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THE report that the 11-member committee assigned by the government to investigate the murderous February 25-26 rebellion at the Bangladesh Rifles headquarters submitted to the home minister on May 21 appears to have quite a few loose ends. In fact, as reports in a couple of newspapers on the committee’s findings suggest, it has not been able to meet its primary mandate, i.e. pinpoint the primary cause/s of the rebellion. The committee cites grievances among the BDR soldiers against the officers from the army as a probable cause for the rebellion but is not convinced that the grievances were so strong as to trigger the carnage. However, the committee does appear aware of the shortcomings of its report and has suggested, though in not so many words, further investigation of the rebellion to identify the real cause, content and context of the crisis. Given the situation, we strongly believe the government needs to get to the bottom of the rebellion since it ultimately has long-term ramifications for the security and sovereignty of the state. The nation simply cannot afford to be in the dark about the specific causes behind the rebellion, and find out solutions so that such a nationally suicidal incident does not recur, not only in the BDR but also in all the disciplined forces that are tasked, directly or indirectly, to protect the territorial sovereignty and integrity of the state.
   The report seems to have put to rest one highly disputable issue related to the rebellion, i.e. probable militant link with the rebellion. Nowhere in the report does the committee mention even the possibility of links between militant forces and the rebellion. A 20-member army court of inquiry, which also investigated the rebellion and submitted its report to the army chief on May 10, also reportedly found no such links. Yet, in the early days of the investigations, at least one powerful minister repeatedly claimed that the investigators had traced a link between the rebel soldiers and Islamist radicals. When there are certain global forces that are too eager to launch a full-scale war at the very mention of Islamist extremism and that have a willing ally in the region, such irresponsible remarks could very well expose the country into being drawn into the vortex of the so-called global war on terror.
   During and after the rebellion, there were also debates as to whether or not the government should have authorised a military assault to end the rebellion. While top officials of the armed forces and the intelligence agencies had meetings with the government at every juncture of the crisis, the committee, according to the report, has found no indication that the use of military force was proposed as a means to bring the rebellion to an end, although the then BDR director general did request for intervention by the armed forces after the officers had come under attack from the soldiers.
   The report does dwell on the intelligence failure with regard to the BDR rebellion. It defies commonsense that the intelligence agencies had no clue to the rebellion although the rebellion, as the report indicates, had been in the making for at least two months. While the monumental intelligence failure may not be news, the revelation that the National Security Intelligence, Directorate General of Forces Intelligence, Rapid Action Battalion, and the Criminal Investigation Department and Special Branch of police refused to share information and evidence they had gathered from the BDR headquarters with the committee is. Such non-cooperation is unfortunate, particularly when the issue in question involves national security. On the whole, given the role of the intelligence agencies before and after the rebellion, we believe the committee has rightly recommended streamlining of the state’s intelligence apparatus.
   Overall, even after investigations by two committees, the real cause of the rebellion remains as nebulous as ever. Yet, as we have written in this columns many times before, it is imperative that the real cause, content and context of the crisis be unearthed, not only to redress a grave injustice but also to ensure, reasonably, that such a grisly event does nor recur in the future. Hence, the government needs to commission further investigation and equip with adequate logistics and time so that the truth behind the crisis is revealed to the fullest extent possible.

Sustained actions against
child labour needed

MORE than 1.3 million children in Bangladesh are engaged in risky and hazardous occupation in violation of the Child Rights Act of 1974, so says a report published in New Age on May 23. According to the report, under-aged children not only are exposed to hazardous and risky jobs like inhaling chemicals in their places of work but also happen to be confined to spaces that are as unhygienic as can be imagined. And the pay they get is pitifully low, many of them earning between Tk 10 and Tk 50 per day. Though the country’s labour law stipulates that children must attain 14 years of age to work in informal and formal industries provided the working conditions meet certain criteria and children are not employed for more than 42 hours per week, etc most often than not these laws are violated and the authorities concerned turn a blind eye to such infringement.
   Child labour is a poverty-driven problem so much so that children are hard pressed to accept even hazardous work. Many of these children have dropped out of school in order to support their families. So in order to improve the situation, the basic premise to start with is that child labour in the socioeconomic context of ours cannot be wished away. It will require sustained action. We must seek to address the issue urgently. But first, the government must take steps to eradicate child labour in hazardous occupations including work in welding, chemical, ship-breaking industry, etc. According to a number of international conventions to which our country is a signatory, there are well-defined categories of hazardous professions from which the children must be entirely withdrawn as soon as possible.
