Though the past may seem unimportant and irrelevant, it can still come back to haunt you. Any doubts?

Just ask Mike Jeffries, CEO of Abercrombie. An interview of his, with the Salon magazine from  the year 2006 has recently resurfaced, establishing a wider controversy related to the company and garnering worldwide attention and involvement.

A few quotes from the interview that particularly stand out are:

“We want to market to cool, good-looking people. We don’t market to anyone other than that.”

“Listen, do we go too far sometimes? Absolutely. But we push the envelope, and we try to be funny, and we try to stay authentic and relevant to our target customer. I really don’t care what anyone other than our target customer thinks.”

“In every school, there are the cool kids and then there are the not-so-cool kids. We go after the cool kids. A lot of people don’t belong, and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely.”

Many of the company’s practices are now being severely scrutinized. Abercrombie does not sell clothes in XL or XXL sizes, for women. Abercrombie sells thongs for pre-teens printed with words like “Eye Candy” and “Wink Wink”. Abercrombie sells shirts saying “Wong Brothers Laundry Service—Two Wongs Can Make It White” and for girls, “Who Needs A Brain When You Have These?” and “Do I Make You Look Fat?”

Abercrombie has undoubtedly shaped fashion ever since Jeffries took the lead, and many say that it has even transformed into a sort of elitist cult. Now, however, people around the world are reacting in outrage to its questionable ways— what’s surprising is that it has taken this long for people to notice.

Protest has taken different forms; some particularly noteworthy and thought-provoking reactions are shared for you below:

1) One of these is the “Attractive & Fat” campaign, launched by a blogger, Jes.

“I challenge the separation of attractive and fat, and I assert that they are compatible regardless of what you believe.” Powerful words.

2) An online petition for the company to begin to sell XL and XXL sized clothing has also been started.

The initiators have even managed to land a meeting with Jeffries himself to discuss the company’s future actions.

3) Filmmaker Greg Karber gave away Abercrombie clothes to the homeless, and made a video which can be viewed at

For a company that prefers to destroy rather than give away its old or excess clothes, his actions come as a direct threat to its exclusivity.

As a result of all the intense focus on this issue, I decided to ask some of Delhi’s own youth what they thought:

There seems to be a mix of opinions about the issue.

As Arundhati Singh, a student, says, “It isn’t acceptable to target such an audience, as attractive and fat or attractive and cool aren’t exclusive of each other”.

Yet, at least “they have found their target audience and are open about it”, points out Anav Nayar.

Dhiren Anand, another student, argues, “They should make clothes in XL and XXL. This would only benefit them because sales would increase due to the following and the brand image they have”.

Yes, the company would make the initial financial gains, but as a result the cult image of Abercrombie would probably soon dissolve—and that’s exactly what Mike Jeffries is trying to preserve.

What do you think?

Ayushi Vig

Image Source [http://www.flickr.com/photos/realsmiley/3574235824/sizes/l/in/photostream/]

Even if you don’t like Taylor Swift, I know you know her lyrics. You’ve heard them all over the place, and there’s no denying that they’re incredibly catchy. But there’s also no denying that they’re incredibly boy-crazy, obsessed with failed relationships, and finding true love.

Now that in itself is not a particularly terrible thing, but it has often drawn the ire of staunch feminists in the past.

Swift has repeatedly said she doesn’t consider herself a feminist, and has continued to do her own thing. Now, however, Clara Beyer, senior at Beyer University, has decided to take matters into her own hands. Beyer created a Twitter account (@feministtswift), to post alternate versions of T-swizzle’s lyrics. Take a look below!

In 5 days, the account has already gained more than 67,000 followers. Quite a few have even joined in:

Someone even created the account @feministkanye and posted the following tweet, reminding us of that controversial moment when Kanye jumped on stage and interrupted Taylor at the 2009 VMA’s.

Although such feminist lyrics may never make it to the next chart-topping single, they are surprisingly insightful comments on many deeply-rooted social conventions.

Truly, they are worthy of our reflection.

