[The new package of laws,
signed on Sunday by President Pranab Mukherjee after earlier approval by the
cabinet, amends India’s penal code and, for the first time, will apply the
death penalty to rape cases in which the victim dies. The new measures also
made crimes such as voyeurism, stalking, acid attacks and the trafficking of
women as punishable under criminal law.]
By Jim Yardley And Neha Thirani
Bagri
 |
Manish
Swarup/Associated Press
President Pranab
Mukherjee signed laws increasing the
penalties for sexual assault.
|
NEW DELHI — India’s
government on Sunday approved tough new laws to deter sexual violence against
women, including the death penalty in certain rape cases, as leaders moved to
respond to public outrage over a recent gang rape
case in the national capital.
The new package of laws,
signed on Sunday by President Pranab Mukherjee after earlier approval by the
cabinet, amends India’s penal code and, for the first time, will apply the
death penalty to rape cases in which the victim dies. The new measures also
made crimes such as voyeurism, stalking, acid attacks and the trafficking of
women as punishable under criminal law.
India’s coalition
national government has been criticized for its clumsy handling of the protests
that erupted after the brutal Dec. 16 gang rape of a young woman, who
later died. The new ordinance takes effect immediately, though it
must be approved by India’s Parliament within six months.
Reaction has been mixed.
Even as some legal advocates praised the changes as overdue, leaders of
different women’s groups on Saturday held a news conference appealing to the president
not to sign the measure, which they considered incomplete.
“This is a piecemeal and
fragmented ordinance, which seems to be more of an exercise to make an impact,”
said Kirti Singh, a lawyer who specializes in women’s issues. “After 20 years
of not doing anything, they seem to be in a tremendous hurry to do something or
the other to appease public sentiment.”
Last month, a special
three-member committee led by a former Supreme Court chief justice, J. S.
Verma, completed a
far-reaching report that urged the government to act on a broad
range of measures, including changes to criminal penalties, but also placing an
emphasis on education and a holistic solution.
While the new measures
followed some of the recommendations by the Verma committee, others were
ignored, including the panel’s call for criminal penalties in cases of marital
rape, as well as the prosecution of military personnel who commit sexual
assaults. In addition, the Verma committee pointedly rejected the death penalty
in cases of rape.
India’s cabinet approved
the new measures on Friday, as leaders spoke about their desire to send a
signal to the public after the New Delhi rape case. Included in the changes
were provisions to improve police investigations of sex crimes, such as
requiring the presence of female officers to help interview rape victims.
The new provisions
include varying degrees of punishment, ranging from a minimum of seven years in
prison to the death penalty, in those cases where the victim dies or is left in
a vegetative state. Many advocates, while welcoming some of the changes,
objected to the introduction of the death penalty.
“Every country is moving
toward the elimination of death penalty, and India is strengthening the
legislation for the death penalty,” said Kavita Srivastava, the national
secretary for the People’s Union for Civil Liberties. “Here we are still
looking for an eye for an eye framework.”
[About 60 kilometers south of Wullar Lake, in the city of Srinigar, Dal
Lake is a popular destination for domestic tourists. It is covered with
vacation houseboats and shikaras,
small tourist-ferrying vessels that resemble Venetian gondolas. But the lake
becomes overly crowded in the summer, it's heavily polluted and its water
levels have fallen.]
By John Upton
A vast shoreline forest of willow trees is being chopped down and
dredged out in Kashmir Valley to help restore water levels, fish stocks and
wildlife in one of Asia's largest bodies of freshwater.
The 2.2 million willows that were planted around Wullar Lake and its
tributaries, fed by melted snow and ice and rain, suck up water and trap silt.
They were planted from 1916 to 2002 under various government programs designed
to provide firewood to the region's residents and to dry out land for farming.
But the plantations have contributed to a halving of the lake's
surface area and destroyed marshes that protected the region from floods and
seasonal water shortages. As the lake shrank, villagers' hauls of fish and
water chestnuts declined. The trees drop their leaves into the water, loading
the lake with nutrients and debris.
An effort to fell the willows began Jan. 22, when state forest workers
took their axes and handsaws to stands along the lake's northeastern shoreline.
The same arboreal qualities that made the willows so attractive to
government officials last century now make their removal a formidable task. The
trees grow fast and recover quickly from injury.
"To save the lake you have to cut the trees," said Ritesh
Kumar, a conservation program manager at Wetlands International, which studied
the lake and produced a 135-page management
plan in 2007 under a
state government contract. "But even if you cut them down at the roots,
the shoots come back up again."
After the trees are cut down, their severed roots and the silt they
accumulated will be dredged out, a task that is expected to take five to 10
years.
The project is part of a broader effort to restore the tourist-drawing
glory of the lakes and rivers that carpet the valley.
About 60 kilometers south of Wullar Lake, in the city of Srinigar, Dal
Lake is a popular destination for domestic tourists. It is covered with
vacation houseboats and shikaras,
small tourist-ferrying vessels that resemble Venetian gondolas. But the lake
becomes overly crowded in the summer, it's heavily polluted and its water
levels have fallen.
Tensions between the state government and India's central government,
the threat of terrorist attacks and disputes with nearby Pakistan have kept
most visitors away from the remote Wullar Lake. Indian officials hope that
restoring the region's waterways will help woo new tourists to more secluded
parts of Kashmir as long-simmering tensions gradually calm down.
But the tree-felling efforts are primarily designed to expand Wullar
Lake and resuscitate shoreline marshes. The wetlands soak up water during
warmer months as it gushes down from melting snow and glaciers in the
Himalayas. They release it in the drier winter months, moderating a year-round
flow of water to wildlife and residents, which drains into the River Indus and
then south through Pakistan.
The sponge-like qualities of the marshes are becoming more important
as the climate changes and upstream glaciers wither, which is increasing melt
flows, according to Mr. Kumar. Mr. Kumar's group found that 70 percent of the
marshes surrounding Wullar Lake and its tributaries have disappeared, drained
in some places for agriculture and displaced from others by the willows.
"To get flood protection in Srinigar, you need a flood-regulating
system in Wullar," Mr. Kumar said. "If Wullar Lake is not able to
perform that soaking function, Srinigar is going to head into a water crisis of
extreme order. You get more floods and you get more droughts."
The Indian government is financing the tree-removal effort, but the
1.2 billion rupees ($22.3 million) so far set aside for the project will meet
less than one-third of the total needed to complete the task, according to
Abdul Razak, chief executive director of the Wullar Conservation and Management
Authority, a state agency.
Mr. Razak said he is confident that the Indian government will
eventually fully finance the project. "The money will definitely
come," he said. "They have promised me."
