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The issue in this sad case is not about the permission not granted to that girl to Work From Home.

But the failure of the State to ensure the availability of Social Security Benefit for adequate length during the period of confinement.

Every Indian is guilty in having allowed this kind of degeneration set in our public life.

The least theUnion of India, Ministry of Labour, can do, as a first step, to avoid recurrence of such incidents is to throw the cruel Code of Social Security, 2020 into dustbin, which is the only place it deserves.

The next thing is to enhance the limit for coverage under the ESI Act, 1948, keeping in view the historical facts recorded in the thread, given below:

1911:

Sir Hamilton Freer-Smith’s Committee set up by the Government of the UK had given its report on labour reforms and factory law. Subsequently, Indian Factory Labour Commission was set up under the Presidentship of W.T. Morrison of which T. M. Nair was also a member. That committee had to examine the suggestions of the Freer-Smith’s Committee too.

Courtesy: M. Anees Chrishti

T. M. Nair had given his Dissent Note when the Report had been given by the Committee to the Government of India, set up on 17.12.1906. His Dissent Note condemned  the plight of workers in factories and recommended the reduction of hours of work and introduction of other welfare measures.

And, lo and behold, the British Government appreciated his sincere report and it was the contents of his Dissent Note which became the basis of the Factories Act, 1911. Some of his suggestions which had not been accepted in 1911 had been accepted later in 1922 and made law. 

Gilbert Slater in his book, “The Dravidian Element in Indian Culture”, published in 1924, says thus, in Pages 138  and 139 of his book:

2017:

The present day politicians in power proclaim that they are  bringing out this Labour Code on Social Security as per the recommendations of the Second Labour Commission. But, the fact is that the motive of that Commission was sinister and that Commission did not consist of the representatives of many trade unions of all India level. The broad spectrum of views of all the trade unions  could not therefore be represented in the Commission.

That Dissent Note submitted very honestly by the Member Mr. C.K. Saji Narayanan on 21.05.2002, testify to the fact that it was only he who acted in the interest of working population.

https://flourishingesic.info/2017/05/12/sinister-report-of-the-second-national-commission-on-labour/

But, the politicians in power do not care to consider the issues raised by them.

The traditionally selfish Indian society does not want to spare time to insist on the powers-that-be to explain its stand on the said Dissent Note and enlighten itself about the impending dangers it would face if and when the proposed Labour Code on Social Security comes into force. 

Let the rulers be made accountable for the misadventure they rush into that would destabilise the health-care structure of the entire nation. 

The best method advocated by governments all over the world to control corruption among public servants is that the person who is harassed must report the matter beforehand to the authorities of the vigilance wing of the government which would help trap the corrupt.

But, the method used by clever employers of factories and establishments is something different. They pay the corrupt officers whatever they demand. Get it video recorded without the knowledge of the concerned officers and keep it documented. Thereafter, they get whatever report they want from those officers. Once the inspection is over, they invite the inspecting officer back to a room and replay the recorded video, which shows (1) the demand and (2) the receipt of illegal gratification. They recover the entire amount of bribe or the excess amount of bribe, as per their assessment, from the corrupt officer who pays back the money and runs away. The inspecting officers remain, thereafter, at the control of those corrupt employers.

Now, the entire nation knows that an agriculturist Mr. Balan, was severely beaten by the police at Thanjavur district of Tamilnadu for not having repaid two instalments of loan that he had bought for buying a tractor. The Hindu 11.03.2016 reports: “Balan had borrowed Rs.3,80,430 in 2011 from the Thanjavur Branch of the Kotak Mahindra Bank. He has so far repaid in six half yearly instalments of Rs. 68,543 each, a sum of Rs. 4,11,200 and needed to pay only two instalments when crop failure in successive seasons hit him like other delta farmers, forcing him to default on repayment …. Meanwhile, taking a stern look at the incident, the NHRC has issued notices to the State Chief Secretary and the DGP. Stating that such form of forcible recovery by itself amounted to human rights violation and compounded the nature of the offence committed by those who assaulted the defaulting farmer. The officials have been asked to file their report in two weeks time.” (For more: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/assault-of-farmer-nhrc-notice-to-chief-secretary-dgp/article8338865.ece )

The same nation saw the rulers allowing Mr. Vijay Mallya, who had to pay about Rs. 9000 crores, to flee and escape, because, Mr. Mallya knew how to deal with the corrupt. But, the talent of this businessman does not end with the corrupt officers and political leaders. He had also been bribing the media men all along and recording the events.

