involving Women self help groups (SHGs), Citizen Centres, Health and hygiene and Solid waste management.

Although the government considered children to be child labourers if they belonged to the age group nine-14 yrs, in reality, he said, the age group involved all those upto-20 years. Child labour is prevalent in poverty stricken households where each member of the family added to the family income.

According to Arasu, “We lose sight of our goal if we segregate it from the larger picture, if you aim to eradicate only child labour in a community you will never succeed unless you improve the finances of the community by micro credit, assist them in setting up institutions like citizen centres and schools and provide them with basic health and hygiene facilities.”

Arasu was all for creating awareness because awareness generated action. He believed that instead of having inspectors to check child labour it was more effective to create Child Right Protection Communities. Because when the community felt responsible for the future of the children it would take affirmative action. It is only when an entire community feels responsible that an issue, as complex as child labour, can be tackled.

‘caste’ deciding the course of your life

There is no monster as cruel as caste. It can tear the life and destiny of people into bits of degraded and subhuman entities.

The village of Parmeshvaramandalam is known for its activism (HOW) against illegal sand mining but its wide caste divide is unknown to the world. While the Brahmins and the upper castes enjoy absolute authority and freedom, the Vedhars, a sub tribe of the Irulas live life in deplorable conditions.

In thee village Dharmakarta, Parthivan Arangovale, was a tall man with an even taller stature. As he walked down the dusty streets of the village he proudly showed the areas where farming was still carried out despite failure of agriculture in due to sand mining. He was the head of the village temple, for which a huge water tank was being built. Boasting about the grandeur of the temple he said, “When this tank is complete there will be no better village in entire area.”

He passed a settlement which looked distinctly different from the rest of the village. While the houses in the village were painted in many colours, had beautifully carved doors and windows, this area had 15 shacks, made out of dry palm fronds. Not a single house in the settlement had a door, a window or a boundary wall, as if they had nothing to wall in or wall out.

When asked about the settlement, he said dismissively, “They are Vedhars; they kill snakes and eat mice.” He led us to a shack where a frail old lady sat under a dry tree. As Ponniyamma saw the priest, she rose to greet him. She prostrated at his feet. With tears in her eyes she addressed him as ‘Swami’, meaning My Lord.

Ponniyamma, a Vedhar, a widow considered herself a curse since her two sons died due to snake bites and none of her three girls could bear children. Her only son who was alive had abandoned her and now works in Kancheepuram, 40 kms away. Ponniyamma’s husband, a snake catcher had died too of a snake bite. She was left to the mercy of the villagers; she had no land, no property, no family and no hope.

The Priest explained why Ponniyamma’s community was kept away from the village, “They eat mice and kill snakes so it is better that they stay far from us. They do come to the village but only when there is a snake. What will they do in the village otherwise?”

The Vedhar community, living on the margins of the village had no source of income except collecting charcoal for the villagers, earning a mere Rs.25 a day. The only other profession was snake catching which did not fetch cash. They were paid only in kind. Snake bites and snake catching are doubly hazardous here with the nearest hospital 25 kms away from the village in Chengalpettu. Vedhars have no bullock cart to reach the medical centre in time. Almost each family has witnessed a death due to snake bite; still the community is onto catching snakes because they have no choice to do anything otherwise.

When asked about the deplorable conditions of the tribe, the village councillor, Jayanthi Sumatra said, “They get the two free sarees according to the government scheme. Also every villager who has a ration card gets rice. These people just create a scene unnecessarily.”

As the Vedhar women, in tattered sarees, walked towards the river to occupy the downstream bathing Ghat Arangovale explained, “There is no constraint on how much water they use. They bathe downstream because the bore well is above it.” The bore well supplied water to the entire village, except the settlement of Vedhars who walked to the village for water.

As the priest walked back from the village, nobody overtook him, either they couldn’t or may be they chose not to. The village accepted the community as a part of the village but marginalised them depriving them of a life of dignity.

