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At the out set, it may be stated that this paper do not discuss about content of education, teaching and examination methods, medium of instruction and teaching of languages and other issues related with school education. This paper confines its discussion only to the question of access to quality education to every child through common school system of public education based on neighborhood school.

Though Common School System was proposed long back by Kothari Commission, it was not implemented for the last four decades and so. The only reason that can be cited to this non-implementation of this proposal of the commission is the lack of political will on the part of the successive governments. With the Supreme Court raising the status of the right of the child education to a fundamental right, in 1993 in its judgement on Unnikrishnan case, there developed a momentum in different democratic circles in favor of the long cherished dream, the Common School System. Even after such an epoch making judgement of the Apex court, successive governments at the centre could drag on the issue and could complete their tenures without bringing legislation to ensure right to education. Those very parties, which led the union governments in the last fifteen years, are contesting in the ensuing general elections for Loksabha to come to power again. Certainly it is the right time for institutions, intellectuals and activists to raise the question of CSS for a wider debate.

The state, after British rule, that came into existence in India, represented vested interests of certain privileged classes through out. Naturally, such a state would like an education system aimed at social reproduction for maintaining class relations and the prevailing economic order instead of one which can help the transformation of the society. The political parties which all wielded power either at centre or at provincial level did only run the system in the best interests of those very classes. The successive governments did not use the relative freedom within the system to achieve the democratic goals set in the constitution. However, people of this country still hope to achieve the long cherished goal of right to education through Common School System. So the debate and activism are alive. Supreme Court Judgement, certainly, continue to give strength to the debate and activism in favor of child's right to education and related issue of common school system.

The hope of the people for common School system is not completely baseless. The egalitarian preamble of the constitution gives them the hope. So also, people of this country achieved many demands by waging heroic battles against different governments in the post independence period. People of this country, workers, peasants, women, dalits, tribal, teachers and students all fought against the successive governments for protection of their rights against ongoing corporate globalization. They were successful, of course, partially. So, the pioneers of the movement for common school system can keep all the confidence in the people of this country to achieve the goal. One can be certain that the peoples' movement can achieve necessary amendments for the constitution within the scope of it's' preamble and can also restrain the on going corporate globalization to realize the dream of Common School System. Of course, one has to think where to start and how to proceed in building such a historic nation wide movement. Let us take certain important questions related with constitution in formulation and implementation of the policy of common school system through neighborhood school.

The constitution of India gives the religious and linguistic minorities the right to establish and run educational institutions of their choice (Art 30) and further it confers right to profession and occupation to all citizens (Art 19). These fundamental rights are extensively misused to commercialize education sector by vested interests. One can not oppose these rights conferred on minorities and all citizens, but one shall have to find ways and means to restrict the misuse of these rights. Kothari Commission also raised this very issue and concluded that private schools which do not seek aid could not be brought under common school system and the commission there by expressed its inability to curb commercialization of education. The commission proposed that by strengthening government schools and aided schools which come in the ambit of common school system and by providing quality education there, the children can be attracted to common school system of public education and there by unaided and fee collecting private schools could be rendered irrelevant gradually. After the four decades of Kothari commission report, today, the situation is still worse. While quality of education in government schools further deteriorated, the number of private schools increased multifold. If we take Andhra Pradesh for example, one out of three school students are in unaided private schools (47 out of 135 lakhs of students in 2007-08 academic years). The menace of unaided private schools was not nipped in the bud and now it has gained monstrous proportions. Vested interests are inter-woven with this sector of unaided private schools. It is late, but, may not be too late for establishing a common school system across the country. The misuse of the referred fundamental rights provided in Art 19 and 30 require being immediately checked for the purpose.

The Minorities' right: Protection of minorities is the first duty of any civilized nation. The constitutional protections to that affect are to be guarded with all care. However, at the same time, one has to see that the same provisions are not misused by vested interests. Some states, say Andhra Pradesh, earlier tried to restrict the misuse of this provision is the point here. The government of Andhra Pradesh, under public pressure, made it a condition for recognition of minority institutions established under Article 30, that they should  enroll minimum 85% of the students from the same minority community. This condition delivered good results for some time. Private operators could not open as many educational institutions as they wanted to make big profits by enrolling students from majority community due to this condition. However this condition was liquidated later in favor of educational tycoons. The point here is that there can be some legislation at all India level, on the above lines, to see that the article 30 is not misused. One may even suggest a suitable amendment to Art.30 of the constitution for the purpose.

The Right to Profession and article 19: The text of article 19 of the constitution of India reads as follows. "19. (1) All citizens shall have the right—(g) to practise any profession, or to carry on any occupation, trade or business." Let us see how Supreme Court interprets the art 19 of the constitution of India in its Unnikrishnan vs Government of Andhra Pradesh case (1992). 

Para-64: While we do not wish to express any opinion on the  question whether the  right  to establish an educational institution  can  be said  to be carrying on any "occupation' within the  meaning of Article 19(1)(g), perhaps, it is  we are certainly of the  opinion  that such activity can neither be a  trade  or business  nor can it be a profession within the meaning  of Article 19(1)(g).  Trade or business normally connotes an activity carried on with a profit motive.

Para-67 Teaching may be a  profession but establishing an institution employing teaching and non-teaching staff, procuring the necessary infrastructure for running a school or college is not 'practising  profession'. It may be anything but not practising a profession.