Now, he is threatening them openly, which is another crime. This criminal must be booked for this crime of blackmail also and the documents seized and made public to enlighten the public about the ‘great’ media souls who corrupt the public opinion day in and day out.

When Ms. Bedford, the sex-worker, threatened that she would reveal the names of her customers, it worked.

As Mr. Mallya has threatened the media thus, his blackmail must already be working. The media would hereafter ‘behave’. And, Mr. Mallya who was fond of wine and women could continue to invent ways, with the help of the political leaders in his pockets, to borrow the remaining money from the banks and loot the nation.

The corrupt officers, political leaders and media men, who sold their souls and fell victims to the methods of seduction of Mr.Mallya would veer around now to protect him.

Truth must come out, in spite of these pests.

This incident must also warn, at least, the other officials of what is going on in the corporate world.

Silappadhihaaram, an illustrious Tamil literature of the days of yore, explains the real-life incident of a 22 year old woman fighting for justice and exposing, with evidence,  the corrupt bureaucracy and the defective decision-making-process of the competent authority (the King). Her fight was a lone battle. She asks, after having established the facts, why others did not come forward to question the wrong committed by the Palace Goldsmith and the King. She asks, to the eternal shame of the so called intellectuals,  whether there were learned men at all in the country (Saandrorum Unduhol?).

This literary work addresses the imperative for the consciousness among the people not just to be narrow-minded to look after their individual needs but to actively involve themselves in public issues and work for ensuring justice to the affected and thereby keep the society free from corruption and injustice. Kannahi the Great, is admired and adored by the posterity for her courage, talent and valour that she demonstrated at that tender age.

The statue of Kannahi on the Marina Beach

“The world is a dangerous place to live. Not because of the people who are evil: but because of the people who don’t do anything about it”- said Albert Einstein.

Now, here is an excellent editorial from the newspaper, the “Imphal Free Press”. It is consoling to find a newspaper that sets the standard for journalism in an era in which many other major newspapers have gone for paid news and sectarian views. The editorial titled, “Future Imperfect” published by the newspaper on 23.10.2015 is reproduced below for the benefit of the readers:

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Future Imperfect

 The need to be remembered as men of integrity, and as someone who has contributed his little to society and humanity must have to be behind so much human valour, inventions, ingenuity, courage, philanthropy, generosity…. the list of virtues can go on. This need must be a basic instinct, although it has the tendency of showing up in varying degrees in different peoples and communities. Some are sensitive to it, others not so much. And this must also be what in the long run distinguished societies that have emerged at the top and those condemned to backwardness and subordinate position in the hierarchy of nations. In a way, the instinct must be also linked to man’s craving for immortality in an irredeemably transient world that has led many a philosopher to discover only absurdity in life. With death as the grim leveller of all life, men like French existential philosopher and literature Nobel Prize winner, Albert Camus, were led to believe that all philosophies are a matter of a desperate grapple with the absurdities of life to give meaning to what are essentially meaningless.

This absurdity is profoundly evident in existential questions that ask for an explanation how even the most powerful men and women, such as Ronald Regan, President of the US for two terms and Margaret Thatcher, the Prime Minister of Britain who ruled with an iron hand once, and many others like them can also be reduced by Alzheimer disease to a vegetable like any other geriatric anywhere in the world before he met his end. What profound meaning can there be too in the fact that the greatest conqueror of the earth, Alexander of the Great should have died of the bite of a tiny and insignificant insect like mosquito in the prime of his life.

There is no escape from this overwhelming meaninglessness and hence the appeal and indeed relevance of the “existential despair” in everybody’s life. In the beginning and in the end, is the unavoidable void. A realization so well encapsulated in the Meitei cosmology symbolized by the various postures of the serpentine god, Pakhangba, with his tail in the mouth – in the beginning is the end and in the end the beginning.