   The government should also, in collaboration with non-governmental organisations, take up projects that impart functional literacy and vocational skill to children in community schools so that their transition to job market is well-ordered. Secondly, the poor households from which they come need to be financed to pursue some gainful occupation themselves. What is required is public-private sector collaboration to overcome the child labour malady.

THE High Court’s verdict was a ‘revolution’, said Salma Ali, president of Bangladesh Jatiya Mahila Ainjibi Samity (BNWLA).
   In response to a public interest litigation filed by the BNWLA, the High Court ruled on May 14 that any kind of physical, mental or sexual harassment of women, girls and children at their workplaces, educational institutions and at other public places, including roads, was a criminal offence, punishable by fine and/or imprisonment. The ruling detailed sexual misdemeanour as ‘any kind of provocation through phone calls or e-mail, lewd gestures, showing of pornography, lurid stares, physical contact or molestation, stalking, vulgar sounds or any display of a derogatory nature.’ The HC bench directed the government to make a law on the basis of its guidelines; until that happened, its guidelines would enjoy the status of law.
   On May 17, ‘another’ revolution took place. The same bench, of Justices Syed Mahmud Hossain and Quamrul Islam Siddiqui, in response to a writ petition, declared that the decision of the Jahangirnagar University authorities to exonerate Drama and Dramatics chairperson Sanwar Hossain Sani from charges of sexual harassment and to suspend six students (which include four women complainants) for allegedly assaulting him was ‘illegal’. It directed the JU authorities to hold a fresh enquiry. The new one, according to the verdict, should be conducted by ‘neutral persons’. It should accord with the High Court’s recent guidelines. The writ petition, represented by barrister Sara Hossain and advocate Ruhul Quddus Babu, was jointly filed by Ain o Salish Kendra, Nijera Kori, Karmojibi Nari, professor Serajul Islam Choudhury, and journalist Kamal Lohani.
   The complaints were not proven ‘beyond any doubt’, there was no ‘hard evidence – that is what the JU Syndicate had said when clearing Sanwar Hossain of all charges in September 2008. Dismissing this, the HC bench ruled that the standard of ‘beyond a[ny] reasonable doubt’ could not be applied to allegations of sexual harassment. A slap in the face of the JU authorities? Of the members of the final enquiry committee, the Syndicate, and the university teachers association (JUTA) which had expressed ‘relief’ at the Syndicate’s decision and had advocated that ‘indisciplined’ students (and not a teacher who had sexually harassed women students) be punished? Beyond any reasonable doubt.
   Of course, we are happy, thrilled, and excited at the High Court’s recognition, at its validation of our long-standing demands and struggles. That unwelcome sexual attention is, well, just what it is. Unwelcome. Period. And as Fawzia Karim, the petitioner’s counsel, had argued in court, the absence of a law against sexual harassment, ‘rampant’ in Bangladesh, means that victims cannot file accusations against the offenders.
   But our moment of happiness is also overcast with feelings of grief and loss. We have not forgotten our sisters, those who were either killed for having rejected declarations of love, or took their own lives at the humiliation suffered. Simi Banu, art student, taunted and harassed by local mastaans, committed suicide in 2001. Mohima Khatun, raped, killed herself in 2002. Shahinoor, a garment worker, raped, threw herself under a train, in 2003. Biva Rani Singha, a college student, kidnapped and raped for a week in 2003, later became mentally unbalanced. Farzana Afrin Rumi, a college student, hanged herself when a local group of thugs barged into her house to kidnap her, in 2003. Alpina, a class four student, killed herself after being assaulted in front of her mother, in 2003 (Farzana Rahman Shampa http: //www.adhunika.org/community/disquiet/SMR.html). Chameli Tripura, nine years old, was raped and killed in Ramgarh, Chittagong Hill Tracts, in 2008. And many, many more. Killed. Committed suicide. Became mentally ill. Acid disfigurement. Humiliation. No, we have not forgotten our sisters. Nor have we forgotten sub-inspector Bashar who went to Simi’s house and insulted her parents. He advised them to control ‘her’ movements. He filed a general diary against her, instead of her harassers. Nor have we forgotten countless police officers who have repeatedly refused to register complaints made by women and their family members, distraught and angry, seeking safety and protection through legal means.