Ayushi Vig

Image Courtesy [http://www.flickr.com/photos/simplyabbey/5956516235/sizes/o/in/photostream/]

It was dinner time and as usual the topic of discussion was something I had read in the paper. This time it was the censor board and how does it rate a movie.

A movie is rated “A” when it contains an adult scene or a dialogue which is not to be viewed by children under the age of 18.  But the worst part is that while on one side we prevent our film industry to showcase adult content, on the other hand our society suffers from child abuse and rape, which involves a boy under  the age of 18.

And thanks to the recent happenings, we Indians have lost the respect for our own country. Every day a new campaign is launched to fight for women justice, but have these struggles really brought about a change?

Or have they just brought to light the rage among youth?

It is true that the topic of women has always been controversial, perhaps because they have often suffered at the hands of men. They arent safe anywhere, be it in their office, their home, hostels, roads, or public transport.

However, coming back to the movies and the censor board, I recently found that the first movie that got the “A” title was not because of the adult scenes or the kind of dialogues, but because it had scenes where the leading actress did not wear a dupatta with her salwar suit.

Compare this to A rated movies in today’s times, Dirty Picture. I know I am shifting my focus again, but what I am trying to say is that our efforts should be directed towards the all around development of each and every section of Indian women; be it actresses or housewives.  Development should not be confined to a particular section of women.

Therefore, it is a must to protect their chastity, modesty, dignity and ensure their dignified position in society. One should always remember that progress and development cannot be achieved, without doing away with the social stigma.

And how can this be brought about?

This can happen only when the governmental and non-governmental organisations, including media, come forward and play an active role in creating an awareness in the society.

This is not very difficult to achieve. If we as women take a step to bring about a change, it is bound to have a positive impact on the society

Nazm Bhardwaj

Image Source [http://english.globalgujaratnews.com/uploads/news/12_2012/1356936895_rape.jpg]

There are an endless ways in which you can end up at a police station, but in a rational world, ordering a meal with your friends is not one of them. Apparently, in the world of the Lemp Brewpub and Kitchen, it is.

This Sunday, a group of young professionals chose to visit the restaurant after seeing a listing on Zomato for its Hawaiian Sunday Brunch event.

That was their first mistake.

They started regretting it when they were first served stale starters. The group sent the food back, only to receive the same starters reheated. The promised Hawaiian Brunch was cancelled as the chef had to leave abruptly the night before. Additionally, the planned live bar was absent. The group was promised unlimited cocktails which, on being ordered, never turned up despite frequent reminders. When confronted at the end of the meal, the restaurant manager responded saying that the error occurred because the waiters who had received the order had decided to step out for a short break. It was surprising to hear that, because was the same set of waiters who had served them the entire time.

After multiple futile attempts to notify the manager, the group decided to walk out. Immediately, however, they were given an outrageous bill, and were not only asked to pay a price around the one mentioned in the ad but were also asked to pay for food that they never received. The beer they drank, they were informed, cost 1100 rupees per glass. When they still refused to pay, they found themselves cornered by bouncers. Frightened yet determined to assert their rights, they did what any person in our country should be able to do—they called the police, confident that help was on its way.

And that, sadly but not even completely surprisingly, proved to be their second mistake.

The police arrived only to accuse the customers of making a scene. Helplessly, the frustrated group decided to pay the total amount, and the cops did not file a report.

However, they did not let the matter go. Detailing the incident, they published a blog post which immediately went viral on Facebook, Twitter, and Whatsapp, with countless people posting anti-Lemp words of support. The restaurant’s rating on Zomato has fallen from above 3 to less than 1.3. Lemp even began to trend on Twitter India, yet the restaurant has chosen to remain silent on the issue, with no words of apology or even defense.

After the spread of the blog post and all the poor publicity it was receiving, the restaurant filed a report with the police, claiming that the group had in reality racked up a bill of 12,000 rupees and that it had arrived with the intent to misbehave.

The blog post, originally published at has since been removed.