Still the quest for permanence in the transience that is life must continue. This thirst is in fact as inevitable and compulsive as the existential despair itself.

This must be also what led many to resist a resignation, and not end up only as someone who live only for the present. Captivating as the picture of life portrayed by existentialism, even existentialist themselves have shown their longing for meaning. In Albert Camus’ much quoted essay “Myth of Sisyphus” for instance, the meaning and salvation of Sisyphus’ struggle, becomes the struggle itself. In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was punished by the gods to roll a massive rock up a summit-less hill. His whole purpose and mission in life thus became the prospect of toiling to push the rock up or be crushed under its weight. His endless and futile toil has today become an image of life, at once captivating, heroic and tragic, from the existentialist’s viewpoint. The toil itself becomes the meaning, for beyond it, there is nothing else. What exactly is there beyond our own individual struggles in life, and when can this struggle ever come to a conclusion, except in death.

The only way to ensure one’s legacy lives on is to leave footprints in time. And this is where the need to leave behind a memory of integrity and courage becomes an essential quality of winners, not just as individuals but also as a society. The two are closely interrelated, for indeed the achievement of the society is but the accumulative result of the achievements of individuals. The essential attribute of a society with a survival instinct in terms of this quest for permanence is a capability to leave enough space and concern for the future.

The urgent question that we are all called upon to ask at this tumultuous junction of the history of our society is, do we bother to contribute our share to the future or do we live just for the present. In the face of all the corruption, bribery, sycophancy, siphoning money from development projects, dishonest contract works, unfair trade practices, which have all become rampant today, we cannot at all be optimistic that there is such a concern for the future beyond myopic individual concerns and insecurities. Embedded in this unconcern for the common future, disturbing as the thought may be, there may be a societal death wish. Should we not make the move now to exorcise ourselves of this demon.

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The link; http://ifp.co.in/page/items/28904/future-imperfect

I have a much worst example from my days in Calcutta, now Kolkotta. As the central director, I suddenly got a summon from labour secretary requiring me to meet labour minister same day. The Labour minister was an old communist veteran while State ESIC had an exclusive minister, a very friendly woman (Bengal was the only state I saw this arrangement of an exclusive minister for ESIC). I was asked to come up with a cheque of few crore of Rupees same day to pay some enhanced compensation for some land. As I had no idea of any such case and had, in any case, no power to give such cheque, I told the minister in front of Labour Secretary and the ESI minister that I would need a day to examine and come up with a response. The old communist was furious and asked whether I knew to whom I was speaking. The Labour secretary (a thorough gentleman from TN) restrained me from reacting knowing my “wayward” ways earlier.

On examination, I found that the ESIC was not required to pay a single penny. Few decades back( that must have been 1960s), the state ESI(Medical) Dy Director had sent a requisition for land for hospital in a suburb of Calcutta( place called Gauria or something like that) and the land was acquired and some compensation ( not clear from which fund) paid. As usual the owner went for enhancement of compensation through several layers and ultimately the High court had enhanced the compensation. The SLP to SC wad promptly rejected. All these events were some years before my aforesaid meeting with the minister.

ESIC was not a party to that case and another land across this land was acquired later without any knowledge of this issue. The layout and plan for hospital in this new land was approved with the knowledge of the state and during these developments, the State Government never informed us of the litigation. What is more, there was a statutory notification of state annulling all the acquisition notifications before a specified cut-off period where the final notification had not yet been issued or possession taken. The statutory notification aforesaid had automatically annulled all steps taken till then for acquisition and directed restoring land to original owners. This particular case under that category and all that was required was to file this notification while the case was pending.

I was able to get all these materials by late night and next day early morning I visited the land and found several encroachments there, houses, tea shops, grocery shops, kali temple and so on, many with communist flag and some with congress flag. I got them photographed. My note with these photos was ready by 5pm, as promised, may be, in 25 hours instead if 24. I went to meet the Minister with secretary by 5.30 but before that I had these faxed to DG ESIC with a detailed covering letter.