From the above paragraphs 64 and 65 of the judgment, we understand the right to trade or business provided in article 19 is not applicable to education. So also, we understand that no citizen do have fundamental right to establish an educational institution employing teaching and non-teaching staff and run it under his 'right to profession'. However, Supreme Court was not ready to give a precise meaning of the phrase 'carrying on an occupation' with reference to the said article. At the end, while vehemently opposing trade and business in the field of education, the SC allowed individuals and associations to establish educational institutions and to run them and even to collect fee from the students. The court was of the opinion that recognizing and affiliating public authorities have a right and duty to see that the admissions of students are in conformity with right to equality and other provisions of the constitution and do have the right and duty to regulate fee structure and quality of institution in an appropriate manner. This judgment was weak because it allowed individuals and associations to establish educational institutions on non charitable basis even. Such an allowance, though not allowed as fundamental right as the petitioners appealed, ultimately leads to the commercialization of education. That is what all happened.    

Coming again to the question of 'right to profession', as explained by 'Unnikrishnan', it do not give a fundamental right to citizens to establish an educational institution and employ teaching and non-teaching staff  and earn money or otherwise. Yes, article 19 does not give a fundamental right to citizens to establish an educational institution, but every citizen does have a fundamental right to practice a profession of his choice. And, also it is to be noted that the right to practice a profession invariably includes earning a livelihood out of that. If a qualified person practice teaching profession and charges from the beneficiaries some fee against his service, he can not be penalized for that. So, in conjunction, it can be said that a citizen has a fundamental right to practice teaching profession which may include collecting fee from his students but do not have fundamental right to establish and run an educational institution by procuring infrastructure and by employing others. It means self employment in a profession including teaching profession is a fundamental right. Further, if few qualified teachers form into an association, run a school, teach lessons there to the students and collect fee from them, how can they even be penalized? They can invoke right to profession and right to association, both provided in article 19, in their favor. From the above discussion it is understandable that, there is no way but to allow so formed cooperative bodies to establish and run educational institutions. 'Unnikrishnan' did not explain the above part because it allowed individuals and associations to establish educational institutions even on a wider basis. Allowing individuals and associations to establish educational institutions even outside right to profession, as the judgment did, lead to the wide spread commercialization of education. The fifteen years' experience after the judgment necessitates a fresh look at the issue. Now, it may be required to restrict the scope of allowance to individuals and associations to establish educational institutions only under the right to profession in conjunction with the right to association. In other words, to see that education service is not converted into trade, there shall be an amendment to the constitution effecting that no individual or association is allowed to establish educational institutions on any basis other than charity basis. There can be only two exemptions to that namely; article 30 and right to profession in conjuncture with right to association as elaborated above.

Cooperative associations of professionals: There can be a legislation to restrict the misuse of the provision of right to profession and right to association in the context of establishment and administering of educational institutions. Such legislation, however, shall make provision for the professional associations formed out of teachers, karmacharies, and other personnel required to run an educational institution to establish and administer an educational institution and collect fee from the students. It means, only those who would work in the educational institution form an association and the association establishes and administers the institution on its own and collect fee from the students both against the fixed and reoccurring expenditure of the school including their salaries. The membership of the association shall be restricted to only to those who practice one or other profession in the educational institution and also no person working in the educational institution shall be denied of the membership. Such legislation, while safeguarding the right to profession and right to association even in this context, at the same time restricts practice of trade in education. Such educational institutions established and administered by professional associations may be called as cooperative educational institutions and in the case of a school, it can be called a cooperative school.

The clause 6 of article 19: Before we close our discussion on article 19, we may be required to see the implications of clause 6 of Art 19.

"(6) Nothing in sub-clause (g) of the said clause (19) shall affect the operation of any existing law in so far as it imposes, or prevent the State from making any law imposing, in the interests of the general public, reasonable restrictions on the exercise of the right conferred by the said sub-clause, and, in particular, 2[nothing in the said sub-clause shall affect the operation of any existing law in so far as it relates to, or prevent the State from making any law relating to,—

(i) the professional or technical qualifications necessary for practicing any profession or carrying on any occupation, trade or business, or

(ii) the carrying on by the State, or by a corporation owned or controlled by the State, of any trade, business, industry or service, whether to the exclusion, complete or partial, of citizens or otherwise]".

So, the sub clause 6 is clear and, it allows the state directly or through a corporation owned by it to carry on any trade, business, industry, or service, whether to exclusion, complete or partial, of citizens or otherwise. Many advocates of common school system invoke this clause for their purpose. This clause was very much there when Kothari commission gave its report. But 'Kothari' found it difficult to invoke this clause to bring the un-aided public schools in to the ambit of common school system in the then obtaining understanding of the constitution. However, this clause was interpreted by Supreme Court, later, in many a case in favor of public interest. Former chief justice, Chandra Chud was quoted in Unnikrishnan vs. govt. of AP for his out standing understanding of the essence of the constitution.

"Those rights (Fundamental Rights) are not an end in themselves but are the means to an end. The end is specified in Part IV."

We can safely conclude here that the state has all the authority to nationalize all the educational institutions in the wider public interest on the basis of the provisions of the constitution. If banks can be nationalized, why not education?