But the damage is done. Lemp Brewpub and Kitchen failed to handle the situation even remotely well. First in terms of customer service and the police, and following that in terms of its social media response.

Zomato, on the other hand, handled the situation incredibly professionally. Although many asked the website to remove Lemp Brewpub and Kitchen from its listings completely, the website pointed out that its role was to inform consumers about quality of service, and removing its name would serve no point. Instead, Zomato published a brief account of the incident on its website.

It is laudable that this group of young people decided to stick to their guns and pursue the matter, instead of dropping it and giving in as many would. But it is extremely disappointing to know that it is so difficult in the first place for them to get nothing more than what they deserve, as customers, as citizens, and as people.

What happened to the police protecting the people?

What happened to customer service?

What happened to consumer rights?

Sadly, we seem to live in a world where these things are aberrations rather than the norm.

Our world, it seems, is far removed from rationality.

Image Source [http://www.indianfoodfreak.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Lemp-ambience3.jpg]

As I begin to write this, I’m tempted to go get myself a snack—lunchtime is a while away—and am about to get up from my seat when the very children I’m writing about pop into my mind. Thus, I sit back down.

There are millions of malnourished children out there, right now,surviving on next to nothing, and here I am thinking I’m hungry.

Over the past few months, millions of these malnourished children have been the subject ofmany national and international debatesand discussions.

Malnourishment has been a major problem for decades in a nation that seems to have no shortage of them, yet acknowledgement of thisonly began in the year 2011, when the World Health Organization started their research on global child malnutrition. The statistics claimed that one out ofthree malnourished children live in India.

However, the aspect of the study that seemed to bother everyone the most, was not startlingly extreme pervasiveness of malnutrition in the country, but the claim that the presence of child malnutrition in India is at least twice that of sub-Saharan Africa.

Everybody wanted to know if it was possible that our emerging superpower is lagging behind the weak, hopeless, undeveloped sub-Saharan or not.

Inevitably, WHO’s research began to undergo immense scrutiny. The turning point of the debatecame when Arvind Panagariya, a professor at Columbia University, wrote an article claiming that international standards for weight and height are an inappropriate yardstick for Indians. Our children, he says, are smaller than those of the rest of the world;WHO fails to take into consideration the genetic differences. Panagariya insists that the WHO report is a “hoax”, consisting of exaggerated malnutrition figures.

The reality of the matter is that Panagariya and his supporters conveniently overlooked the fact that these genetic differences exist not only in India, but in the neighboring countries as well—Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, for instance. Yet our rising India still trails behind these much poorer nations.

Perhaps WHO is way off the mark andgenetic differences play a more important role than we can understand.

Perhaps the presence of malnutrition in India isless than what it’s been made out to be.

But so what?

The hypothesisremains that an undeserved source of comfort,malnutrition still exists.It’s out there and it undoubtedly affects millions in our country, and what everyone seems to have forgotten over the course of these never-ending comparisons is that “that is what matters the most”.

The entire controversy is a result of nothing more than nationalistic pride. And nationalistic pride shouldn’t stem from the ability to point out another nation’s flaws; it should stem from the inability to point out one’s own flaws. Yes, that’s a fairly idealistic way to put it, but what have we as a nation achieved by proving the sub-Saharan worse off than we?

This shouldn’t be about competition.

The malnourished children of India don’t care about whether they are relatively worse or better than their continental counterparts. Any conclusions that we gather or proofs that we find related to that doesn’t change their situation. The only thing that can change their situation is action.

Studies about the causes of malnourishment in our country show that it is developed because of two main factors: the prominent gender bias and the poor public distribution system. There is no shortage of food; rather, the PDS which is in playat the moment is extremely inefficient, corrupted by selfish officials, poor storage and transport methods.

Women make up the majority of the malnourished; indeed, one in three women have a BMI below 18.5, the international minimum—BMI is a ratio of weight to height, and thus removes the discrepancies that genetic differences potentially create.  Males are traditionally given priority in our country, and that of course applies to our many, many poor families with limited food supply as well.

