Despicable
it might be, yet it is a relatively irrelevant incident in India. The
latest is the case of Firoz, a 12-year-old boy who is now reportedly
suffering from serious psychological trauma after being forced by a Head
Constable of the Railway Protection Force (RPF) to gather the severed
remains of a human body run over by a train in Indore, Madhya Pradesh
state.
The incident happened on 26 September 2011 in full public view...
According to the psychiatrist, Dr Ramghulam Razdan, Head of Department,
Department of Psychiatry, at the MGM Medical College, who examined
Firoz, the boy could be suffering from a “permanent phobic reaction” or
that he has developed a “psychotic behaviour” as the direct result of
his horrific experience. Firoz is reported to be a rag-picker boy,
living in Indore, who initially refused to do the illegal job, but was
forced to by the police constable, who also paid him Rs 100. DNA, an
independent media group reported the incident on 1 October 2011.
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is aware that this is not an
isolated incident or an exception in any form in India, Madhya Pradesh
in particular. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, Madhya
Pradesh is on top in the list of states concerning crimes committed
against children in the country.
The AHRC is also aware that the RPF and the state police regularly
resort to similar illegal methods when they have to deal with dead
bodies of persons run over by a train or in cases where the state police
have to deal with persons found dead in unnatural circumstances. For
instance, the state police in Tamilnadu often pay Rs 100 and offer a
bottle of illegal liquor to children who are ordered to ‘pack-up’
unidentified and unclaimed dead bodies, often found in different stages
of putrefaction.
Mr Louise, living in Pavitram village of Thiruvannamali district, who is
now aged 20 years used to do this ‘job’ for the RPF. Louise was first
forced to do the ‘job’ when he was 12-years-old. He continues to do so
and today he is the person ‘who handles the dead’ in the village and has
now made it his profession. The AHRC and its partner organisation in
West Bengal state, MASUM have been reporting about how inhumanly dead
bodies are handled in state-run mortuaries in that state. MASUM has
documented dozens of cases in West Bengal, where it is a Dom – name of a
particular Dalit community in India, who undertakes the ‘autopsy
examination’ using crude tools, whereas the medical doctor would observe
it from a distance. MASUM and the AHRC has also reported cases of dead
bodies left unattended, putrefied and body parts eaten away by dogs and
rats in government morgues in West Bengal. Despite the reportage, the
state government has done nothing so far to improve the situation.
Illegal it might be for the authorities to engage a boy or a private
person to deal with a dead body in what is in essence a crime scene or a
scientific examination. But in India, this is how things are.
Lack of discipline and dereliction to duty that is often condoned by the
superiors in the law enforcement agencies; relative absence of
accountability; lack of skills and equipments; and the overall belief of
impurity associated with dealing with dead bodies often based on caste
beliefs along with the practical convenience for the police of having
not to physically deal with the dead are the reasons why such practices
exist in India today. In essence, Firoz is one more victim of the
systemic culture of neglect, lack of accountability and the resultant
culture of impunity omnipresent within the law enforcement agencies in
the country. In that the Head Constable who forced Firoz to do this
despicable job and paid him for it had been acting quite naturally and
normally as far as India is concerned.
Shocking the incident might be, yet it must not be a surprise to anyone
in India. Take for instance the Indian Railway itself. Despite the
country having developed nuclear weapons and scheduled to declare itself
as ‘developed’ by 2020, the Indian Railways is the single largest
network of open toilet on wheels in the world.
Human faeces, sprayed on rails and rail sleepers (cross-tie), is a
common sight in every railway station and on every inch of the rail
network in the country, which is the largest in the world. In that, the
Indian Railway still is to realise that there is something called a
‘closed closet’ technology invented and used widely in the world today,
that toilets inside transport vehicles do not cause a hygiene hazard to
the public. The concern for the Indian Railways for the ordinary people
including its own employees is most visible once again at railway
stations where manual scavengers, clean with a broom, human faeces from
the rails. In that, the Indian Railway is the single.
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