But the mute question is that shall the democratic sections of the society allow the state to monopolize education process. Will it not pave path for fascisation of education and culture by the state. Shall our opposition to commercialization of education and multi tier system of educational institutions lead us to accept absolute state control on education? Can we accept state control as synonymous to public interest in a country with all possible forms of inequality and with the track record of the state in its pro hegemony conduct? The people who believe in transformation of the present system based on inequalities may require establishing and running alternative educational institutions. So also, is it not the responsibility of the democratic sections of the society to demand a suitable amendment to the constitution to state clearly that education neither be a trade or business nor it can be a occupation? Further, is it not required of us to demand again to clearly state in the constitution with suitable amendment that right to profession with respect to teaching and medicine is more sacrosanct? Shall not we plead for right to profession and right to association and for the use of both of the rights in conjunction to establish and run educational institutions as elaborated earlier? While concluding the discussion on article 19 it can be stated that, as it is given now, the article 19 allowed SC to interpret it in favor of self financed colleges with 'reasonable' margin of profits. This article 19, as it is given now, can also allow the state to exercise complete control over education process If it is so needed to restrict and regiment education as the German Nazis did. The article 19 is required to be suitably amended to protect the right to teaching profession and also to plug the holes of commercialization in the name of right to occupation. In a word, with respect to education, while right to profession is to be fully fortified, the right to occupation along with right to trade and business are to be completely liquidated. 

Common School System: if there is an effective ban on commercialization of education by suitable amendments to the article 19 of the constitution, we will have schools of only three categories as far as ownership is concerned. 1) Schools run by central provincial and local governments, 2) schools run by charitable trusts and 3) Co-operative and self financing schools run by associations of teachers and karmacharies. These schools can co-exist in the same neighborhood. Here we can introduce the neighborhood concept. Legislation that is to be made for neighborhood school may provide that the parent/guardian can enroll their child/ward in any of the schools available in the delimited neighborhood only. While the first and second category schools would not collect any fees from the students, the third category schools which are essentially self financing schools collect fee from the students as the appropriate authority may fix time to time. However, all schools, irrespective of the category to whichever they belong, shall follow the same syllabus, same teaching and examination methods, same service conditions for the teachers etc.  

Right to Choice of School: The question under consideration is the parents right to enroll their child in a school of their choice. Actually this is an unfound right. Votaries of private schools on commercial lines are bringing this question to the fore. Kothari commission did not raise this question at all. The recent Bihar commission on common school system denied existence of such right either in Indian constitution or in the constitution of any other democratic country. The very concept of compulsory elementary education is based on the right of the society in bringing up the child over the right of the parent. While parents give the child a physical entity, the society gives her the socio-cultural and intellectual entity and hence the right of the society in upbringing the child overrides the right of the parent or guardian as far as schooling is concerned. On the other hand, the right of the child to grow as a harmonious social being requires her to join a neighborhood school. So, from any angularity, the so called right of the parent need not be considered in formulating the common school system.  

However, in the above scheme of things, a relative choice is offered to the parents. They can enroll their children in any of the schools in the delimited neighborhood. One restriction imposed in the above scheme of things is that a parent /guardian can not send her child/ward outside the delimited neighborhood. He has to choose only one of the available schools in the neighborhood if there are more than one school in a given neighborhood.

Universal and Compulsory Stages:  The age group of child is now defined to be 0 to 18 years all over the world. India is a signatory to the Jomtin declaration of UNESCO which reiterates the same. So, the universal right to education should be extended up to age 18 years of the child. Bihar commission on common school system recommended the same. A child can complete two years Pre School, five years primary school, five years of lower secondary school and two years senior secondary school courses before she completes age 18. While it shall be compulsory on the part of the state to provide all the said four stages of education to all children, as far as child and parent are concerned, the pre-school education and senior school education (+2 levels) shall be made voluntary. The logic behind the proposal is that the state can not impose compulsory education on young child of below 6 years age and so also, formal structure of education can not be made compulsory to the children of adolescent age, say 16 to 18 years where the young child develops her own personality on her own imagination. However, the responsibility of the state to provide education to all children 4-18 age group remains all the same.

4 -   5 years--     Universal pre primary education

                        (Child care and education centers

 attached to primary school)

6 - 15 years--     Compulsory and Universal 10 years of middle school education (5 years Primary and 5 years Lower Secondary)

16 -18 years--    Universal Senior School Education

        (Pre University or Job enabling education)

In this scheme, a child, as he or  she completes age 18, either become eligible to pursue higher education by completing pre-university course or become eligible to take up some vocation by completing some technical, industrial or skill oriented course. If the right of education ends at the age fourteen as the 86^th amendment Act provides, the child will be neither eligible for higher education nor for skill oriented Job. It will be very dangerous to leave the child without direction at the age 14. So, any policy on school education shall provide for free and universal education up to age 18. The above proposed scheme, if implemented, will be in conformity with 10+2 system in vogue for many decades through out the country. This scheme facilitates 10 years common core curriculum in a given state and also provides for two years diversified courses to suit the conditions and interests of different individual children. At +2 level, some students who want to pursue higher education would like to join pre-university courses while others would like to take job enabling courses like polytechnic, industrial training and vocational courses.