Nutritional Rehabilitation Centres, where the malnourished can seek recovery, have been proposed and planned across the nation. But so far,  all of this is on paper. Along with an improved PDS and a gradual movement towards gender equality over generations, these centres can help to feed the nation.

Perhaps one day, when WHO releases a global malnourishment report, we will not bebotheredabout which country is better off than us.

Lets see, what the future holds.

Ayushi Vig

Image Source [http://www.mickeymehtahbf.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/John-and-Graces-newborn-recovering-from-malaria-and-malnourishment.jpg]

In what can only be called a twisted sort of irony, a few hours after June 4th, 2013, news of the death of Chen Xitong began to spread.

Chen Xitong was Mayor of Beijing during the Tiananmen Square Massacre, and has been declared by many Chinese Communist Party officials to have been the “mastermind” behind the incident. News of his death was met appreciatively across the globe, yet the Chinese government never let it circulate mainland China. Despite the fact that the news somehow made its way to Hong Kong, it did not stir much interest there.

Tiananmen Square is a place that people around the world associate with tragedy—a government shot out at hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of its own people. On June 4th 1989, China experienced a massacre so terrible that the world has not forgotten it.  It is still remembered, still talked about—everywhere except in China, that is. The words Tiananmen Square mean nothing to the younger generations of China. The Chinese Communist Party appears to have accomplished an impressive feat—it has erased the massacre, making it completely irrelevant to the people.

There was little remembrance of the incident on Tuesday; part of the reason behind the people’s widespread silence may be the extreme censorship measures taken by the government—all results pertaining to the incident had been blocked, and words pertaining to the date, even those such as “today” and number combinations resulting in “6/4″ were blocked on social media sites like China’s Sina Weibo.

Inevitably, some did break past the censorship, mainly through the use of memes. A few celebrities and intellectuals boycotted Sina Weibo on the day as well. Yet they made up only a handful of the population—for the majority of Chinese, the day passed like any other. Prominent filmmaker Jia Zhangke posted, for a few hours, “At least the Sina censors remember”, directly pointing out the insignificance the day has come to acquire.

Even though many Chinese use Virtual Private Networks, which allow them to access the Internet as if from another country, discussion on these networks too is low. Still, official and online chatter about the incident is understandably low because of the extensive censorship, yet the general silence goes much deeper than that—it is self censored. After Tiananmen Square, experts around the world agreed that China was on a “trend to democracy“—they were confident that the Chinese Communist Party would not be able to survive such a blunder. Yet twenty-four years later, the Chinese Communist Party is still in power. Conditions of life under its rule are similar today to what they were in 1989—citizens still cannot vote, speak freely, or worship as they please.

Many socio-political analysts insist that today in China, there is an unprecedented awareness of everything that Chinese society lacks. Yet there is no democratic passion sweeping China today. Tiananmen Square is surprisingly meaningless for the majority. The communist government that has wronged the people time and time again has also accomplished much for them in terms of progress in recent years—China is one of the world’s leading economies today, more Chinese than ever before can safely access a university education as well as a social security network, including  a rudimentary healthcare system, they can travel abroad and choose their spouses. These improvements in quality of life are much more relevant to the people than tales of a mass shooting from the last century.

The party has succeeded in maintaining a firm grip on the citizens, and the solidity of its grip is truly remarkable. In every housing complex, for instance, several under-employed residents are paid to essentially spy on the other inhabitants and report suspicious activity or complaints against the government. Effective propaganda has led to the continued excessive idealization of Chairman Mao. From time to time, news of scandals is allowed to break out in a controlled manner, yet only that  related to party officials previously removed or party acts against corruption. Still, the party achieves its goal of giving people the impression that the media are still relatively independent, occasionally also allowing the circulation of anti-government rants—but never writing that calls for collective action.

