India’s First Battle of Rosogolla

                                                                   *Dr. Saumitra Mohan

            The swords have been out in two historically friendly provinces of our beloved country, namely Odisha and West Bengal over a delicacy which has always inspired uplifting passions among their hoi polloi. Residents from the two states have taken time out from their otherwise mundane and stultifying life to engage in a game of culinary one-upmanship. Be it culture, education, health or industry, the subtle yet subliminal contest continues. While West Bengal apparently has had an edge over Odisha in most of these fields, Odisha like the proverbial tortoise has doggedly been chasing. The reported windfall in terms of huge foreign direct investment in Odisha is definitely something West Bengal is soliciting no less passionately.

            The latest sabre-rattling between the two has started for a place of pride at the top of the gastronomical pecking order. A bitter war is said to be raging between the two over a sweet. The Odias’ chutzpah in trying to pip the Bengali pride to the saccharine post has the latter’s dander up. The sweet Bengali ‘Bhadralok’ is up in arms over Odisha’s claim that the sultan of Indian sweets, the legendary ‘rosogolla’ originated in Odisha and not in Bengal. Well, how dare they could even fancy such a blasphemous thought? And the said battle is being spearheaded by none other than the Government of Odisha which has already moved to obtain a Geographical Indication (GI) tag for our ‘rosogolla’. The GI label, if granted, would fix Odisha’s ‘Pahala’ as the place of origin for ‘rosogolla’ on the basis of myths and available literature.

            This only means that Bengalis would no longer be able to boast of having invented the rosogolla, which, they strongly believe, is a delicacy synonymous with Bengali ontology in the wider world. Ahem! The turn of events is indubitably cruel for Bengalis, coming as it does at a juncture when rosogolla is all set to cross the known boundaries of its fandom to subsume outer space. Desiccated canned rosogolla reportedly feature in the menu of India’s first manned mission to moon by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) sometime in near future. The rosogolla factories across Bengal have not only served the national palate across the country in its multi-flavoured avatars, but have also provided gainful employment to hundreds of thousands of people across the country.

            What is at stake here is not just Bengal’s continued gastronomical hegemony in the world of bonbons, but also souring of a longstanding rapport between two neighbours. Odisha’s encouragement to the putative division – as opposed to integration, which the soothing taste of rosogolla ought to inspire –  between the people of the two states by asking for the sweet to be identified exclusively with Odisha is something the Bengali Bhadralok refuses to accept.

            The twist in the tale is the fact that Odias themselves are divided over rosogolla’s origin. The rosogolla in Odisha traces its origin not only to ‘Pahala’, but also to ‘Salepur’ near Cuttack due to the culinary skills of a confectioner called Bikalanandar Kar. The rosogolla connoisseurs suggest that the ‘Pahala’ and the ‘Bikali rosogollas’ are very different in taste and preparations even if they belong to the same state. Now, who can say with certainty that the ‘Pahala’ rosogollas are more authentic than its ‘Bikali’ variety? The GI tag requirements warrant that all attributes of a particular product are to be traced to the place of its origin. The residents of both these places namely Salepur and Pahala would like to claim the parentage to rosogolla, which itself feels ‘juiced out’ in this tug of war. The wiseacre suggests these two Odisha places to first battle it out between themselves before challenging West Bengal.

            One Laxmidhar Pujapanda, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Jagannath Temple in Puri says, “Rasgulla has been part of Rath Yatra rituals ever since the Jagannath Temple came into existence in the 12^th century”. However, there are few buyers to this claim and definitely none in West Bengal is willing to even entertain such a notion. The rosogolla fanatics and gourmet Bengalis counterargue that the ‘chhappan bhog’, the ritual offering to Lord Krishna, in the Jagannath Temple does not mention rosogolla. They further maintain that the tradition of offering sweetmeat to deity originated in recent past only. The cheese or ‘chhena’ being taboo in Hinduism because the act of splitting milk was deemed profane, priestly offering of a sweet made of cheese as early as the 12^th century seems highly unlikely.

            Chitra Banerji, a noted historian, avers, “It is notable that in all the myths about the young Krishna, there are thousands of references to milk, butter, ghee and yoghurt, but none to cheese”. Not only in mythology, cheese is conspicuously absent even in medieval Indian history. The historian also finds no mention of sweets with cheese base in numerous references to the medieval Hindu reformer Chaitanya who had great fondness for sweets. Another famed Bengali sweetmeat ‘Sandesh’ was made of Khoa or condensed milk solids. Cheese as a constituent of ‘Sandesh’ came to be used much later. The three acid-curled cheeses known to Bengal namely the country ‘chhana’, ‘Bandel cheese’ and ‘Dhakai paneer’ (more like a tight feta) are said to have been introduced by the Portuguese colonisers.