   It was, after all, a bloody revolution.
   Will things change? Krishnokoli, a young singer and cultural activist, doesn’t think so. Mere court verdicts are not enough. The political structure of the country needs to be altered first (New Age, May 15). I understand and sympathise with her misgivings as I turn to look at neighbouring India, at the famous Vishaka judgement (Vishaka and others vs State of Rajasthan and others, Supreme Court, 1997), which is known to have informed our own HC judgment. The Vishaka PIL arose out of the gang rape of Bhanwari Devi, a member of a group of women called sathins, trained by the local government to do house-to-house social work at the village level, in exchange of honorariums. Bhanwari Devi, as part of a government campaign against child marriage, had tried to prevent the marriage of a one-year-old girl. The family, who happened to be high caste, were outraged at Bhanwari’s audacity. Five men, including the girl’s father, gang-raped her in her husband’s presence. The village authorities, the local police and doctors teamed up with the rapists: police were reluctant to record her statement, two government doctors refused to examine her. When she finally took her case to the state criminal court, the accused were acquitted. The judge declared that it was not ‘credible’. Upper caste men would surely not stoop as low as raping a lower caste woman? The humiliation and violation of the court process, says Naina Kapur, a New Delhi-based lawyer, led her to initiate the Vishaka petition. She, like many others, was frustrated by the criminal justice system’s inability to provide tangible remedies, restore the dignity of the victim, address systemic issues, and to create social change (Avani Mehta Sood, 2006).
   The Vishaka PIL has made a significant impression upon the public, says Sood, because it has led to the establishment of systems of legal accountability. It has created tremendous awareness and open acknowledgement of sexual harassment. The judgement has had a huge impact on universities and large workplaces. Women now know that there is a law, and as a human rights lawyer put it, ‘It makes a big difference to people harassing women as well, to know that they can be called upon it.’ Awareness created by the Vishaka decision has also led to many more cases being filed by women victims, at the HC level. However, it has not yet been enacted (The Protection of Women Against Sexual Harassment at the Workplace Bill 2007), and the SC guidelines continue to be the law. Very few complaints committees have been set up. Service rules have not been amended. The judgement has been flouted by both public and private employers. Social activists have claimed that the guidelines were too general, it did not cover the entire gamut of workplace relationships (e.g. doctor molesting his patient). The unorganised sector does not fall under the ambit of the bill. Investigations carried out by the inquiry committees have too often been bound by red-tape, leading to long drawn out cases, and thereby, delaying punishment for the harasser, and adding to the victim’s trauma. But continued activism has led to two significant interim orders being issued by the Supreme Court. One of these asks professional bodies (e.g. the UGC) what steps they have taken to implement the Vishaka guidelines, while the other, clarifies that the investigation and report of the investigation committee is to be deemed final. Committees have also been directed to submit annual reports of complaints and actions taken to the government.
   By highlighting the problem of sexual harassment, the Vishaka judgement has simultaneously opened up questions and dilemmas over separating sexual harassment from, and its close intermeshing with other forms of gender-based discrimination/harassment at workplaces (Kalpana Kannabiran and Vasanth Kannabiran 2002). As the authors say, the separation between professional victimisation and sexual harassment is never absolute. And there are other things too. Sometimes sexual harassment can become a weapon of retaliation for progressive dalit men who face offensive and discriminatory behaviour from upper caste and upper class, articulate women classmates and colleagues. Where systemic forms of discrimination and inequality run deep, where the legal system, in its entirety, overwhelmingly promotes unjust hierarchies, are changes possible? Or, to pose Caribbean-American writer, poet and activist Audre Lordes’ words as a question: can the master’s house be dismantled with the master’s tools?
   Not, in its entirety, no. But as I write this, it is also important to acknowledge the difference that it is bound to make at Jahangirnagar, to the lives of six young women and men-students, whose suspension will have to be withdrawn by the JU authorities. The difference that the second HC judgement will make to the lives of four young women complainants who had, against overwhelming odds, protested. Whose dignity – with the help of a new inquiry committee composed of neutral persons, working in accordance with guidelines set by the High Court – will be restored.
   Laws, fortunately or unfortunately, are part of the political process. And, revolutions need to be created, and re-created. Again, and yet again.