Union list vs. State list: The subject, education was originally in state list and has been shifted to concurrent list in the period of emergency by 42^nd amendment Act to the constitution. We know that states in India are linguistic and cultural entities and so they require formulating their educational policies at school level to pursue their linguistic and cultural identity needs. After twelve years of school education, as elaborated above, some students will pursue higher education to attend the professional and intellectual needs of the nation as a whole. So, it may be suggested that while school education will be in the state list, the higher education will be in concurrent list. If such a redistribution of powers is effected, different states can formulate their own common school systems in the given constitutional frame work. The shifting of school education subject to state list shall not come in the way of financial and academic support from the centre. Of course, the states will have to advance the ethos propounded in the constitution through their school system and will have to implement basic tenets of common school system of public education formulated at all India level and provide free education to all children up to age 18 for achieving the national goal of building democratic, secular and informed society.

Shifting of the subject of school education to state list facilitates the states to protect the cultural rights of the people of different regions and also to address the questions of inequalities between different social-sections. More important point may be that the people of different states can influence their own state governments to implement pro-people policies than they can influence the union government. So also, we know that more concentration of powers in the centre means faster growth of corporate globalization and enhanced danger of mono-culturist attacks. The point here is that while there shall be a broader framework of common school system of public education on the basis of neighborhood school concept at all India level, the states shall have more freedom to formulate their own policies to protect their own cultural identities on one hand and to achieve national goals on the other.

 Equitable Quality: Earlier we have seen that, under the proposed regime, there can be only three categories of schools, at the most, in a given habitation. The numbers of schools which run on charity lines are falling very fast and for all practical purposes, we will find only two categories of schools namely, 1) Government run schools and 2) Self financing cooperative Schools run by professional associations of teachers and karmacharies on their own. If government schools are established in sufficient numbers and are facilitated to deliver quality education, 80% of the parents would only enroll their children in government schools. Only the families of top economic group, say about 20% may prefer to enroll their children to private schools. If government schools are provided with sufficient qualified teachers and necessary infrastructure, they can certainly deliver quality education. At such a stage, private schools can not excel government schools even they spend more money because education suits as a public service better than as private service. In a word, provision of needful conditions in government schools to deliver quality education leads to comparable standards across all managements in course of time. There are many examples, in Andhra Pradesh state, where government schools excel private schools in every aspect. The point here is that the government schools can be strengthened to provide quality education comparable to best private schools. Even after such a stage of development, private schools may remain in existence as status symbols and luxurious centers of richer sections of the society until radical transformation of the society. 

Public-Private Participation: Bihar commission on Common School System proposed that the government should extend aid to all recognized private schools and bring them under common school system of public education based on neighborhood school practice and where those schools will have to stop collecting fee from the students up to class VIII. The report suggested that the schools which collect fee from the students be derecognized. I do not know whether such a suggestion can be implemented within the scope of our constitution as it stands now and whether can we make necessary amendments to the constitution, given its' general frame work, to bring a suitable legislation to implement the suggestion of the commission. On the other hand there is every possibility that the private managements collect both the aid from government and fees from the majority students. This proposed aid to private schools may become a scheme of 100% reimbursement against the 30% reimbursement proposed by RTE-2009 bill recently introduced in the Rajya Sabha. Everybody knows that the World Bank formulated the Policies of Public Private Participation and is promoting in different countries with an aim of siphoning of public funds to private operators. At this stage, every person who are on the side of the people require to be careful against the designs of different governments trying to push PPP schemes in different forms. I propose that this seminar should suggest in clear terms that public funds are to be spent entirely in public institutions only and private institutions can not be supported by public funds. In the present situation of corporate globalization guided by World Bank and where state overtly is supporting forces of market, there is every danger that the public funds are siphoned to private agencies in one or other form if not taken care of.

Understanding of Common School System: From the above discussion, we understand the limitations of the constitution of India, even after possible amendments within its frame work, in evolving a common school system. We may be able to take the following measures within the broad framework of the constitution.

1) There shall be an amendment to the constitution effecting that no individual or association is allowed to establish educational institutions on any basis other than charity basis. There can be only two exemptions that are provided by article 30 and right to profession in conjuncture with right to association as elaborated above.

2) There shall be an all India legislation allowing professional associations to establish schools and administer them on the basis of self financing. They can collect fees from the students for running the school including fixed costs. The membership of the professional association shall be restricted to only those who work in the school and none of those who work in the school shall be denied membership in the association.

3) School education shall be in the state list and union government shall render financial and academic support to the states to achieve the national goal of universal child education up to age 18.

4) And all state governments/UTs are required to establish sufficient number of schools, provide qualified teachers and necessary infrastructure and enable the staff there to provide quality education to the students in government schools.

5) The government shall universally provide to all children i) 2 years pre-primary education, ii) 10 years middle school education, iii) 2 years senior school education free of cost

6) Parents/guardians are required to enroll their children/wards in one of the available schools (government, charitable and self financed) in their neighborhood. They shall not be allowed to send their wards outside their neighborhood as delimited by appropriate authority.

ENABLING THE CHILD TO EXERCISE ITS RIGHT TO EDUCATION:

Of course, the provision of quality government school in the vicinity of every habitation is very important, no less important is the provision of necessary conditions for the child to participate in school education on regular basis. Many children are not able to go to school, even education is provided free of cost, due to their family conditions. In Andhra Pradesh alone 20 lakh children of age group 6-15 are out side school. They are expected to be in the middle school. They make more than 13% of the relevant age group. In Andhra Pradesh 27% children drop out before they complete class V, 43% of children drop out of school before they complete Class VII and only 25 out of 100 who enroll in class one graduate middle school that is class X. There are different reasons for this drop out of children from schools. But, all reasons are emanating from poverty of the family. This paper is not intended to elaborate on the question. What is attempted here is to suggest some measures to enable the child to exercise her right to participate in school education.