            The modern recipe of rosogolla preparation traces its genesis to a legendary Bengali confectioner from Kolkata called Nobin Chandra Das. It is he who is said to have first made the spongy rosogolla in 1868 by boiling the mixture of chhena and semolina balls in the sugar syrup in contrast to the mixture sans semolina in the original rosogolla in his sweet shop at Sutanati (present day Baghbazar), thereby also giving it a longer shelf life to make it a better commercial proposition. Even though the descendants of Das, who is often credited as the inventor of this royal Bengal sweet, claim that his recipe was original, another school says that Das only modified the traditional Odisha rosogolla recipe to produce its less perishable extant mutant. Whatever be the outcome of this dispute, one thing is certain that Nobin Chandra Das is to the confectionary what Steve Jobs is to the Smart Phone. As Shakespeare would have said, call the rosogolla of any origin, it would taste as sweet.

            Yet another theory suggests that rosogolla was first prepared by Braja Moira in his shop near Calcutta High Court in 1866 two years before Das started marketing the delicacy as has been claimed by the food historian Pranab Ray in his 1987 book ‘Banglar Khabar’. Yet another writer, Panchana Bandopadhyay wrote in 1906 that rosogolla was invented in 19^th century by Haradhan Moira, a Phulia-based sweetmaker. ‘Mistikatha’, a newspaper published by West Bengal Sweetmeat Traders Association, suggests that many other people prepared similar sweets under different names such as ‘gopalgolla’ (prepared by Gopal Moira of Burdwan), ‘jatingolla’, ‘bhabanigolla’ and ‘rasugolla’. Food historian Michael Krondl asserts that irrespective of its origin, the famed rosogolla most likely predates Nobin Chandra Das.

            On a different note, one suggests treatment of the instant subject in a larger perspective with a view to resolution of differences which divide our dear rosogolla and makes its sweet taste bitter. As they say, only those cry over souring split milk who don’t know how to make rosogolla out of it. After all, our cosmonauts munching on spongy rosogolla while levitating in outer space would hardly bother about its origin or a bitter fight on terra firma down below. For them, the divine flavour of rosogolla is enough to make them tearful while making them nostalgic about their motherland.

            Remember, how rosogollas and other scrumptious sweets rained on the oppressed, famished soldiers in Satyajit Ray’s oeuvre, ‘Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne’ to end the debilitating wars. Those rosogollas had no GI tag, but they still tasted like heaven. One acceptable solution could simply be to have multiple GI tags for rosogolla identify it with its place of origin e.g. ‘Bengali rosogolla’, ‘Pahala rosogolla’ or the ‘Bikali rosogolla’ for better accommodation of regional identities. Better still, instead of fighting a bitter battle over this heavenly delicacy, won’t it be in the fitness of things to make the GI tag for rosogolla simply read ‘India’, in a proud assertion of our national identity, rather than sticking to a more parochial regional identity.

*The views expressed here are personal and don’t reflect those of the Government.

URBAN AND INFRASTRUCTURE POLICY: Lessons from South Korea

                                                                                    Dr. Saumitra Mohan

In the rat race of development in an increasingly globalised world, resort to a trade-off between improved quality of life and systematic destruction of the natural habitat including land and environment often become unavoidable. Rapid urbanization and economic growth are visibly apparent everywhere today, but so are varied urban environmental problems in overcrowded cities. The complexity of the issue is ever-growing because slowing economic growth is not a favourable solution, but sustainable urban development is still a viable possibility.

It is in this context that South Korea appears to be a shining example of sustainable development despite initial compromises with the environment. Rapid development has enabled South Korea to catch up just in time with the demands of a globalised world, but at the cost of environment. However, specific initiatives have been taken as part of a conscious effort to move towards a sustainable development where modern technology has played a great role. And we were all witness to the magical turn-around in the South Korean economy from a Third World authoritarian country to a modern and prosperous liberal democratic state which has balanced the demands of economic growth with the requirements of the environment.

The Republic of Korea experienced an unprecedented increase in the rate of urbanization over the past 40 years since the end of the Korean War. The level of urbanization rose drastically from 35.8 percent in 1960 to almost 90 percent today. A combination of socialist and capitalist economic policies has spurred this industrialization. Since the 1960s, the government has been consciously pushing for an export-oriented development paradigm. A well-planned and strongly executed developmental framework has made South Korea what it is today i.e. a developed country with equitable regional growth.

In its drive for fast economic development, South Korea was helped by its cultural and ethnic homogeneity. The monolithic and mono-chromatic social profile was further reinforced by the desperation and helplessness of the South Korean citizens, buffeted and ravaged by a debilitating war with North Korea during 1950-53. Against this background, South Korea started out to focus on the human resource development of its population as well as a revolutionary land reform which later turned out to provide a solid foundation for its future economic growth. Its thrust on inculcating the values of self-dependence and discipline among its citizens through its innovative policies a la Saemaul Undong or the New Village Movement and firm execution of the same also helped its aspiration.