Sand mining affecting agriculture

Illegal sand mining in the Palar basin has drastically affected the fertility of the soil in the village of Parmeshavaramandalam. The village that traditionally grows vegetables and groundnuts had one failed crop last year and is experiencing low yields. Since the village is located on the coast, even half a foot of sand mining allows the sea water into the farms thereby leading to the salination of the soil. The sea water that enters the soil affects the crop permanently.

“More than 150 hectares of our land have become too saline for farming and the remaining 350 hectares will also become useless if the sand mining doesn’t stop,” said a farmer from Parmeshavaramandalam, Niyan Sundaram. A farmer in the village, K. Arjun said, “Earlier we used to get 25 bags of ground nuts from one acre but last year we got only 10 bags.” He said, “Each bag sells for close to Rs.1000. With losses of Rs.15, 000 each harvest how long will we survive?”

Two years back the farmers and the village councillor, Sumatra took the issue to the high court where the court ordered a stay on the illegal activity..Despite stay orders the mining continued and the land kept getting saline. According to the councillor more than 10,000 lorries reach the Palar basin a day and mine sand illegally.
One of the village elders, J. Shekar said, “What does a farmer do when the soil goes salty? The farmer abandons it but even manual labour does not put food in his belly.” According to the Sumatra, it was only a matter of time till the entire 500 hectares of the village farming area became too saline to be cultivated.

The village councillor, explained, “Agriculture is not enough to support the family so the men have started to move to the towns. They work for Rs.100 a day but they spend more than Rs 20 reaching the town and there is no guarantee that they find work every time they go.”.
Suggesting a solution, Sumatra said that they needed check dams at every 25 kms of the river basin to ensure that the river did not join the sea. She added that a check dam would cost Rs.250 crore, but the District Collector when asked about it explained that there weren’t enough funds to build the check dams.

In absence of options the men of the village went to towns and worked on construction sites where sand from Palar was used. Ironically, the villagers are employed by the same illegal companies that had driven them out of their fields.

 

Life of a Gajara vendor: Not a rosy picture

“At 22 I had a husband, steady income and a home today I have nothing.” Nagamma, 41, is a Gajara vendor. As she makes colourful strings of flowers she speaks of the days when she wore Gajara instead of selling them.
Nagamma is one of the many ladies who sell Gajaras outside the temples of Kanjeepuram. Her day starts at three in the morning with a four kilometre walk to the flower market. She lives in the slums of Chiina Kanjeepuram, where she has rented a shack. She said she can not afford to buy back her house which her late husband made because of the menial income. Her only son left her after completing his schooling, for which Nagamma took loans from her brothers.
   

In the flower market she picks through flowers, “these are most expensive. Rs25 for 100 roses” she says and picks a Kg of Arali for Rs 20. She said she could not afford roses because Arali can bear heat better also rose Gajaras sell for the same cost as Arali ones. She earns Rs.90 to 120 a day out of which Rs.60 are kept asidefor buying flowers the next day. With an earning of thirty Rupees, Nagamma barely sustains herself.

