Spycam Found in Ladies Toilet of Call Centre Where Northeast Girls Work

New Delhi, Apr 22 : An office-boy of a call centre was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly installing a spy-camera in the ladies’ lavatory in the office, police said.

Sanjay was apprehended following investigations into a complaint filed by a call centre in north-west Delhi’s Peetampura and its women employees after they found a spy-camera in a packet of freshener.

The incident came to light four days ago but the complaint was made today, a senior police official said.

A case under Section 509 (for using word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of woman) of IPC has been registered against Sanjay, working in the administration section of the company.

“When one of the women entered the lavatory they saw something blinking in the Odonil packet. On closer scrutiny, she found out that it was a camera and informed the company management,” the official said.

The company has about 120 employees and 60 per cent of them are from the Northeast states of India.

According to L Lamak Maram, President of Naga students Union who is helping the victims, the women employees confronted the company management demanding that they be shown the footage.

The company assured it will look into the matter, he claimed, adding, they told the employees that a helper in the organization was responsible for the installation of camera.

“It is very demeaning and we don’t know for how long this has been going on. Some people have seen the footage, which has blurred images of women,” an employee said.

‘Rethink on ministry size in Northeast’

Shillong, Apr 21 : With downsizing apparently leading to political instability in some North Eastern states, particularly Meghalaya, senior AICC leader Oscar Fernandes today suggested that there should be a separate “yardstick” for the region.

“It was a part of the Administrative Reforms Commission. It is being discussed. Hope we will arrive at something… we could have a different yardstick for Northeast,” he said when asked if there could be a rethink on the 97th Amendment that restricts the size of ministry to 20 per cent of the assembly.

Fernandes said, “It needs support from all. There is a realisation in certain quarters.”

D D Lapang, who resigned yesterday as chief minister after a revolt in his party, said, “Yes, downsizing is a factor that has caused political instability.

“Leaders with potential cannot be given proper chances. They cannot be accommodated in a small ministry,” Lapang said.

BSNL Employees Strike Hits Services in Northeast India

Agartala/Guwahati Apr 20 :  Telecommunication services were affected in northeast India Tuesday as the employees and officers’ associations of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) struck work indefinitely to oppose the proposed disinvestment in the public sector body.

“Over 2,000 employees and officers of BSNL across the seven northeastern states took part in the nationwide strike,” Joint Action Committee (JAC) of BSNL unions and associations convener Tirthankar Choudhury told reporters in Agartala.

All categories of employees and officers of BSNL took part in the strike. Nine trade unions, including Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh and the All India Trade Union Congress, are supporting the strike.

Choudhury said the central government has been planning to implement a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) for 100,000 employees across the country. “We strongly oppose the scheme.”

In the wake of the strike, the BSNL authorities said efforts were being made to ensure services are not disrupted.

“All efforts are being made to ensure that the services are not disrupted and no inconvenience is caused to our customers and people,” BSNL general manager Deb Kumar Chakraborty said.

The striking employees are organizing picketing in front of the BSNL offices in Guwahati, Agartala, Shillong, Imphal and scores of other places.

Child Trafficking Rampant Through Porous Borders of Northeast India

Guwahati, Apr 20 : Porous and unmanned International Border along Bangladesh and Nepal not only provides safe corridors to ultras but also acts as easy gates for human trafficking, especially minors.

”Children are easier to smuggle through borders, cheaper and easier to control, which makes them more vulnerable. Further, the unmanned borders along the Northeast region make it even easier for the traffickers,” Hasina Kharbhih, team leader of an NGO Impulse, said, delivering a lecture on Human Trafficking for child labor prostitution here today.

The coal mines of Jaintia Hills in Meghalaya alone have engaged an estimated 70,000 child laborers, of which many are trafficked from neighboring countries like Bangladesh and Nepal, she added, quoting a study done by her NGO, which works primarily in the field of human trafficking. ”The Northeast is a source, destination and transit region for human trafficking.

The highway networks in the region connect many national and international destinations. The destinations are usually New Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Goa and Kolkata and extend as far as Thailand, Singapore and Thailand,” Kharbhih added. ”Child trafficking, be it for forced labor or prostitution, is very much rampant in Northeast along with the rest of the country.