South Korea’s New Village Movement was an ingenuous effort to curb the widening rural-urban divide. This pioneering policy by the South Korean government attempted to foster community empowerment where performing villages were given incentives and support in terms of expertise and resources to help themselves in building agrestic infrastructures while non-performing villages were not encouraged. In the 1970s, the government provided each of 33,000 villages with 335 bags of cement and other materials to use the same for the good of community. The performers were encouraged while the non-performers were told to pull up their socks to deserve governmental support. Simultaneously, the government also attempted to curb the tendencies for rent-seeking and corruption by resorting to strong measures which later impacted its growth story positively.

The committed and visionary South Korean leadership also laid foundation for its balanced industrial growth by focusing on certain core industries namely heavy and chemical industries though one would also hurry to add that as a country, South Korea also benefited from the Cold War politics. South Korea carefully sided with the US camp after North Korea was attached to the coattails of the then Soviet camp. Its loyalty to the US even during the Vietnam War stood it in good stead by ensuring a steady flow of capital, resources and technical expertise to build itself from the scratch. The somewhat enlightened but autocratic leadership ensured that South Korea make the best of available circumstances and resources to achieve a place in the development sun for itself though its citizens did lose their basic liberties and civil rights during the first thirty years of its developmental odyssey.

South Korea, during this period, laid stress on meritocracy and incentivized its citizens and industrial houses through a policy of carrot and stick. However, in its urge for rapid growth and development, many corners were cut thereby resulting in compromises with the environmental desideratum. The urban landscape, even though filled with the billowing smokes and roaring factories, became uglier making the cities inhabitable. Hence, the South Korean government thoughtfully put in place measures to control unplanned urban growth by way of earmarking a greenbelt, built around the city of Seoul in the 1970s. Seoul's greenbelt now measures about 1,566.8 km2, which accounts for about 13.3 percent of the Seoul metropolitan area.

The greenbelt, as visualised, is essentially a "belt" of greenery surrounding the city limits which was aimed to arrest unplanned urban growth and create an infrastructure which would be in harmony with nature. Through this initiative, a positive effort was made to ensure a healthy quality of air and water for the local citizens. The complexities of urban planning require the authorities to cover a wide range of concerns, intertwining with social, economic, and environmental sectors of the city. And the South Korean government has ensured the same quite successfully.

            South Korea’s ‘Ubiquitous City or U-City’ model intended at sustainable urban development was an epochal initiative involving cutting-edge technology to improve the quality of city life. Technology including high-speed internet was harnessed to ensure better access to the urban amenities which would not compromise the environment. The same also ensured a well functioning water supply system, transportation and a city surveillance system which would become the foundation of a safe and secure urban life for the South Korean citizens. The entire gamut of technological innovations provide a facile and high-speed access to smart services and information from anywhere in the urban conglomeration. We were witness to an operational state-of-the-art drinking water supply system and a very modernized transportation system. The micro-planning of each and every nuance of a public facility was really awesome and worth emulation in our country though the same was also very capital-intensive.

The futuristic ‘ubiquitous infrastructure’ provides everyone with an opportunity to access urban infrastructure and services regardless of time and location by using information technology devices as was very much visible during our visit to South Korea with its citizens interfacing with the technology on almost real-time basis. Similarly, another initiative namely U-infrastructure also has a significant implication for the emergence of a new paradigm for urban infrastructure planning which is ecologically sustainable and democratic in nature though one does feel that too much of dependence on technology may sometime prove prejudicial to the larger interests of a thriving society. South Korean cities like Seoul have become the world leaders today in the use of ICTs (information and communication technologies) in urban infrastructure planning and management.

The most encompassing of these technologies include the broadband convergence network. The interactive technologies hooked to the high-speed internet allow any device the ability to access information from the embedded devices within the specially designed system. The Personal Travel Assistant System (PTA) is another people-friendly initiative which delivers real-time information about public transportation including routes, arrival-departure timings and other eco-friendly options. This emission-free transportation system has greatly reduced the urban congestion in major urban cities of South Korea including Seoul.

The U-City model aptly addresses the sustainable development issue by focusing on a nature-friendly lifestyle. The urban residents in South Korea today have access to high-speed services and amenities through World Wide Web. It embodies the attribute of the ideal futuristic city in which public life is secured by way of a safe and secure environment through state-of-the-art technologies.