Going ‘Meritocratic’: the Autocratic way

     What expectations would one have from a Member of Parliament whose mother is the president of one of the most influential parties in the country, whose father was a Prime minister, whose grand father was the first Prime Minster of the country and whose great grand father was a distinguished leader of the country’s independence movement?      Expecting that he would weigh his words before making public statements is not too much to ask. His lineage predisposed him to a career of active politics but it is his communication skills that make him a favorite among the news writers. Each word he says creates ripples not only because of his lineage but also because he meticulously saws the branch on which he is sits.    Rahul Gandhi, the general secretary of the party, member the Congress Working Committee, head of Youth Congress, National Students Union of India and member of the Congress party’s campaign committee gave his debut speech at the last AICC session. In his speech he made an appeal to the youth to join the Congress to realize their dreams and capabilities. He also added a word which describes the political history of Congress: Meritocratic.     The 37-year-old politician while Addressing 3,000 All India Congress Committee delegates, said that the Congress party should be relevant to ‘a broad range of young Indians’ and become ‘meritocratic’ where progress is linked to performance and accountability. For someone who got to his position within the party on account of his lineage it perhaps was strident for his party men to hear him speak of “merit”, “performance” and “accountability”. While Rahul’s ‘merit and performance’ or the lack of them has been made clear many times since 2004 when he joined the politics but it is his emphasis on ”accountability” that directly questions  Rahul’s party.      Applying the “Rahul Gandhi” maxim of progress linked to performance and accountability what would be the verdict Congress President Sonia Gandhi who oversaw the party lose every assembly election since 2004 and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who’s Executive Delinquency for the last many months saw governance come to a standstill.       The Sonia Gandhi spin machine always had the advantage of taking the moral high ground and painting her as the victim. From Sonia Gandhi’s act of abdicating responsibility and thrusting Manmohan Singh to the PMO everything she does gets projected as Sacrifice to the Office of Profit Issue the blame was always on the Government with the Congress shying away from taking responsibility.       Rahul Gandhi’s Meritocratic position gives him the advantage of the same machinery which works in order to project him as the future leader but it is his habit of invoking the past to gain sympathy which makes his statements so quotable. During the Uttar Pradesh election campaign in 2007 he said that “if anyone from the Gandhi-Nehru family had been active in politics then, the Babri Masjid would not have fallen”.  He was a prominent figure in a high profile Congress campaign for the 2007 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections; Congress, however, won only 22 seats with 8.53% of votes Rahul was never held accountable.        Rahul is known for making catalytic statements on all issues from the Babari Masjid demolition to the partition of the country. By counting the 1971 break-up of Pakistan among his family’s “achievements” and boosting on the determination of his family he had once said” You know that when my family decides to do anything, it does it. Be it the freedom struggle, the division of Pakistan or taking India to the 21st century.”    Well-known historian Irfan Habib remarked that the comments were “An insult to the Bangladesh movement. Rahul is free to say whatever he wants to, but in a democratic country playing up family is certainly not in good taste.” It is this bad taste that would perhaps compel Rahul to consult before he makes another statement because the Meritocratic manner in which he has made it to the top would slip out of his hand if he continues to be the Don Quixote of Indian Politics.

Contempt of What ?

On 21^st of September The New Delhi High Court sentenced 4 journalists from the Mid-Day daily, to 4 months jail term, for apparent ‘contempt of court’. The contempt was established on the basis of a May 19 cartoon in Mid-day that brought up a conflict of interest discussion about the Chief Justice of India passing judgments in a land sealing case, the judgments that might have benefited his sons.The resident editor Vitusha Oberoi, city editor MK Tayal, publisher AK Akhtar and cartoonist Irfan Khan were the four journalists who, by the way of a cartoon, showed that the x-chief justice had vested interests in ordering the Dehli sealing.A bench comprising Justice Sodhi and Justice B N Chaturvadi said, “As they neither seek an apology nor do they opt to argue and reiterate their stand which has tarnished the image of the highest court, a four month imprisonment would serve the ends of justice”. The Bench said that the publications actually attacked the very institution which is nothing short of contempt. The bench also rejected the argument that after retirement the judge ceased to be a part of the judicial system and writing against him does not tantamount to the contempt of court and held that the nature of the disclosures though quoting the former CJI hurts the image of the Highest Court of the land.But allegations made against an individual, whatever his official position are generally not interpreted as an act of defamation against an entire fraternity of vocation under the law. No case has ever been recorded against the publication of charges against politicians, IAS, IFS and the IPS etc amounted to defaming an entire profession or cadre. And in this case also the court acted on suo-motu cognizance i.e it acted on its own. Arguing the journalists’ case, senior advocate Shanti Bhushan said the high court’s order is “unjustified and unreasonable” because “truth is an explicit defense under the Contempt of Court Act”.The journalists said they had ample evidence to prove their charges but the high court judges felt “the publications, in the garb of scandalizing a retired Chief Justice of India, have in fact, attacked the very institution” and “is nothing short of contempt”. The court did not allow the four to try and prove the allegations in the story, effectively saying that whether the allegations were true did not matter; by writing about the case the paper had “lowered the dignity of the Supreme Court in the eyes of the public”. But in 2006, The Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Justice had accepted the Centre’s move to make `truth’ as defence in the Contempt of Court law in public interest. Parliament amended the Contempt of Courts Act (CCA) to introduce Section 13(b), which states: “The courts may permit, in any proceedings for contempt of court, justification by truth as a valid defence if it is satisfied that it is in public interest and the request for invoking the said defence is bona fide.”  Stating that the object of this amendment was to introduce fairness in procedure and meet the requirements of Article 21 of the Constitution, which guarantees that no person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law. According to this law, the journalists had the right to present their truth as evidence, but the court did not allow the four to try and prove the allegations in the story. The court said that whether the allegations were true did not matter; by writing about the case the paper had “lowered the dignity of the Supreme Court in the eyes of the public”.But in contempt of court the judges are the ones who undertake the trail , who accuse a person of contempt and the ones who give the verdict. In other words it is like a case of deformation in which a group of people stand against an institution, knowing that the final verdict will be given by the institution only. In such a case truth as evidence, if not accepted, will make the judiciary unapproachable.Although Contempt of court is a court ruling which, in the context of a court trial or hearing, deems an individual as holding contempt for the court, its process, and its invested powers, which may result from a failure to obey a lawful order of a court, showing disrespect for the judge, disruption of the proceedings through poor behavior, or publication of material deemed likely to jeopardize a fair trial. Without the protection of truth as evidence against contempt, the press will never be in a position to expose the ill doings of the judiciary.