The people continue to put all their faith in the Party unquestionably; many would say that the Party deserves none of it. Yet the Party and its ways have remained, despite all the predictions to the contrary, despite all the attempts by international bodies to improve aspects such as its treatment of human rights. The Chinese Communist Party knows what it is doing, both in terms of maintaining power and in terms of national advancement. For how many governments can we really say the same? But the human cost at which the Party functions is truly terrible. June 4th, 1989 was a grievous day, and we can only hope that someday in China in the years to come, the people will be free and able to acknowledge that.

Ayushi Vij

Image Source [http://img.timeinc.net/time/photoessays/2009/tiananmen_square/tiananmen_05.jpg]

Clothes were primarily used to protect us—from the cold, from rain, from insects, and so on. During battle, they have served as armour and camouflage, two of the most important weapons one can have. Keeping this in mind, a new trend seems to be emerging—that of anti-rape wear.  People are now beginning to mix the ideas of daily wear and battle wear on a large scale, more seriously than ever before.

Chastity belts—contraptions extremely difficult to undo—have been in existence since medieval times, yet it is only recently that they have come to be worn with the sole purpose of avoiding rape. The Swedish anti-rape belt was inspired by the chastity belt, and has gained relative popularity among women. A group of Indian engineers recently also invented the anti-rape bra, equipped with GPS and the ability to send out shock waves to an attacker. There are skirts that act as instant camouflage, knife-wielding necklaces, pepper spray disguised as lipstick, and the ever-growing list doesn’t end.

As Shira Tarrant, contemporary style expert, said to the Daily Beast, “Rape is the everyday war that women face”.  Yet although anti-rape wear is undoubtedly beneficial for young women in danger, it contradicts the idea that rape has nothing to do with clothing. That fact remains truer than ever—rape is caused by people, not clothing—and anti-rape wear is less of a defense mechanism than a message.

Fashion theorists often point out that clothes have another purpose—to communicate. They are symbolic of status, gender, personality, and, some might say, intent.

Anti-rape wear is not only a reflection of the seriousness with which the issue of sexual harassment has begun to be treated, but also a projection of intolerance and of action. It is a warning, an immediate threat to a potential attacker.

Whether or not anti-rape wear makes it to the daily wear category, the fact that it has made it to fashion is a positive accomplishment for society in itself.

After all, what more is fashion than a reflection of contemporary society?

It points out that society has finally begun to look at rape seriously and is now looking for actual solutions. Although anti-rape wear is nowhere near a solution, it is a step towards the solution—whether or not we wear it, we are talking about it, which is in a way an achievement of its purpose.

Ayushi Vig

Image Source [http://www.flickr.com/photos/dunechaser/2942907139/in/photostream/]

Amidst the chaos of all the radically ambitious changes currently meeting Delhi University’s Undergraduate Programme, many aspects have been lost in the blur. One of these is the university’s new laptop policy, according to which all 54,000 of this year’s  freshmen will be equipped with free laptops when they show up to, ideally, a well-networked campus.

These laptops are the product of extensive government grants, and part of a system of tools to modernize DU’s education system in an accessible manner. According to university officials, students will be given e-lectures and e-books and will be able to access live lectures from outside the classroom.

Although there are quite a few concerns with this plan of action (such as the questionable quality of the university’s own IT infrastructure) the idea does have definite potential. Yet there’s one detail nobody’s talking about—these laptops are only provided for the first year. What happens after is an issue that the university has failed to address.

Surely, the kind of technology-based learning proposed will continue throughout the four years and will become ever more important after a year of its accessible implementation. How then will the lower classes manage to continue the technology-incorporative education they have become used to? Nobody seems to be considering the issue that this technology is unaffordable for them—perhaps because it will only materialize during the next year, whereas there are so many other more immediate issues calling for attention.

But the officials at Delhi University need to give their attention to the future as well, though it may seem far away. After a year of high-profiled modernity and accessibility in education, they cannot expect a large number of their students to return to traditional methods while the better-off continue to use their laptops. Not to mention, they cannot shift the responsibility to their students’ shoulders and expect them to use means that they might not have.

They cannot start an educational revolution of this sort and leave it less than halfway—it becomes their responsibility to continue it.