Bihar Commission on CSS took a historical stand when it suggested that no child shall be an orphan in our country. It suggested that if the child does not have her own guardians, state itself should become the guardian of her. It should also be understood that the responsibility of the state extends to the children who have guardians but whose guardians are poor and not able to give her nutritious food, decent cloths and who are not able to meet non-fee educational expenditure. The state shall provide every child what ever it requires to continue its education. Some children may require food, shelter, clothing education material and health services, they shall be provided all their needs. It means they require government residential schools. Majority children do not require residence, they can well stay with the parents, but, they require other things including nutritious food for three times a day. They shall be provided those needs through school. That is the only way to arrest drop out and achieve high rate retention of the children in schools. Mid day meal programme in Andhra Pradesh helped an increase in retention of children in schools. This shows very clearly how such support programmes can increase retention. Bihar commission on CSS recommended certain measures in support of the children from poor families. What this paper proposes is that the state shall support every child according to its needs to enable it to continue its education. This paper further proposes that the state support to child to continue her education shall be guaranteed by constitution with suitable amendment to article 21A.

Conclusion: Ban on trade in education, ban on different forms of Public Private Participation, ban on establishment of private schools on non-charitable basis only with exemption of article 30 and right to profession as elaborate earlier, extension of universal education up to age 18, strengthening of government schools and taking measures to enable every child to continue her education on regular basis seems to be the issues of paramount importance to achieve the goal of universalization of child education and for establishment of common school system of public education on the basis of neighborhood concept. The seminar may also find time to discuss issue of shifting of school education subject to state list.

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Hinduism is the world's oldest living religion, and Hindus constitute about one-sixth of the world's population today. Hindu communities foster a wide range of philosophy and practice, and revere thousands of texts as sacred. There is a Hindu God and a story or variation of a story related to practically every activity, inclination, and way of life. Hindus consider this diversity expressive of divine abundance and everything in the universe a manifestation of divine energy. Every God and Goddess is seen as encompassing male, female, neuter, and all other possibilities, and every living creature as having divine potential. The simultaneity of unity and multiplicity is a basic Hindu premise. Variations in gender and sexuality have been discussed in Hindu texts for over two millennia; same-sex love flourished in precolonial India, without any extended history of persecution.

Like the erotic sculptures on ancient Hindu temples at Khajuraho and Konarak, sacred texts in Sanskrit constitute irrefutable evidence that the whole range of sexual behavior was known to ancient Hindus. When European Christians arrived in India, they were shocked by Hinduism, which they termed idolatrous, and by the range of sexual practices, including same-sex relations, which they labeled licentious. When the British colonized India they inscribed modern homophobia into education, law, and the polity. Homophobic trends that were marginal in premodern India thus became dominant in modern India. Indian nationalists, including Hindus, imbibed Victorian ideals of heterosexual monogamy and disowned indigenous traditions that contradicted those ideals. Ancient Hindu ascetic traditions see all desire, including sexual desire, as problematic because it causes beings to be trapped in a cycle of death and rebirth in the phenomenal world. While procreative sex, hedged around with many rules, is enjoined on householders, nonprocreative sex is disfavored. These ideas influence householder life, which is structured as a set of obligations. Many Hindu texts insist that everyone has a duty to marry and produce children, during the householder stage of life. This is countered in Hindu devotional practice and also philosophy and literature by an emphasis on the Gods as erotic beings, and Kama (desire) as one of the four normative aims of life. The earliest texts represent Kama as a universal principle of attraction, causing all movement and change. In later texts, he is the God of love, a beautiful youth, like the Greek Eros, who shoots irresistible arrows at beings, uniting them with those they are destined to love, regardless of social disparities. Thus, Krishna, incarnation of preserver God Vishnu, is worshiped with his beloved Radha, even though, in most traditions, each of them is married to another spouse.

Hindu law books, dating from the first to the fourth century CE, categorize ayoni or nonvaginal sex as impure. This category encompasses oral sex, manual sex, anal sex, sex with animals, masturbation, sex in the water or in a receptacle. But penances prescribed for same-sex acts are very light compared to penances for some types of heterosexual misconduct, such as adultery and rape. The Manusmriti exhorts a man who has sex with a man or a woman, in a cart pulled by a cow, or in water or by day to bathe with his clothes on. In the Arthashastra, the penalty for a man who has ayoni sex is a minor fine, also prescribed for stealing small items. Modern commentators wrongly read the Manusmriti's more severe punishment of a woman's manual penetration of a virgin as revelatory of that text's antilesbian bias. In fact, the punishment is exactly the same for either a man or a woman who does this act, and is related not to the partners' genders but to the virgin's loss of virginity and hence of marriageable status.

The fourth century Kamasutra, also a sacred Hindu text, emphasizes pleasure and joy as aims of intercourse. It nonjudgmentally categorizes men who desire other men as a "third nature," and describes in detail oral sex between men, also referring to long-term unions between men. Hindu medical texts dating from the first century AD provide a detailed taxonomy of gender and sexual variations, including different types of same-sex desire. Close same-sex friendships, in which friends live and die together or for one another, are celebrated in Hindu texts and socially approved in most Hindu communities as an essential element of the good life. As long as a man does his duty by marrying and having children, his intimate friendships are usually accepted and even integrated into the family. Women's ability to maintain intimate friendships after marriage is more constricted.