The new President

Madam Pratibha Patil became the 13^th person to reside in the Rashtra pati Bhavan, like all presidents she too heads the country and mascots the democracy of the nation but her presidential tenure is historical in many other ways.  Not only is she is the first women president but more than that this is the first time that the presidential elections were brought down to the level of a street fight with mud slinging comments and strategic unfolding of controversies. The last part of monarchy that we still linger on to justifies the post of the president, the president is considered to be a philosopher king but after 60 years of democracy the country seemed to be without many options to fill in the shoes of “the president”. The nomination of Pratibha Patil raised a significant question especially amongst the non Maharastrians, Who is she? And in the effort to answer the same BJP spilt the beans of her career and her associates elaborating every single flaw. Media  too created an entire campaign to  try and chase away the inevitable victory of Pratibha Patil, they diged into her career and brought out cases that were pending from the  loans that her banks did not pay to the brother who was in a murder case. BJP spent more time and energy trying to make UPA’s candidate look bad than to strengthen its own candidate. Jayalalithaa went on to feel sad at the manner in which the presidential election was being held, the media played the tape of Patil’s comments on the veil and the reporters repetitively covered the bank sites which were once run by her, but despite all that Patil won the presidential election by a margin of 300,000 votes from the next candidate, who was the vice president few days back.So is it that UPA’s choice has become the order for all or is that we as a nation faced shortage of  candidates for the president’s post  or is it that  Patil received what she deserved we simply made no efforts to understand her? Today the largest democracy in the world is headed by a woman and this fact does illuminate the empowerment of females in the country, she may or may not prove to be a rubber stamp but she will defiantly be an icon for those who devalued being a female in the country isn’t it then fair to give her a chance to prove herself. Her career graph shows a life well spent in promoting education and employment amongst females .She along with her husband opened many schools like Vidya Bharati Shikshan Prasarak Mandal , which runs a chain of schools and colleges in Jalgaon and Mumbai , she also set up Shram Sadhana trust that runs hostels for working women in new Dehli , Mumbai and Pune, and an engineering college in Jalgaon . She also founded and was the chairwomen of a cooperative sugar factory known as Sant Muktabai Sahakari Sakhar Karkhana and a cooperative bank named after her self as Pratibha Mahila Sahakari Bank. She also helped setting up an industrial training school for the visually challenged in Jalgaon and running a school for the visually impaired children of Vimukta Jatis and Normadic tribes. The philanthropic foundations and her political career both grew together, she was working for females, visually impaired and poor but at the same time she was firm in her foot holds of power and position , at the age of 27 she started her political career , by winning the assembly election from Edlabad constituency on national congress ticket and after her re-election , in 1967 she became a deputy minister for education . a trained lawyer from Government college of Law , Mumbai.  Patil represented Edlabad constituency in Jalgaon district as a member of the Maharastra legislative assembly (1962-1985) and was deputy chairwomen of the Rajya Sabha (1986-1988), Member of Parliament from Amravati in the Lok Sabha (1991-1996) and the 24^th and the first women governor of Rajasthan Although its not that it is fair to paint a picture Patil without adding the recently probed investigations but why Were all these scams not realized when she was the Governor or Member of Parliament or member of Rajya Sabha? It seems obvious that like most politicians today she too has streaks of corruption and kin first ness but her winning the election is a testimony of how the real men and women of the nation are away from the political spectrum and how prestigious posts are held only on the basis of Indira Loyality.