Understandably, the expense of providing free laptops to all the students of the university might be too great to consider the idea. But how about starting at the roots?

Although many colleges of the university are already equipped with Wi-Fi, there are few computer labs on campus. Why not build more, equipping libraries and cafes with cyber access? That way, the responsibility continues to lie with the university.

Of course, there may be many solutions to a problem such as this—and after all, the university officials can decide best. But what’s important is that they acknowledge the potential implications of their plan and prepare for the future, in order to avoid a later state of chaotic confusion similar to the one they seem to be facing today.

Ayushi Vig

Image Source [http://compfight.com/search/laptop-education/1-3-1-1]

We seldom are great; in our ways, in our acts, in our voice and in the small things that we do by our own means for others, it’s entirely someone’s wish to notice it or not—we all have eyes but the vision is different and nothing can be done about it!

I noticed that he had issues—I noticed that when I took his name—he would not reciprocate…he would not hear… He wouldn’t even blink his eyes—and I knew there was a problem with this kid… He was not normal.

I was 11 back then—by no means would my word be taken.

“Mother there is a problem with him; he is stone faced, he is unresponsive”.

But mother would send me out of the room—to let my baby brother sleep.

He would cry, he would not laugh—he did not like toys like I did, and I wondered why.

I couldn’t do much about it; boards and career were more ahead of me than my sibling but I still didn’t hear him a lot. They say siblings are the friends that you get without any choice—but that wasn’t the case with us.  We were not friends; I did not even feel associated.

I was in my final graduation here when one day mother called me up; in tears she was—I could make that out from her tone.

“He left us, you were right—there was some problem with your little brother.”

On my way back home I was numb, I did not have words—I was just remembering my little brother. Was I ever concerned about him, did I ever bother enough for him; I had tears of remorse in my eyes. I felt so small that I will always remember that feeling; I still carry its burden with me—the burden of not being concerned enough for my little one. I wish I were…

After performing all the rites, my mother handed me over a drawing—“He painted it for you—it was the last activity I remember he did…waiting for you to come home and see him”.

I took the drawing from her.

I am 25, working in a multinational and living my dream.  My parents bought a new house and I was busy settling my room. I was clearing my study table when a paper grabbed my attention

It was the drawing…the last drawing that he had made for me. He was 11 when he passed away because of a congenital heart disorder—but even at that tender age, my little one pictured me with him. The drawing was of him walking in a garden of flowers with me—holding my hands—like he needed me, my support!!

Something just changed in me from that moment. When my mother gave me that drawing—for many it was a memory of my brother, but for me, it was an interpretation.

I changed after I lost him, I became more responsible—I could relate myself to family ties which I never did earlier and now—at this very moment—where I breathe—I know of me as a person who can stand up for himself and for people who need him—for my parents, my peers; I never had that strength earlier.

His faith changed me. I still talk to him at times. I know that in an alternate space, he hears me and we walk hand in hand in that garden of flowers.

How his passing away made me meet myself!!

It was a strange sacrifice on his part, but it was!

Swati Singh Sambyal

Image Source [http://compfight.com/search/brother-sister/1-0-1-1]

The torture of inmates in prisons is widely prevalent and fairly well known in most countries.

Sure techniques used may differ, but here’s what’s universal: The purpose is to extract information from prisoners and coerce them into confessing to crimes. Torture has been inflicted by both, the authorities, as well as by fellow inmates. Some common methods of torture include sexual assault, humiliation, forced medication, sleep deprivation, mock executions, solitary confinement, temperature extremes etc.

Looking at India in particular, there are a whole lot of other aspects which may not be considered direct torture, but are as bad, if not worse, than some of the techniques mentioned above.

The first, most obvious form of torture is probably the fact that 70 per cent of India’s 300,000 inmates have not been convicted of any offense. They are under trial because of an incompetent judicial system and a conceited police force. Almost 2000 of these inmates have been forced to spend over five years in jail, without being convicted.

