What 's wrongin
jails !
Humra Quraishi
It seems unbelievable that in this day and age
we seem to be bypassing the jailed. Tell me,
what's been happening inside those caged
interiors? Why don't we talk in terms of the
living conditions of the prisoned lot? Where
can the prisoners go to lodge complaints?
What is the aftermath,that is, if they pick up adequate
guts to raise their voice? What are the nexus at work
in those interiors? What good are jails when they are
ruin the very mental and physical health of the
prisoners? Why are jails associated with inhuman
treatment meted out to the jailed out? Where are the
supposed reforms? Where is the concept of 'open
jails' where the inmates can at least survive like
human beings?
I'm throwing these queries in the backdrop of
several news reports that all's not well inside our
prisons and jails. Last month a convict died in
Mumbai's Byculla jail after prison staff assaulted her
in the most horrifying way by pushing rods into her
private parts. Mind you, the prime four assaulters
were women cops , so lets not come up with those
hackneyed theories that lets increase the number of
women cops and then all's going to be okay! Nothing
is going to be okay until there comes about some
level of transparency in the very functioning of jails.
Right now the flow of information is via the
released prisoners – who have been fortunate
enough to have survived the jailed ordeal. Or
through prisoners whohave written volumes on their
prison terms.I have read at least ten such volumes
and each one of them is laced with details of torture
and inhuman treatment meted out to the prisoned
lot. In fact, so horrifying are those details that the
read gets difficult.
Why don't we talk of the concept of open jails! For
God's sake don't cage these men and women as
though they are wild animals, good enough to be
caged!They need to live and live with dignity!
Speak out !
Campaign against mobocracy will go on: Prem Singh
Lets not commit the folly of calling ourselves a
developed lot! Far from it! We are lynching
fellowhuman beings, out there in the open, on roads
and along highways! Something or everything seems to be going wrong …disasters are spreading out as
never before.
The only cushioning in these dark times many are
speaking out and taking on the political mafia. In fact,
last month several well- known academics joined Dr
Prem Singh at New Delhi's Jantar Mantar as he sat
on a week long fast to relay his disgust at the way
innocents are lynched in the various corners of this
country. Also, in Pune more than twenty activists
went on a day long fast in solidarity - Sheetal Kotmade, Snehal Giri, Shubham Halle, Jitendra
Phaphale, Sudarshan Chorage, Kalyani D.R, Monali
Aparna, Neelima Tara Suresh, Siddhant Seema
Suresh, Aakash Giri, Shrikant Lalita, Geetanjali P.A,
Kapil, Yogesh Manjula, Vishal Bansode, Uzma Khan,
Shrikrishna Kulkarni, Shakuntala Bhalerao, Sayali
Savita Pradeep, Ravi Prakash Kurandale, Amit, Tushar
Bhotmange, Dayanand C. B.
Also, thousands of artists and actors and activists
had gathered in the different cities of this country to
voice their protest at the ongoing lynching or
blatant murders by political goon brigades …
Wake up my countrymen before the political mafia
makes us kill each other. There would be nobody left
to mourn our deaths.
Reaching out …
As freshly launched books are hitting the stands, I
keep marvelling at our writers' sheer output. Correct
me if I'm wrong but the one and only sphere where
we seem to be going ahead is on the book front!
Books as never before!
In fact, it wouldn't be amiss to say that efforts
should be in that set-set -going pace to try and
reach some of these books to all those who are going
through turbulent times. I'm reminded of what
academic writer, Sudhamahi Regunathan, had told
me during the course of an interview – "Stories reach
where nothing else can.
Mridula Koshy
A story is told that a businessman wanted his son
to learn and he sent him to several acharyas. The boy
did not learn, in fact, he ran away from them. Finally,
one teacher managed to teach him and that he did so
by telling him stories. Soon, through a path that
looked exciting, the teacher led him to the underlying
lesson in each story…We should have story-telling
sessions and that there is nothing wrong in
highlighting the morals.
For, when you live in a
society, there has to be
some lessons on basic
etiquettes, concern for
others and the ways of
the world. That is called
culture."
And though there are
several activists working
with the disadvantaged
children, I know of only
one writer who is doing
so, by reaching out
through books.
Yes, it's
the well-known New
Delhi based novelist –writer, Mridula Koshy, who
runs a library cum a reading room for the slum
children of a South Delhi colony.
To the 'why' she tells me, "I founded the
community library along with my partner, Michael
Creighton. It is one of the many projects within the
NGO, Deepalaya. Although, I was a volunteer when I
started working in the organisation, today I work
as a staff member. The bulk of work in the
library is accomplished by dozens of volunteers and
library members, and majority of them are
children…I am a mother of three and I got involved in
Deepalaya, because I wanted the right environment
for my children to grow up in.
So, my involvement is a 'selfish act'. Martin Luther
King Jr very rightly said, 'An injustice anywhere is a
threat to justice everywhere.' I realised that while my
children enjoyed all the benefits of growing up with
books and quality education, children elsewhere were deprived of the same privileges….
Poor readership for books in India disturbed me
as a writer.
Again, my self-interest was at play
when I started hauling a bag of books across
the nallah that separates my upper-middle class
home from the shanties of the children who
are now members of the library. It wasn't long before
the children's hunger for books increased to a
cupboard from a bag. Thirty books were replaced by
a few hundred, and eventually Deepalaya gave an
entire room to the project. It enabled us to stock a
few thousand books for 700 children and adults, who
come to the library today."
Crucial connectors !
Yes, books build bridges, helps one to connect. This summer I read three 'impactful' books - Sanchit
Gupta's – The Tree With a Thousand Apples ( Niyogi
Books), Manju Kapur's - Brothers ( Penguin) and
Marion Molteno's - If you can walk , you can dance
( Niyogi Books ).
They are different in terms of the storyline, settings,
characters, plots , yet there is a connect. These works
focus on the human being and with that those
struggles and pains, turmoil and tragedies each one of
the characters goes through, rather is destined to go
through.
Whilst Sanchit Gupta's book focuses on the Kashmir
Valley and how the havoc is affecting lives, Manju
Kapur's novel dwells on human
relationships in the backdrop of feuds within a
Rajasthan-based business family , Marion Molteno's
novel is about a young woman's life on the run across
frontiers and cultures, 'from southern Africa to the
1970's London, it weaves the music of Africa and
Europe through the patterns of work ,love and politics
in which she tries to find meaning in her everyday life.'
Days after I finished reading these three books,
I kept introspecting on the very fragility of
human relationships and forms. Not to overlook
the psyches!