MUNICIPAL WASTE MANAGEMENT

High-income countries in East Asia, such as Japan, Hong Kong, and South Korea, with GDP per capita ranging from 23,331 to 37,385 USD, produce more wastes than countries with lower GDP such as India and Vietnam. As a part of the green infrastructure, eco-friendly municipal waste management is now possible using cutting-edge technology and practices. Municipal solid waste, or MSW, is a by-product of daily human life that is now being addressed by individual municipalities in South Korea. The composition of MSW varies greatly, but much of it is combustible into ash, while non-combustible materials such as glass and metals are shredded and recycled.

Most of the South Korean cities including Seoul metropolitan city exemplify the futuristic municipal body which utilizes high-end technology to improve the lives of its citizens and reduces municipal solid wastes in a way that improves the environment and benefits the local government. The ‘waste-to-energy’ incinerators generate sufficient electrical power, converting large volumes of trash into useable electricity. However, the whole combustion system still produces nefarious carbon emissions. In order to alleviate the amount of greenhouse gases emitted from the facilities, modern technologies have been harnessed to control the high level of emissions being released into the environment. Besides, South Korea has also successfully turned around most of its polluting dumping grounds into eco-friendly Nature Parks as showcased to us during our site visits in Seoul city.

INFRASTRUCTURE:

        The 1950-1953 Korean War destroyed much industrial infrastructure, and Korea had to start re-building itself from the scratch. As is well-known, the Korean economy was heavily dependent on foreign aid till 1961, with an unemployment rate of 25 percent and a per capita income of less than $100. However, just half a century later, Korea has become the world’s 12^th largest economy, transforming from beneficiary to benefactor of development aid. Today, South Korea is also ranked 11^th out of 148 countries in terms of excellence in infrastructures. At the forefront of this dramatic change has been the government’s investment in infrastructure and urban projects. The country’s infrastructure development was propped by an effective policy support. A very close coordination between its economic development plan, sectoral plans and budget ensured that the country does not lose focus. Its focus on following rigorous protocols for selection and evaluation of projects is very well reflected in the quality of the completed projects.

       Since the early 1960s, South Korea has demonstrated an impressive record of economic performance. Much of its success stems from a commitment to infrastructural development. In the period between the early 1960s and the late 1990s, several factors enabled Korea to realize sizable economic benefits from infrastructure investments. Strong leadership and efficient coordination for installing the infrastructure necessary to spur economic performance, a well-defined focus and priorities on infrastructure for development, and willingness and flexibility were the critical factors. The South Korean planning and investment in its human resources and their capacity building also reinforced its infrastructural initiatives by providing the necessary trained manpower as was needed to support and sustain these initiatives. Its thrust on vocational training and quality of its pedagogy was another hallmark of its human resource development policy.

         South Korea's first Five-Year Development Plan (1962-66) focused on developing the light industries and an import substitution. Infrastructure to support these activities included the construction of critical railways and several small highway projects. The second Five-Year Development Plan (1967-71) sought to stimulate exports, which grew by nearly 50 per cent per year during this period. Investment in railways continued, and highway construction also accelerated. Korea's first major highway project was to connect the country’s two largest cities, Seoul in the north-west and Busan in the south-east. This project was particularly momentous because not only did it establish a vital industrial corridor in Korea, it also served as a symbol of Korea's emerging self-confidence.

        Nevertheless, South Korea’s investment in infrastructure during the 1960s was certainly not enough. Finding it increasingly difficult to remain competitive in labour-intensive light industries, South Korea shifted its focus to heavy and chemical. Starting with the third Five-Year Development Plan (1972-76), the South Korean government identified new priorities, policies, and infrastructures needed for giving a solid foundation to the overall economic development of the country. These inter alia included petrochemicals, steel and ship-building. Comprehensive infrastructure development programmes were planned to develop the country's airports, seaports, highways, railways and telecommunication systems to support these industries.

         Through the 1980s, South Korea visualised policies that laid stress on economic stabilization, private sector liberalization and deregulation. The government put less stress on the heavy and chemical industries and paid more attention to high quality consumer goods while downscaling government spending. Infrastructure investment, however, remained fairly high to reach eight per cent of the Gross National Product in the first half of 1980s. In 1985, the government started taking several measures to stimulate the economy. The authorities also established a supplementary budget to stimulate demand and increase infrastructural investment. All these measures spurred the economic growth to unprecedented levels.