Investigations have exposed a dark network thriving in jails in the country, almost similar to the underworld’s system of organised gangs and criminals. The absense of legal support has made certain prisoners an easy target; with no rights to protect them, they are victims of regular violence and assault within the premises of the prison.

Take the jails in Bihar for example; they are one of the worst where goons continue to operate even behind bars, due to inefficient security arrangements. Moreover, jail authorities have refused to take any responsibility for the inmates’ behaviour.

Before we move any further, let’s get down to the basics. What exactly does “torture in jails” entail?

Torture in jails refers to the infliction of severe physical or psychological pain upon an individual to extract information or as an illicit extrajudicial punishment. While such torture is banned by international law and is illegal in most countries, it continues to be used in some.

India is amongst those countries that have not signed the United Nations (UN) treaty against torture, and in the past few years custodial deaths and extra judicial killings are on the rise. However, torture in India goes beyond the traditional methods of cruelty used on prisoners.

Firstly, jails in India are a chock-a-block with inmates far exceeding their capacity, often forcing inmates to sleep in shifts.

Poor sanitation and water scarcity also constitute the second major issue in Indian cells, causing inmates to choose between washing themselves and  washing their clothes. In some cases, mud is used to clean the toilets to save water. Not to mention, the number of toilets are few, and inmates as a result of this are left with no choice but to use the drains.

Thirdly, the food served is unfit for consumption. At times, prisoners are even told to lap up the food overflowing onto the floor. They are made to eat grass and roots for vegetables, and the drinking water provided is filthy.

And finally, during the cold months, one can find several people huddled under a single blanket with no provisions for such basic facilities. Furthermore, medical facilities are inadequate and the jail and hospital staff is negligent. Many prisoners die, supposedly a “natural death”, due to diseases which are otherwise curable and minor. Prisoners who are sick, and lack the resources, generally aren’t cared for or sent to hospitals. Discrimination within jails is widely practiced, with inmates being classified into “A”, “B” and “C” class on the basis of their social status and wealth.

Contrary to what you might believe, sexual perversions of all sorts exist and homosexuality is common. When a young boy enters the prison, he becomes a victim to an internal gamble, a well-known practice that the jail authorities very conveniently turn a blind eye towards.

Several cases of ill treatment have been recorded by the International Committee of the Red Cross in India . There have been 171 cases of beating, 381 inmates were suspended from the ceiling, 294 had their leg muscles crushed, 243 were tortured with water, 302 were sexually abused and electricity had been used on 498 of them.

The Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) in its report said that at least 14,231 people have died in custody in India, over the last decade.  This indicates over four custodial deaths a day, and a large majority of these are a direct consequence of the torture inflicted upon them in custody.

In 2011, 147 people died in police custody and 99.99 per cent of these were caused by torture and occurred within 48 hours of the victims being taken in. However, the under reporting of deaths makes it hard to arrive at accurate figures. The ACHR has repeatedly called upon India to take steps to approve a pending bill on torture prevention and to ratify the 1984 UN convention against torture.

While these formal documents are a good first step, they do not promise any great reforms. Torture by the jail authorities and inmates can only be curbed by strict policing and punishment, and by extending legal aid to those in cells.

The other aspects are the ones that require even greater attention. Sanitation, medication, food and water are so much easier to control and yet seem nowhere on the agenda. This problem is particular to a few countries and show that basic provisions can be easily provided for.

If one was to look into it, several reforms have been suggested. Lodging under trial prisoners away from convicted criminals, simplification of bail procedures, quick trials, creating larger jails to accommodate the inmates, and making prisoner rights clear are some of the few measures that would show immediate results.

Our prison environments are inhuman and unnatural; such environments lead to serious psychological disorders often transforming petty thieves into hardened criminals. The habitat of our prisons needs to be urgently changed and the state must take this up to help overall conditions in cells.

Hopefully the required changes will be made soon and the state will allow its inmates their basic human rights, even if behind bars.

Pavitra Parekh

Image Source [http://www.flickr.com/photos/48622270@N00/1947629328/]