It’s never too late to enjoy your future.

    William Blake wrote “London”  after seeing the plight of chimney sweepers in that city but today the chimney sweepers are found in Chennai, the ones we rarely notice, the children working in the kitchen of a Dhabba ,washing  cars or working in industries for over 13 hrs a day , the city had  reported 5192 child labourers  last year .Under the national child labour project (NCLP), the corporation of Chennai , raided 57areas and rescued 167 children all of whom are now in rehabilitation . Although the government is trying it’s best but its private schools like The  Olcott memorial school , with zero drop out rate, free education ,training and  a deep teacher student relationship . The Principal , Mrs Lakshmi Suryanarayanan , said that. “that the issue of child labourers has lack of understanding ,the problem does not get solved by merely sending the child to the school, there is a bigger task which lays ahead “. Her concerns about the students range from the hygiene conditions to their domestic chores which left them too exhausted to study .  Under the  article 37 of the Indian panel law children under 14 years of age are  to compulsorily  be enrolled in schools and not work even as domestic labourers. The violation of which can lead upto 20,000 Rs and upto 6 yrs of imprisonment. But the issue is not just of punishing the culprit but of rehabilitating the victim.

N.C.L.P	No. of children	N.G.O	Society	Total	NO. of children mainstreamed in formal schools
2005-06	926	16	4	20	738
2006-07	819	18	2	20	685(till now)

(the number of child labours rehabilitated , courtesy:  Chennai Cooperatiom)The NCLP  provides non formal as well as formal education to the children that are rescued from the raids ,there is also a vocational training to empower the children so that after growing they are skilled enough to sustain them selves . The ministry gives Rs. 5/- per person per day for nutritional supplements and a stipend of of Rs. 100/-per month , also keeping a  check on the health care facilities. But the web of child labourers  is more complex, the poverty driven children and the uneducated parents, don’t realize the psychological implications and the health hazards that the children later suffer the inevitable consequences are bound to create greater social problems. Need of the hour os for the ordinary man to step up and reform his contribution to this evil, the rest will fall in place .Deepak Chopra says ,”There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in.” lets open the door.

High court denies Novartis Patent

Novartis has the patent in Glive beta in over 40 countries, 99% of cancer patients in India get the medicine free.  Today the Chennai high court heard the case of Novartis challenging the Indian panel law, the Swiss pharmaceutical company was seeking clarity in the patent law as a critical incentive for long –term R&D investments and better medicines. The appeals on patent laws was heard by intellectual property appellate board (IPAB). Earlier the board had dismissed a petition of Novartis for a new technical member instead of the office who was responsible for the original rejection of the Glive patent in 2006 . In its current form, the patent law in India does not protect incremental innovation and does not recognize that incremental innovation provide benefits bond efficacy. According to Novartis , “Section 3(d) fails to recognize that incremental inventions have utility and value not just in improving therapeutic efficacy, but also in providing significant benefits in terms of drug delivery, patient safety and compliance.” Breakthrough innovations are rare in medical research and incremental innovation therefore is hardly incremental in the pharmaceutical industry, in this particular case the difference in Glive or beta crystalline form of imatinib mesylate for which the patent is seeked defines a cancer curing drug.But the section 3 (d) of the Indian patent law excludes these important developments . This convenient exclusion actually leads to the protection of vested interests of companies like Ranbaxy , Cipla etc.  Novartis has been awarded a patent for the beta crystal Glive form in nearly 40 other countries including China, in November 2003 India awarded Novartis  Exclusive Marketing Rights (EMR) for Glivec, The EMR protects the beta crystal form of the drug for five years, or until the review of the mailbox application , but at the time of patenting the Indian patent office said that the application did not satisfy its requirements for “ novelty and inventive step”.  Novartis ‘s social responsibility programs reached over 33 million patients in 2006 and valued at 755 US $ , 99% of patients who are prescribed Glive in India receive it free. One valid question is on the intent of Novaris in free distribution and then the legal arm wrestle over patent and public announcemnt s of no price increase after patent procurement. No action of Novartis is out of altruism; the free distributi on is to familiarize the masses with the medicine also the free distribution helps in the research and development of the company.  But as a whole the motives of the company effectively lead to cheaper medicines easily available to the Indian cancer patients, and the company holds the patent in 40 other countries then why did the high court dismiss its plea? Why was the section 3(d) of the Indian patent law not amended? Is it because the law and its technicalities left no space   for the larger issue or is it a way of buying time for the Indian pharmaceuticals?

