- USA: Racist police brutality remains endemic in many areas
- Pakistan: Tribal Councils Source of Abuse
- Microsoft announces $500 million investment to empower partners
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Labout Bureau to release a new series of Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers with 2002 as Base
The Labour Bureau is to release next year a new series of the Consumer Price Index Numbers for Industrial Workers (CPI-IW) with an updated base to a more recent period. This was stated by the Labour Minister Dr. Sahib Singh while presiding over the Parliamentary Consultative Committee Meeting attached to his Ministry here today. He said that in the present economic environment, the Labour bureau has an important role in making available an up-to-date and reliable database for planning labour friendly policies. He said that the Report of the National Commission on Labour, which has just been received, needs to be thoroughly studied and examined by all of us including the Parliamentary Consultative Committee.
The Minister of State for Labour Shri Ashok Pradhan said that the Labour Bureau is an old and important institution and the data collected by it is of immense help in framing appropriate labour policies. He said that the Bureau which is headquartered at Chandigarh and Shimla, has four regional offices at Kanpur (North), Kolkata (East), Chennai (South) and Ahmedabad (West).
The Labour Secretary Dr. P.D. Shenoy informed the Members that efforts are on to make the year 2002 as the base for CPI-IW.
The CPI-IW is currently being compiled on base 1982=100 on monthly basis for 70 industrial centres. It is the single most important price statistics which has significant financial implications. It is used to regulate the dearness allowance of Government employees and the workers in the industrial sector. It is also employed in revision of minimum wages in scheduled industrial employments (except rural labour), measuring of inflation in retail prices etc.
The other important series of consumer price indices compiled by the Labour Bureau is for the agricultural and for rural labourers. It is compiled on the basis of prices regularly collected by the NSSO from 600 sample villages in twenty states on all India base 1986-87 = 100. This index is widely used for fixation/revision of minimum wages in agricultural employments by state governments and UT administrations. The Labour Bureau also compiles Retail Price Indices for 31 selected commodities for urban areas to monitor / regulate the prices of these commodities. Other responsibility of the Bureau is to compile Wage Rate Index Numbers for occupation in 21 industries in manufacturing, mining and plantation sectors. The Bureau also analyses and disseminates data collected by the NSSO under Rural Labour Enquiries, Working Class, Family Income and Expenditure surveys and Annual Survey of Industries. It also collects and disseminates information on working, living and socio-economic conditions of deprived and vulnerable sections of labour.
Participating in the discussions, the Members called for updating the base for the consumer price index. They said that there is considerable delay in publishing Reports by the Bureau with the result the data becomes stale. The members wanted that the Bureau should collect reliable statistics on specific labour groups lie women workers, child labourers, agricultural workers etc. They also called for re-organising the Labour Bureau. The Members of Parliament who participated in the discussions included Shri Jibon Roy, Shri K. Malaisamy, Shri Prabodh Panda, Shri P. Rajendran and Shri Ramchandra Khuntia. The Meeting was attended among others by the Director General, Labour Bureau and senior officials in the Labour Ministry.
Pakistan: Tribal Councils Source of Abuse
(New York, July 12, 2002) The gang rape case of Mukhtaran Bibi
highlights the urgent need to investigate the role of tribal councils in
Pakistan, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch sent a
letter this week to President Musharraf urging scrutiny of the role of
such councils in abuses against women in Pakistan.On June 22, during a Mastoi tribal council meeting in the village of
Meerwala, in southern Punjab, four men, including one of the tribal
council members, allegedly raped Mukhtaran Bibi, a thirty-year-old
member of the Gujjar tribe. The rape, which occurred in the presence of
a large number of villagers, was intended as "punishment" for the
conduct of her brother, Abdul Shaqoor, who had been seen with an
unchaparoned woman from the Mastoi Tribe. The woman, Salma Bibi, is now
reportedly in police custody with her mother. Mukhtaran Bibi was forced
to return home naked after the rape before a crowd of Mastoi villagers.
The victim is reported to have said that members of the Mastoi also
raped her brother, and that police allegedly asked for a bribe of 11,000
rupees (U.S.$180) for his release from police custody."These tribal councils must not be used as vehicles to deny women their
rights and physically assault them," said LaShawn R. Jefferson,
Executive Director of the Women's Rights Division of Human Rights Watch.
"Pakistani officials must ensure that tribal councils operate in ways
that respect the rule of law and women's equality."In its letter, Human Rights Watch said that although a number of
individuals identified as perpetrators in the assaults against Mukhtaran
Bibi have been arrested, the Pakistan government authorities need to
ensure that investigations proceed with respect for due process and
accountability for the offenses committed, and provide for the full
protection of the victims and their families.Human Rights Watch also requested clarification on the role of the
police in the case, particularly the allegations of bribery by the
police and the reported detentions of Abdul Shaqoor, Salma Bibi, and her
mother.In a 1999 report, Crime or Custom: Violence against Women in Pakistan,
Human Rights Watch documented the high level of violence against women
in Pakistan and the often insurmountable institutional and legal
discrimination that impedes and discourages women from seeking justice,
and, in the worst cases, traumatizes them further.USA: Racist police brutality remains endemic in many areas
12 July 2002
Videotapes showing US police beating two unarmed black suspects
in separate incidents in the past week are a disturbing reminder
that police use of excessive force remains endemic in many areas,
Amnesty International said .An incident filmed Saturday night shows an officer from
Inglewood (a town near Los Angeles airport) lifting a handcuffed
youth in the air and slamming his head onto the hood of a police
car. The second incident, on Monday, shows two Oklahoma City
police officers repeatedly beating a suspect on the ground with
their batons. The suspect was pepper-sprayed twice. In both cases
the officers involved were white, and the suspects black."It is even more disturbing that both incidents took
place in routine stop and search situations," Amnesty
International said. "While some departments have introduced
reforms following heightened scrutiny in recent years, this has
not filtered down to all departments or all levels, and
allegations of police brutality, particularly towards minority
suspects, remain common in many areas."While welcoming reports that investigations have been
opened into both cases, Amnesty International is disturbed by
remarks made by an Oklahoma City police spokeswoman, apparently
justifying the officers' actions on the ground that the suspect
was "not compliant". International standards, such as those
contained under the UN Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement
Officials, state that force should be used only as a last resort
and it must be proportionate to the threat posed. Repeatedly
beating a barely resisting suspect, including while he is lying
on the ground, appears in clear violation of these standards.There have been other disturbing cases involving the
Oklahoma City Police Department. In January 2001, Amnesty
International wrote to the Oklahoma City police chief to express
concern about the case of Billy Bennet Jr, who died in September
2000 after being hogtied and pepper sprayed. Although the coroner
ruled out positional asphyxia as a cause of death in the case,
Amnesty International urged the department to ban hogtying as a
dangerous form of restraint and to review the use of pepper
spray. In the same letter, Amnesty International also expressed
concern about several fatal shootings by Oklahoma City police
officers in a four-month period.Amnesty International will be raising its concerns about
the latest cases directly with the departments involved and
urging them to review their use of force policies and ensure that
human rights standards are incorporated into police training and
fully observed.