The 1993-1997 Five-Year Economic Development Plan visualised a grand programme with emphasis on improved living standards with upgraded housing, environment and urban traffic. It also aimed at expanding public transportation as well as development of communication standards with a view to resolve society's infrastructural deficits. Securing adequate power was one of the government’s emergent priorities. During the 1960s, the power generation facilities were unevenly distributed regionally, resulting in unstable supplies. Many electric power facilities were destroyed during the Korean War, resulting in regular power shortages. The Korean government merged three existing electric companies (Chosun, Kyungsung, and Namsun) on July 1, 1961 to establish the Korea Electric Company (KECO) to improve the supply of electric power before executing the economic development plan. As a result, the level of power generation reached 285,223.8 gwph in 2001 from 9167.4 gwph in 1970. Emphasis was also laid on developing the green nuclear power which today provides a considerable amount of nation’s power supply. However, it is notable that even with exceptional growth, South Korea still imports more energy than it produces.          While new information technology such as mobile phones and the Internet is showing unprecedented growth, South Korea’s progress in telecommunication sector is still far from satisfactory. Telecommunication has been the backbone of South Korea’s economic development. Infrastructures in the social service area, such as medical facilities and water supply though have had relatively low priority in South Korea to begin with. However, the development of such infrastructures improved immensely after the 1980s when the economy started performing well economically. Much of the momentum for infrastructural investments came early because of strong political leaders who had huge authority and autonomy in framing and implementing policies.           The main sources of funding for South Korea's infrastructural development included taxation, designated funds, public pension funds, and private funds not to speak of the foreign grants and loans. Given that most of the needed infrastructural projects are deemed to be potentially profitable, private financing has been considered to be one of the better ways to fund them. Better choices for private funding include industrial estates, freight depots, waste-water and municipal waste treatment facilities, and local toll roads. Incentives for attracting private funding include allowing public agencies to acquire land, pairing marginal projects with profitable projects, arranging long-term financing from public funds and allowing tax exemptions.             The main thrust of South Korea’s infrastructure policy has been to judiciously and cautiously encourage more and more private participation in all infrastructure sectors namely power, gas, transportation, airports, ports, telecommunications, water and sewage facilities, by providing tax and other incentives to private investors, and also by improving the investment selection processes. This includes new incentives for foreign investors including exemption of 10 percent value-added tax upon completion of target facilities, government guarantee of up to 90 percent of operating revenue, bonus for early completion and permission for excess profit resulting from lower than expected construction costs, compensation for losses due to exchange rates movements, acceptance of diversified development modes, increase of the profit level approved by the government from 10 percent to 18 percent, buy-out option in the event of franchiser bankruptcy and carefully-planned debt relief measures.         Transportation services in South Korea are operated mostly by the private or quasi-private sectors, excepting railways and subways. The transportation services run by the private sector function in a fairly competitive atmosphere, and are considered to be efficient. However, these services are greatly limited in their capacity to improve their service because of restrictive price controls. Though government has long been contemplating private sector participation in ports, the same has been put on hold owing to national security concerns.          High Speed Rail projects are administered by the Ministry of Construction and Transportation, while all other railways are run by the Korea National Railroad. South Korea's High Speed Railway project has been one of the most problematic projects and suffers from a serious shortage of finances. South Korea's subway system is managed and operated by the local city governments. The most troublesome case is the Seoul Metropolitan Subway Corporation (SMSC) where tariffs do not cover construction costs, and attempts to adjust tariffs have not been very successful in the past though sustained efforts are being made to make it profitable.          Thus, for developed and developing countries alike, the ability to build a knowledge-based economy depends on their capacity to use the global system of the generation and transmission of knowledge. To develop such a capacity, the following elements are required: 1.      Dynamic information infrastructure to facilitate the effective communication and processing of information; 2.      Educated population that can create and use knowledge; 3.      System of research centres, universities, think tanks, firms and other organizations that can tap into the stock of global knowledge, adapt it to local needs, and create new knowledge; 4.      An economic and institutional regime that provides incentives for the efficient use of existing knowledge, and 5.      The creation of new knowledge and entrepreneurship.               Developing a powerful information infrastructure, therefore, requires the support of the many stakeholders involved in its use such as government, business, individual users, telecommunication and information service providers. They must work together on establishing an information infrastructure strategy that involves identifying the opportunities and needs for a better information and communication system in the economy.              As it appears, South Korea’s emphasis on a balanced regional development with spatio-temporal planning has provided it a rock-solid foundation for its economic growth which has made it join the league of the developed countries. South Korea’s infrastructural development was closely linked to the economic growth plan where the government identified the specific infrastructural needs of various regions and executed the same with greater and better efficiency. The steadfast commitment to high quality infrastructure and to bridge the rural-urban chasm was also based on a sustainable long-term vision. Such a policy was also rooted in a vision to maintain the competiveness in export markets and to support a more balanced developmental framework.          However, one does feel that apart from the meticulous planning, implementation of the national policy and a committed leadership, South Korea does appear to have benefited greatly from the Cold War politics of the post-World War II developments by aligning with the camp led by the United States of America. It not only gained in terms of financial and technological help, but also got to get away with the democratic deficits of its governance system in its formative days. Also, the monolithic character of its society ensured that it did not have much socio-cultural problems to deal with. All this provided South Korea with a head-start which India could not have thought of simply because of the complex and diversified nature of its society and politics and hence, in some respects the two countries do appear incomparable.          Having said this, one does feel that all the developmental strides that South Korea has made in the last few decades and its sterling performance in resolving the existential problems of its people through an imaginative mix of vision and execution are worth emulation. South Korea’s performance in such sectors as mass rapid transport system, solid waste management, ship-building, heavy and chemical industries, information technology, telecommunication, city surveillance system and infrastructure is really commendable and many of these models could be very well replicated in India though the same do have huge financial involvement. One only hopes that India shall learn its lessons from South Korea to ensure a better future for its citizens. *The views expressed here are personal and don’t reflect those of the Government.