Bihar; justice denied.

Bihar is among the least developed states of India it  has a per capita income of $155 a year against India’s average of $255. 30.6%  of people live below the poverty line against India’s average of 22.15%.  Its G D P in 2000 was a mere Rs.  469,430. Historically, a major centre of learning and home to the universities dating back to the fifth century. Present day Bihar has a grossly inadequate educational infrastructure creating a huge mismatch between demand and supply.  But this does not articulate anyhting about the law and order situation in Bihar.   A Cartoon in one of the leading national papers showed the goddess of justice , in a withered state, leave bihar. The state has seen it all, from police atrocities when prisoners were blinded by acid, to  mulktiple communal riots and public beating of theives and crooks. The  future of bihar is gloomy , despite the high number of IAS officers, IITans and IIM graduates it produces. We can blame lack of vision of the political classes, and inadequate investments in agriculture, infrastructure and education. In addition, mis-rule caste-dominated politics and rampant corruption by politicians & bureaucrats as the cause of the lack of development of the state. The media got  stirred up by a recent event, when Mohammed Aurangzeb snatched a gold chain of Shanti Devi, of Nathnagar in Bhagalpur, on her way back to her home from a temple and fled. Some people in the area gave a chase to the crook While the chain was recovered sometime later, the irate mob – bent on lynching the thief, Salim – continued to bash him up. Shockingly, the residents were encouraged and even helped by the local police. Together, they continued to thrash Salim on the streets of Bhagalpur, in full public view, for three hours. Salim was tied to a policeman’s motorcycle and dragged around town, leaving him critically ill in a hospital. The incident, however, enraged the local people who then attacked the police station demanding suspension of Constable L. B. Singh and inspector Ramchandra Rai and proof of Aurangzeb still being alive. A mere chain snatching could not have triggered off the incident it was more. It was a poor Muslim man, snatching the chain of a Hindu woman in front of a temple. It was the audacity of police who felt that they had the right to beat the life out of a man. It was the changed notion with which Bihar views violence and is comfortable with the new norms of the society. It was the evidence of lack of human right but worst is that it was hyped for few days and then forgotten. The public memory shifted from Salim to Salman and then to Sachin. However, Bihar kept reminding us of its lack of law in our “shining” country. After a few days, police blinded a teenager by poking iron rods in his eyes, and at another place, 10 people were beaten to death because they were suspected to have stolen, their bodies thrown into Ganga and left for dogs and vultures. It ’s not that we don’t have laws to deal with this situation the article 311 , 2 (b) states that Dismissal, removal or reduction in rank of persons employed in civil capacities under the Union or a State is only to be recorded by that authority in writing, if  it is not reasonably practicable to hold an inquiry i.e when the person is guilty beyond doubt. Nevertheless, dismissal of two constables solves no problem.  The word Bihar means, “abode”, but what once was a nest for education, knowledge, politics and culture is fostering the criminals, corruption and jungle raj. The solution lie’s neither in human rights commission sending notices nor in the dharana’s staged by many. Bihar faces not just violence but also it has accepted that violence is the way of life. A way of life, which has percolated in mind sets of a once civic society.