Over the last two decades Indian newspapers have reported a series of same-sex weddings and same-sex joint suicides, most of them by female couples in small towns, most of them Hindu, and not connected to any gay movement. The weddings generally took place by Hindu rites, with some family support, while the suicides were the consequence of families forcibly separating lovers and pushing them into heterosexual marriage. These phenomena suggest the wide range of Hindu attitudes to homosexuality today, varying from community to community, and even family to family.

Modern Hindu ultraconservative organizations, like the Shiv Sena, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, and the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, who aim to remake Hinduism as a militant nationalist religion intolerant of differences, declare that homosexuality is alien to Indian culture and tradition, and has been imported into the country from Euro-America or West Asia. In 1998, activists of these organizations violently attacked theaters showing the lesbian film Fire. The Indian government has retained the British antisodomy law, which is widely used by police and blackmailers to harass gay men and also to threaten women.

There is a gulf between these opinions and those of several modern Hindu spiritual teachers who draw on traditional concepts of the self as without gender, and emphasize the sameness of all desire, homosexual or heterosexual, which the aspirant must work through and transcend. Thus, when Swami Prabhavananda (1893–1976), founder of the Vedanta society in the United States, heard of Oscar Wilde's conviction in the early twentieth century, he remarked, "Poor man. All lust is the same." He advised his disciple Christopher Isherwood to see his lover "as the young Lord Krishna" (Isherwood 1980, 254).

Pioneering gay activist Ashok Row Kavi recounts that when he was studying at the Ramakrishna Mission, a monk told him that the Mission was not a place to run away from himself, and that he should live boldly, ignoring social prejudices, and testing his actions to see if he was hurting anyone. Inspired by this advice, Row Kavi went on to found the gay magazine Bombay Dost. In 2004, when Hindu ultraconservative leader K. Sudarshan denounced homosexuality, Row Kavi wrote an open letter to him in the press, identifying himself as "a faithful Hindu," asking Sudarshan to read ancient Hindu texts, and pointing out that not homosexuality but rather modern homophobia is a Western import. Vedanta teacher, Swami Chinmayananda (1916–1993), when asked his opinion of homosexuality, replied, "There are many branches on the tree of life. Full stop. Next question" (Kumar 1996, 6–7).

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (born 1956), founder of the international movement, Art of Living, when asked about homosexuality, stated, "Every individual has both male and female in them. Sometimes one dominates, sometimes other, it is all fluid." When asked about the high suicide rate amongst gay youth, tears came to his eyes and he responded, "Life is so precious. We need to educate everyone. Life is so much bigger. You are more than the body. You are the spirit. You are the untouched pure consciousness." (Rupani 2003, 15).

In her 1977 book, The World of Homosexuals, mathematician Shakuntala Devi interviewed Srinivasa Raghavachariar, priest of the Vaishnava temple at Srirangam. He said that same-sex lovers must have been cross-sex lovers in a former life. The sex may change but the soul retains its attachments, hence the power of love impels these souls to seek one another. A Shaiva priest who performed the marriage of two women stated that, having studied Hindu scriptures, he had concluded, "Marriage is a union of spirits, and the spirit is not male or female" (Vanita 2005, 147).

Despite these enlightened opinions, there is little discussion of the issue in religious communities. Consequently, some teachers and most lay followers remain homophobic, which has driven many gay disciples out of religious communities and a few even to suicide. Swami Bodhananda, Vedanta master in the Saraswati lineage, and founder of the Sambodh Society, stated the following about same-sex unions: "We don't look at the body or the memories; we always look at everyone as spirit. . . . I am not opposed to relationships or unions — people's karma brings them together. I am sure spiritual persons will have no objection when two people come together. It's a Christian idea that it is wrong. From a Hindu standpoint, there is nothing wrong because there is nothing against it in scripture . . . but it's a social stigma. We have to face this issue now. . . . what is required is a debate in society" (Vanita 2005, 307).

The centuries' long debate in Hindu society, somewhat suppressed in the colonial period and after, has now revived. When Hinduism Today the Swamis expressed a wide range of opinions, positive and negative; that they felt free to reporter Rajiv Malik, at the Kumbha Mela in Ujjain in 2004, asked several Hindu Swamis their opinion of same-sex marriage, differ with others in their own lineages (akharas), is evidence of the continuing liveliness of this debate, facilitated by the fact that Hinduism has no one hierarchy or leader. As Mahant Ram Puri, of Juna akhara, remarked, "We do not have a rule book in Hinduism.

We have a hundred million authorities" (Malik, 2004).

RUTH VANITA

***

FURTHER READINGS

Das Wilhelm, Amara. Tritiya Prakriti (People of the Third Sex): Understanding Homosexuality, Trans-

gender Identity, and Intersex Conditions through Hinduism. Philadelphia, PA: XLibris Corporation,

2004.

Isherwood, Christopher. My Guru and His Disciple. New York: Penguin, 1980.

Kavi, Ashok Row. "The Contract of Silence." In Hoshang Merchant, ed., Yaraana: Gay Writings

from India. Delhi: Penguin, 1999.

Kumar, Arvind. "Interview with Jim Gilman." Trikone, 11(3) (July 1996): 6–7.

Malik, Rajiv. "Discussions on Dharma." Hinduism Today (October–December 2004): 30–31.

Rupani, Ankur. "Sexuality and Spirituality." Trikone, 18(4) (2003): 15.