Better Custodial Care Needed for Death Row Prisoners

                                      Saumitra Mohan

                Prison administration is an alienable part of our justice delivery system which, many feel, calls for urgent relook and attention. The prison administration in India has existed almost unchanged since its inception though a nomenclatural change has been effected in the meanwhile. Our prisons are  no longer called ‘jails’ and have been christened as correctional homes today in keeping with the changed ethos.

                Even though the prison infrastructures have improved drastically over the years, we still have a long way to go as far as our treatment of the inmates inside these correctional homes are concerned. Whatever has come out through a recent study titled, ‘the Death Penalty Research Project’ is definitely not very uplifting. The researchers at Delhi’s National Law University (NLU) in this first ever comprehensive study of the socio-economic profile of prisoners serving death sentence in our jails have found most of them to be from economically vulnerable sections, backward communities and religious minority groups.

                The said study found our prison administration plagued by fundamental flaws where the death penalty seemed to be an instrument in systemic marginalization of prisoners from vulnerable backgrounds. Almost 75 per cent of the prisoners interviewed were from ‘economically vulnerable’ and socially disadvantaged groups. Over half the death sentence awardees worked in unstable unorganised sector and worked as auto drivers, brick kiln labourers, street vendors, manual scavengers, domestic workers and construction workers. About 19 per cent of those on death row had attended only primary school. Many prisoners were disadvantaged on both counts; nine out of ten who had never attended a school were also economically vulnerable. This is important because a prisoner’s economic status and level of education directly affects his ability to effectively participate in the criminal justice system to secure a fair trial.

                Delineating their socio-economic background, the resultant report discovered that more than 80 per cent of the prisoners facing capital punishment never completed their schooling and nearly half of them began working before they became a major. Moreover, around 25 per cent of the convicts were juveniles between the age of 18 and 21 or above 60 years when the crime was committed. Among those facing death penalty, dalits and tribals constituted 24.5 percent while over 20 percent belonged to religious minorities. As it appears from the report, Indians belonging to the economically backward and vulnerable sections have found it difficult to bear the burdens imposed by our criminal justice system while handing out death sentences. As a result, it has been noticed that the death penalty often disproportionately affects those who have the least capabilities to negotiate our criminal justice system.

                Talking about the right to be present at one’s own trial to defend oneself properly, only one out of the four interviewed had attended all their hearings. Some prisoners would merely be taken to the court premises by the police and then confined to a court lock-up without ever being produced in the courtroom. Of 189 prisoners, 169 did not have a lawyer. Again, although anyone being arrested has to be informed the reason for the arrest, 136 prisoners said they were taken away to ‘sign papers’ and were never allowed to go home again.

                Besides, 166 prisoners were not produced before a Magistrate within 24 hours of the arrest as is mandatory. Weeks and months passed before they were so produced; sometimes the arrest was recorded only then. The interim period was often spent in torture. The researchers interviewed a majority of the 385 prisoners on death row, of whom one said he would be happy to be killed rather than being tortured every day. One woman had a miscarriage. Of 92 prisoners who had confessed in police custody, 72 had made statements under torture. Death row prisoners were often kept locked while the trial proceeded, and two were so far removed from the stand that they followed nothing of their own trial.

                Even when prisoners were present in court, the report says, “the very architecture of several trial courts often prevents any real chance of the accused participating in their own trial.” The accused were often confined at the back of the courtroom while proceedings between the judge and the lawyers took place in the front. It is notable that everyone charged with a crime has the right to an interpreter if s/he does not understand the language used in court, and to translated documents. But this requirement is seldom met. Over half the prisoners interviewed said they did not understand the proceedings at all – either because of the obstructive court architecture or the language used (often English).

                Part of an accused’s right to a fair hearing is the right to challenge evidence produced against them. In India, trial courts can question the accused directly at any stage, and the Supreme Court has ruled that accused persons must be questioned separately about every material circumstance to be used against them, in a form they can understand. The study found that these provisions were routinely dishonoured. Over 60 per cent of the prisoners interviewed said they were only asked to give yes/no responses during their trials, with no meaningful opportunity to explain themselves.