The Minister was furious and promptly asked Secretary to have me removed as I was working against the State. The Secretary quietly said there are already letters from communist leaders and MP to transfer me. In the corridor, the Secretary was gracious enough to tell me that I was absolutely right and, if he had been in my position, he would have done same but in a round about manner buying time. Only then I was informed that there was a contempt of court matter against the State and the High court had ordered attachment of Medical director’s office building.

Next day I spoke with our DG and other officers and I was given in writing upholding my view fully and asking me not to pay any amount and not to take the land.

After a fortnight, I got an order to give a cheque of few crores and take it to minister. I asked my Finance Officer to take the cheque. Mr Sharma DG was decent enough to ring me up and inform me that there was very high level pressure that he could not withstand and that I should not write anything further on this.

I had faced a few more such incidents. Everyone misused the ESIC and its funds, though the worst case was the manner the medical colleges were sanctioned and crores of public funds casually sanctioned and released violating every known rule of proprietary. Unfortunately these are not known to public or press as hardly anyone know what ESIC is all about.

The small time politicians who rule various countries of the world are leading the world to insecurity and chaos. The situation cannot be remedied unless these politician are stopped from running after the businessmen for their money to fight elections in their own countries and for their own survival. It is time the UNO took effective steps to see that real democracy is practised in all its member nations so that sanity prevails in the world.

It was Mr. Manmohan Singh who brought in the so called globalisation in 1991. Twenty years later during the independence day speech in 2011 he was talking about the poverty of the nation and malnutrition of the children. Now, the BJP government ups the ante and increases the social insecurity of the common people. The bill called Small Factories (R & CS) of 2014 is a classic example proving that the rulers do not bother about commons.

Readers may please go through the following article in The Economist which is an eye-opener.

http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21637393-rise-demand-economy-poses-difficult-questions-workers-companies-and

(Courtesy: The Economist.

These cases deal with criminal procedure. But, they have some relevance for general administration side also.
I.

Mr.Sarbjeet was picked up by the police, detained for several days and finally gunned down near the Indo-Pak border. It was, later on, found that the deceased had nothing to do with terrorist activities and was completely innocent. The Supreme Court has in this case ordered the CBI to conduct an inquiry.

-The Hindustan Times – 6.4.1993.

II.

A British man who has spent nearly 15 years in jail for the rape of a student nurse was cleared and freed on Friday after an appeal court ruled that the crime “almost certainly never happened at all”. Roy Burnett (56), a gardener from Kent, was jailed for life in 1986 after a jury accepted evidence from the 20 year old nurse that she had been raped and seriously assaulted. Burnett consistently said he was innocent, but had no grounds for an appeal until 1998 when the same woman made a false complaint of rape to Devon police. The police were informed and Burnett’s case was re-opened. But for the action of the police he “might have continued to be incarcerated for many years yet”, the appeal judge said. –DPA.

– The Hindu – 9.4.2000

III.

On a Sunday all the inmates of the house went to the church leaving a maidservant alone in the house. When they returned, they found that some precious jewellery was missing from the house. The maidservant was prosecuted for theft and convicted on the ground that she alone had exclusive opportunity.

After serving the sentence, the maidservant was walking in a street one day. A butcher tapped her on her back and remarked, “Oh, what a beautiful creature I am when I look in the mirror!” She immediately remembered that on the day of theft this butcher visited the house to supply minced meat, and she took the meat and went inside to store it. She had then shut the doors, went up stairs and stood before a mirror. She then dressed herself and remarked looking at her body in the mirror:” Oh, what a beautiful creature I am when I look in the mirror!” The butcher had obviously not gone out in the meanwhile but had hidden himself in the house and had heard this remark and now repeated it to the maidservant in the street. It was found he was responsible for the theft.

-Cited in Batuklal’s Law of Evidence.

IV.