Sweet, Michael J. and Leonard Zwilling. "The First Medicalization: The Taxonomy and Etiology of

Queers in Classical Indian Medicine." Journal of the History of Sexuality, 3(4) (1993): 590–607.

Vanita, Ruth. Love's Rite: Same-Sex Marriage and its Antecedents in India. Delhi: Penguin India, 2005.

Vanita, Ruth, ed. Queering India. New York: Routledge, 2002.

Vanita, Ruth and Saleem Kidwai, eds. Same-Sex Love in India: Readings from Literature and History. New York: Palgrave, 2000.

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In an attempt to appease the tribal community of the state, the school education minister, Mr Partha De, today said Santhali-medium education will be imparted to tribal students up to the secondary level very soon.

This means tribal students will be able to study all subjects in Santhali at the secondary level and also appear for Madhyamik examinations in their mother tongue. Mr De said the decision has been taken following the demand of the Adivasi Socio-Cultural Association to provide opportunity to tribal students to study all the subjects in Alchiki script till class X.

This apart, the state higher education minister, Prof Sudarshan Raichaudhuri, today told the Assembly that a proposal for setting up a campus of Indira Gandhi Open Tribal University, situated in Madhya Pradesh, has been submitted to the ministry of human resources development.

Mr De said a roadmap will be drawn up for implementing the proposal in phases and the state board of secondary education asked to do the necessary preparations.

The school education department will come up with measures like providing additional coaching classes for students who decide to switchover from Santhali-medium schools to Bengali-medium schools before Madhyamik examinations.

Last year, the department started Santhali-medium schools at the primary level. Currently, there are around 1,300 Santhali-medium schools in the state. The minister stressed on the need for upgrading infrastructure ~ increasing classrooms, toilets and drinking water facilities ~ in schools.

This apart, efforts will be made so that there are an adequate number of teachers in Santhali-medium schools. Candidates who are recruited in these schools have to know the Alchiki script and the Santhali language.

The department has already conducted a training camp for teachers who are recruited in these schools. A teachers' training guideline will be prepared by the department to conduct more such training sessions for teachers.

This follows the state government's recent decision to set up a university dedicated to the Santhali community ~ Sidhu Kanu Birsa University.

Statesman News Service / 6 July 2009

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The Birsa Commando Force (BCF), which has been in a ceasefire with the government since 2004, today sought the creation of a satellite autonomous council for the Adivasi community in Assam.

BCF commander-in-chief Birsing Munda told that he sought the creation of the council as a population of the nearly 70 lakh Adivasis was scattered across the state.

The Adivasi leader claimed that the Assam Cobra Militants, another pro-peace militant outfit representing the community, and the All Adivasi Students Association of Assam were also in favour of such a council.

Formed in 1997, the BCF, which has around 550 cadres, has been demanding a separate Adivasi land, Scheduled Tribe (ST) status and security for the community.

"Since getting the ST status will be a time-consuming process, we would in the interim settle for a satellite autonomous council which will help safeguard our land and political rights. The government wants us to join the mainstream. One way of starting it is by giving the community the reins of its people, just as has been the case with the Bodos, Karbis, Tiwa and Deuri communities. The rest will follow," Munda said on way to attend a five-day workshop organised by the Indian Confederation of Indigenous and Tribal People here from this afternoon.

Assam already has six satellite autonomous councils for the Rabha-Hasong, Mising, Tiwa, Sonowal-Kachari, Thengal-Kachari and Deuri communities, besides the three autonomous councils governing North Cachar Hills (for Dimasas), Karbi Anglong (Karbis) and the Bodoland Territorial Council (for Bodos) with fixed territory.

The councils were set up to resolve the growing demands of these communities for self-rule.

However, most of these have been in the limelight for the wrong reasons, mostly related to financial anomalies.

He admitted that these existing councils at times get embroiled in controversies but these still remain the best suited for the respective communities.

"Go to the Bodoland Territorial Council or Karbi Anglong. There has been a marked change in the overall profile of the said areas after the councils came into being. It will still be better than the development councils Dispur has proposed," he said.

The state government is trying to operationalise seven development councils for the Morans, Motaks, Ahoms, Chutias, Koch-Rajbongshis, tea tribes and Gorkhas. On June 29, chief minister Tarun Gogoi announced the setting up of two more development councils for Sarania-Kacharis and Amri Karbis.

"We had backed the formation of a political party in the recently-concluded general elections but it did not have the desired impact because we are not politically and socially aware. Therefore, a council appears to be the best bet for the community at large in the prevailing situation. Since we are scattered across the state, pockets where we have a sizeable population can be identified to elect representatives to the council. The elected members can frame and implement the policies best suited for the community," Munda said.

The BCF has sounded out the government officials who are part of the ceasefire-monitoring group. However, there has been no response from Dispur so far.

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As per the women and child development estimates, 3 million women in India fall prey to traficking annually in the country and 40% of these are minors. The country needs to face its moment of truth. India has been placed on the US human trafficking tier 2 watchlist for not doing enough to curb human smuggling.