                Most of the prisoners (seven out of ten) said their lawyers did not discuss case details with them. Almost 77 percent never met their lawyers outside court, and the interaction inside the court was perfunctory. Many of the prisoners preferred to engage private lawyers notwithstanding their economic vulnerability because of the putative incompetence of the underpaid legal aid lawyers. Higher the courts, lesser the information prisoners have about their cases, often finding out about trial developments through prison authorities or media reports though it is not just death row prisoners who face these violations.

                Using statistics, case studies and one-to-one interviews, the Project has brought forth a rich resource for a close appreciation of the administration of the death penalty in India. The Project Team interviewed, between July 2013 to January 2015, all prisoners and their families to comprehend the sociology and psychology of the death penalty in this country. The research team identified 385 prisoners and got access to 373 of them. Surprisingly, there was no reliable database of the total number of death row prisoners in India nor was there any official record or details with any agency of the total number of prisoners executed since independence. The insights of the study are based on the primary and secondary data as accessed through the National Legal Services Authority (NLSA), state and district level legal authorities, prison visits, RTI applications and the High Court.

                As per another interesting finding, there is still no exhaustive list of offences punishable by death. 59 sections in 18 central laws, including 12 sections under the Indian Penal Code, including both homicide and non-homicide offences, carry the death penalty. Provisions under provincial legislations are separate, and have not yet been put together in a list. The constitutionality of death sentence was last upheld in May 1980 by the Supreme Court. In the said judgement, the apex court ruled that the death penalty did not infringe the right to life as guaranteed by Article 21 of the Indian Constitution. However, the same should be imposed only in the ‘rarest of the rare’ cases. Surprisingly, most prisoners sentenced to death in India are not eventually executed. Less than 5 per cent of those sentenced to death by Indian trial courts have actually been executed. In most of the cases, their death sentences were commuted by the higher courts following appeals.

                The NLU report makes it clear that its findings do not necessarily suggest that the state authorities intentionally discriminate against poor or less educated prisoners. But the report does allege that the system is so loaded that there is a degree of indirect discrimination at work which worsens the chances of fair trial for prisoners from disadvantaged backgrounds. Yet issues pertaining to fair trial rights and treatment of prisoners on death row by the criminal justice system are almost never discussed with the required gravitas. Indirect discrimination happens against such prisoners when a seemingly impartial and innocuous practice impacts particular groups negatively, even if it is not purposely directed at the groups.

                But given the irreversible nature of the death penalty, it is particularly important that fair trial rights are scrupulously safeguarded in such cases. International human rights discourse agrees that every death sentence imposed following an unfair trial violates the right to life. Hence, it is suggested that the only way to end this injustice is to impose an immediate moratorium on the use of the death penalty as a first step towards abolition of the same. The Law Commission of India, in a report last year, recommended the abolition of the death penalty in phases, beginning with ending it for all offences except those related to terrorism.

                Indian criminal justice is said to follow several practices which hurt the poor and the marginalised much more than others. What needs investigation is whether these practices are the outcomes of entrenched social and economic inequalities or whether they have become a form of institutionalised indirect discrimination? The Law Commission said in a report last year on the death penalty, “The vagaries of the system also operate disproportionately against the socially and economically marginalized who may lack the resources to effectively advocate their rights within an adversarial criminal justice system.”

                In the vaguely feel-good ambience, the Death Penalty India Report comes as a rude shock. Principles of custodial care remain theoretical for them, although it is obligatory for the police to take care of their well-being and health. One just hopes that the findings of the report would nudge the prison administrators and policy makers to sit up and take notice to make meaningful interventions to ensure the rights of the undertrials to have a well-oiled justice delivery system in the country.

                Expectations from the Seventh Pay Commission

                                                                             *Saumitra Mohan

                The recent recommendations of around 24 percent salary raise from the 7^th Pay Commission could not elicit cheers from the behemoth Indian bureaucracy as it had been expecting a much liberal and larger pay bonanza. The recommendations are likely to impact the lives of some 47 lakh central government employees and 53 lakh pensioners. It has been suggested that the 7^th Pay Panel has recommended the lowest ever pay raise in 70 years even though the Government has termed it as ‘historic’. Not only the bureaucracy, even our armed forces have not been very happy about the recommended salary hikes. Many state governments, which are still reeling under the financially ruinous impact of the 6^th Pay Commission Report, would have found it real difficult to face up to their rebellious employees union demanding commensurate pay hikes had the 7^th Pay Panel recommendations been along the expected lines.   