“In another case a maid servant was tried for murder of her mistress. On the day of the murder the accused and the deceased were in the house and all the doors and windows were shut from inside. The maidservant was convicted for the murder and sentenced to death on the ground that she alone had the exclusive opportunity to commit the murder. The maidservant was executed but later truth came to the light from the confession made by the real offenders. They said that they entered the house of the deceased by putting a wooden plank from the window of the adjacent house to the window of the deceased house, across the street, which was narrow. They committed the murder and went back the same way without leaving any clue.”

• –Cited in Law of Evidence- Pages 38 &39 These instances prove that “it is highly dangerous to rely on the evidence of opportunity alone in the absence of substantial evidence to convict a person”,

Says Dr. V. Krishnamachari.

V.

In Pandiammal case, her husband was fixed for the murder of Pandiammal and was tried in the court of law. When the punishment was to be inflicted, his wife Pandiammal herself turned up in the court and said that she had not been murdered by anybody but had gone to Kerala because of marital discord and came back after hearing from someone that her husband was in jail for having murdered her. It later turned out that the husband of Pandiammal had been tortured by the Police and had been made to confess that he had indeed murdered his wife. The police was investigating into a death of a woman whose decomposed body was found near the village. People said that it might be Pandiammal as she was not seen for a few days and that there would always be quarrel between her and her husband. So, the Police fixed her husband. Now, when the facts were out, the police was wondering who the murdered woman was and who had killed her.

But for the torture method, the Police would at least have gone in search of the real killer and the real victim.

VI.

Update on 31.12.2017

(The present one and the next few threads would show how the bureaucrats book the innocents and harass them by abusing the authority vested in them for public purpose. The serving employees can get a lot of clues from these threads to protect themselves against victimisation)

Mr. B.K. Subbarao stood first in Electrical Engineering in the A.P. University in 1963 and joined the Indian Navy the same year. He received many awards and citations in the Navy. He was the recipient of the Herbert Lott Memorial Award “for his inventiveness in improving the existing fighting devices of the Navy” and Lieutenant V.K.Jain Memorial Gold Medal “for his achievements in the field of computer technology, electrical engineering and control engineering.” He got doctorate too.

Meanwhile, in the BARC, the scientists had been working on the first design of a nuclear submarine propulsion plant since 1971.

In June 1976, Subba Rao was asked to work with BARC scientists for developing a nuclear sub-marine plant. He was made the second-in-command for a team of 20 Naval officers and 85 BARC scientists. On the basis of Subbarao’s technical findings, this design had to be dropped in 1976.

The second design was also dropped in January 1978 after Subbarao showed that it was not viable for naval application.

The BARC authorities were sore at Subbarao picking holes in their work. They, therefore, decided to bypass the Naval team. Their third design was, therefore, directly submitted by the BARC in 1980 to the Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The scientists also wanted Rs. 150 crore to build a prototype of their third design. But, Indira Gandhi, wanted to have the technical opinion from Subbarao. Subbarao’s report rejected BARC’s third design also. He specified that the design failed to meet the basic standards, such as safety, followed by the nuclear navies of the USA, Russia, Britain, France and China. He gave 14 reasons whythe third design would also not work. Mrs. Gandhi did not sanction the Rs. 150 crores.

Consequently, Indira Gandhi returned BARC’S proposal. However, she also said that she would reconsider her decision if the BARC scientists could disprove Subbarao’s claim. But, the BARC did not dare to do so. The observations of Subba Rao were so sharp and correct.

The BARC started work on the fourth design towards the end of 1980. Meanwhile, the Indian Navy instructed Subbarao to develop a design of his own. Subbarao’sdesign was ready by November 1982 and submitted to the Prime Minister’s office.

Conspiracy by the officers who were egoists

Meanwhile, Navy asked Subbarao to prepare his own design. Indira Gandhi asked the BARC scientists to examine the issue based on Subbarao’s nuclear submarine design. Dr Raja Ramanna, the BARC director (also scientific advisor to the defence minister) was more egoistic. He declined to consider Subbarao’s design. He said to Subbarao, “You are a naval officer and we cannot accept the work of a naval officer. I will send my comments on your design but you will not see them in your lifetime. You should go back to the navy and work in electronics and computers which is your field”. Within a week Subbarao was taken off the submarine project by the Naval authorities. Continue reading →