"Whatever makes a man a slave takes half his worth away", Pope said. Indeed, human trafficking is a modern day slavery where human beings are exploited by treating them like commodities for profit. It is contrary to the fundamental belief of all societies that people everywhere deserve to live in safely and dignity. Victims of human trafficking who comprise of young children, teenagers, men and women are subjected to involuntary servitude and sexual slavery by force, fraud or coercion. Human smuggling, especially of women and children has become a matter of serious national and international concern. Sources confirm that nearly 800,000 victims are annually trafficked across international borders worldwide and around 150,000 of them within and around the borders of South Asia alone. The fact is that after drug dealing and illicit arms smuggling,  human trafficking is the world's third largest organised crime, and growing by leaps and bounds. Commercial exploitation of the vulnerable sections of the society has led to massive growth of slave trade into a multimillion dollar business. According to the FBI, this organised crime generates $9.5 billion in revenue each year.

Unfortunately, India's record of prevention of trafficking in persons remains abysmally poor. There can be no two opinions about the fact that the problem has been under-estimated and ignored in our country. As per the women and child development estimates, 3 million women in India fall prey to traficking annually in the country and 40% of these are minors. It is shameful that even as our leaders continue to bask in their election victories, the US has placed India on the second worst category of human trafficking watchlist. "India is a source, destination and transit country for men, women and children trafficked for the purpose of forced labour and commercial sexual exploitation", says the trafficking in in persons report recently released by US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton.

Despite continuing to be the most favoured destination for human smuggling, India has failed to improve its ranking again this year and has been placed on tier II watchlist. The ranking implies that though the country is making some efforts, it has failed to meet the minimum anti trafficking standards and is therefore listed with 52 other countries that are under watch for failing to tackle the problem.

The report further says that India is also a destination for women and girls from Nepal and Bangladesh trafficked for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation. Every year 5000-7000 Nepales girls are trafficked into India with the result that there are more than 250,000 Napalese girls and women in Indian brothels. They become easy prey to people involved in human trafficking as they are either sold by their parents or tricked into fradulent marriages or worse still, promised employment in cities only to find themselves in entertainment houses. Children from Nepal are also trafficked into India for forced labour in circus shows. Men and women from Bangladesh and Nepal are tracfficked through India for forced labour and commercial sexual exploitation to Middle East. There are also victims of labour trafficking among the thousands of Indians who migrate willingly every year to the Middle East, Europe and the US to work as domestic servants and low skilled labourers, the report says. Many a times these workers become victims of exploitation as well as physical and sexual abuse by their ruthless employers in the destination countries. Even in India itself, women and girls are trafficked within the country for commercial exloitation and forced marriage. Other purposes for human smuggling in India include forced prostitution, marriage, domestic labour and bonded labour. In India there are millions of children from poor families who are subjected to forced labour by working in factories, as domestic servants, as beggars and agricultural workers. They have even been used as trained combatants and human bombs by some insurgent groups. Rich people in gulf countries also use them in camel races. It must not be lost sight of that human trafficking is not limited to sex trade alone but also for purposes like forced labour, commercial gay and lesbian relationships, to hire wombs, domestic slavery, organ transplantation and begging as well.

Inarguably, poverty is a crucial contributing factor for the rise in human trafficking in India. At the heart of the problem also lies underdevelopment and unemployment. It needs no reiteration that a vast majority of trafficked women are from poor, landless families or belong to dalit, adivasi and low caste communities. Girs from tribal areas and poor villages are most vulnerable to trafficking in sex trade as the need for money is high for their parents. This motivates them to sell their children for paltry sums without even caring for their security. There is also a strong connection between the problem of trafficking and the girl child who faces the higher risk of being sold at birth, living as we are in a gender biased society. For example, 40% of the children trafficked in India are from within the country while 60% are from other countries. This is precisely the case with Mandala, Sidhi, Reva, Katni and other tribal majority areas of Madhya Pradesh where the number of cases pertaining to missing girls is on a high. Though they are lured by lucrative job offers and promises of a better life, the unfortunate reality is that they land in metros like Mumbai and Delhi for being pushed into the sex trade. In some places, socio-cultural practices also motivate women, girls and minors into such shameful acts. For instance, the Northern districts of Karnataka such as Bijapur and Shimoga encourage prostitution in the garb of religion by offering minor girls to gods and godesses. Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and UP are the high supply zones for women in prostitution. Bangalore is one of the five major cities in India which together account for 80% of child prostitution in the country.

Despite the magnitude of the problem of human trafficking, India has failed to show evidence of increasing efforts to tackle the menace. Though the government boasts of working for the uplift of these tribes and underpreviledged people, it has not strucked at the root cause of trafficking as the much touted development schemes are not reaching the poor and backward classes. Even as India faces the prospect of being moved to tier III blacklist next year, most states in the country are still not combating the crime as a priority.

Though the government feels that efforts are being made to check human trafficking, many problems like lack of punishment of traffickers and low conviction rates seriously impede India's ability to effectively combat this problem. Also, some of these criminals have political connections. The complicity of some law enforcement agents with the Mafia who control the sex industry makes it difficult to apprehend such criminals.

Notwithstanding the fact that Indian constitution prohibits human trafficking and successive governments have formulated enough laws to check the problem, we lack the will to enforce them. Consequently, these laws have failed to act as a deterrent for those involved in trafficking. They know that even if they are caught in the dragnet, they can escape easily as prosecution will take years. Besides, efforts to protect the victims of trafficking are inadequate and there is no agenda for their rehabilitation. The law cannot address all of these. The society also cannot remain callously indifferent to a problem that should worry us all. It also needs to contribute its mite to ensure that such activities do not blossom and the trafficking crisis is averted.

July 01, 2009 / CentralChronicle