                Despondency of the stakeholders notwithstanding, the fact remains that the global economy as a whole has not been doing very well and is actually passing through a slump phase due to recessionary forces casting a pall of gloom and doom all over. While it’s true that the Indian economy as such has been a reasonably bright spot amidst an ambience of negativity and has seen some multi-sectoral growths in the recent past, still the situation has not improved enough for the country to offer the kind of bonanza that Indian salariat has been expecting. The announced package itself shall impose an additional cost of around Rs. 10,2000 crore annually, which is about 0.7 percent of our GDP.

                Against the threatened strike by 33 lakh central govt employees, the Govt is already said to be ruminating over some revisions and modifications in the announced package. Yielding to the pressure from the agitating and disgruntled employees, the Union Cabinet has decided to constitute three separate committees, including one to look into the anomalies likely to arise out of enforcement of the Pay Commission’s recommendations.

                It has been argued that the fixation of the minimum wage at a meagre Rs. 18,000 in the 7^th Pay Commission does not do justice to the huge inflationary pressure created over the last ten years. As the minimum basic pay announced by the last Pay Panel was Rs. 7000 which has been multiplied by the extant Pay Panel by 2.57 (fitment formula), thereby arriving at Rs. 18,000. However, the employees have been demanding 3.68 fitment formula to take the minimum wage to, at least, Rs. 26,000 in consonance with the huge spikes in the consumer and wholesale price indices. The employees also point to the colossal gap created between the minimum and the maximum wage as a result of acceptance of the 7^th Pay Commission recommendations

                One striking feature of the 7^th Pay Commission Report, as accepted by the Government, is its rejection of a controversial demand for pay parity between officers of the elite Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and other services such as Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Forest Service (IFoS). The Government has accepted the contention that the IAS officers be allowed to retain the financial and career-related edge they have over other civil services, which demanded parity in the run up to the release of the recommendations.

                Two members in the Commission were of the view that all AIS (Al India Service) and Central Services Group-A officers, who have completed 17 years of service, should be eligible for empanelment under the Central Staffing Scheme (CSS) at the same seniority as allowed for IAS officers and the ‘two-year edge’ presently enjoyed by the IAS should be withdrawn. A Confederation representing thousands of officers of 20 civil services including IPS recently requested the Government to give equal pay and job-related opportunities to them as enjoyed by those in the IAS. As the Government has accepted the Panel’s recommendation on pay and allowances in toto, the same has given a very strong hope to all other services that they will get parity in service as recommended by these two members of the Commission.

                Justice A K Mathur, a member of the 7^th Pay Commission, felt, “It is time that government take a call that subject domain should be the criteria to man the posts and not a generalist” (sic). This is a good proposal which can be considered in keeping with the lateral entry plan as has been mooted by many observers. It has been suggested by many that after a certain threshold level, all posts and positions be made open to anyone and everyone. Merit and competence ought to be the only criterion for selection to the posts, rather than time-scale automatic promotion where the length of service served by an officer makes him/her eligible for promotion to the higher rank.

                The non-IAS officers have been demanding the career-related parity with the IAS while empanelling them to various positions in the Government of India including Joint Secretary, Additional Secretary or Secretary, the same could be given a thought, at least for IPS and IFoS given the similarity in service conditions. However, many in the IAS feel that in the condition of the same being allowed, the senior prestigious positions of other services in IPS, IFS, IFOS, IAS, IRS and others also need to be pried open for lateral entry e.g. positions as Director, Central Bureau of Investigation or Director, Central Board of Direct Taxes, induction into the Railway Board or Comptroller and Auditor General of India et al.

                If IAS officers have been resisting encroachment of their financial and career related edge over others, they are very much justified. After all, when all the Central Service Officers have their initial postings in major towns and cities with much better service conditions, the IAS officers usually slug it out in the small and obscure places with hardly any proper infrastructure or services worth its while. However, one does feel as these service conditions are similar for the IPS and IFoS officers, they should definitely be granted the said parity with the IAS, at least, selectively in some departments. However, the rich experiences an IAS officer gains through his career owing to exposure to a wide gamut of societal problems and complexities, the same are unmatched for any other service.

                The specialists because of their blinkered vision and niche expertise generally are not equipped to see the larger picture to appreciate the practical complexities in a situation as can a generalist IAS officer. The forces of change and conservatism need to be evenly placed so as to maintain the requisite balance in the system. All said and done, the government does need to keep the service conditions including the salaries attractive enough to retain and attract the best and the brightest to serve in the government otherwise we shall keep losing them to the private sector.  A social welfare state like India does need a well-oiled bureaucracy to match the demands and challenges in a developing society. Hence, it is suggested that the steelframe which has served the country and has responded to the demands of time so well does deserve government generosity. However, the former too should not be unreasonable in their demands in an underdeveloped country.

*The views expressed here are personal and don’t reflect those of the Government.