Within India, there are an estimated 2.3 million women in prostitution, of which nearly six lakh are children,” she claimed.

She informed that the Northeast states were at high risk of trafficking due to displacement from armed conflicts, quoting a report of the International Displacement Monitoring Centre.

The report states that over 20,000 people are displaced in Assam, 70,000 in Manipur, 60,000 in Tripura and 3,000 in Arunachal Pradesh. The criminal business of human trafficking generates over 10 billion US dollar a year, making it the third largest ”activity” after drugs and armament.

Assam May Face Fresh Separation Demand

By R Dutta Choudhury

Guwahati, Apr 19 : If immediate steps are not taken to check growth of fundamentalist forces and unabated infiltration to Assam and other parts of North East, India may face fresh demand for separation within the next decade, warned former GOC of the 4 Corps of the Army, Lt Gen (retd) DB Shekhatkar.

Talking to The Assam Tribune, Lt Gen Shekhatkar, who served in the Northeast as an Army officer in different capacities for about 20 years, said that though the fundamentalist forces are lying low at this moment, the region is virtually sitting on a sleeping volcano, which may erupt at any time and “one should not be surprised if a demand for separation comes up by the end of the year 2018.”

Lt Gen Shekhatkar pointed out that effective steps must be taken to prevent infiltration of foreigners to the region and a close watch must be maintained on the activities of the fundamentalist forces. He suggested that the suspected nationals should be denied voting rights and work permits should be issued to them. Stress should be given on education of the children of certain communities living in the backward areas so that they cannot be lured by the fundamentalist forces into their trap.

The former GOC of the 4 Corps of the Army pointed out that there have been demands for inclusion of the Northeast in East Pakistan, which is now Bangladesh since the time of Independence and even today, the demand is raised from time to time. The fundamentalist forces and Islamic militant groups are now lying low but they have their “sleeping cells”, which can become active when they feel that the time is ripe for them to strike.

The militant groups backed by Pakistani Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) including the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) are still active and there is no reason for the fundamentalist forces to use their manpower to create disturbance in the region at this moment. But they may strike whenever they gain enough strength and there is urgent need for keeping a close watch on the situation, he added.

Lt Gen Shekhatkar said that apart from Assam ,which is the worst sufferer to the problem of infiltration, Meghalaya may face serious problems as the state is rich in minerals, including Uranium and the anti-India forces would definitely try to set strong foothold in the state. Meghalaya is also vulnerable to infiltration as most parts of the Meghalaya-Bangladesh border are still not fenced, he said.

The former Army officer expressed the view that Pakistan would definitely try to create disturbance in the region by setting up bases in Bangladesh and in the past also, such attempts were made. Though the present Bangladesh Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina is inclined towards India, she is also under pressure from different quarters in her own country and the possibility of Pakistan creating trouble in North East through Bangladesh in the days to come cannot be ruled out.

From the security point of view, he pointed out that the North East region is connected to the rest of the country only by a 22 kilometer wide stretch and if the fundamentalist forces manage to establish strong bases in Bangladesh, they may try to cut off the region from the rest of India. In such a scenario, India will be in serious trouble as it will not be possible to move essential commodities as well as troops to the region by air and China may also try to take advantage of such a scenario, he warned.

There is no denying the fact that the demography of Assam changed alarmingly over the years due to infiltration of foreigners and the sharp rise in the number of voters in some constituencies is a matter of grave concern. If the matter is not dealt with immediately, a time may come when the situation in the Northeast may turn out to be worse than even Jammu and Kashmir, Lt Gen Shekhatkar warned.

Dance of Diversity

By Ranjita Biswas

The colourful dances of the Northeast offer a glimpse of the outstanding diversity of the region’s population and their sense of beauty, writes Ranjita Biswas

The Octave, according to Oxford English Dictionary, is “The day week of a festival, eight days, including festival and its day week.” In music, an Octave is the interval between one musical pitch and another with half or double its frequency. This phenomenon is considered as the “basic miracle of music.”

At a recent festival of dances held at the Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre, Kolkata, the nomenclature for the event, “Octave”, merged both the elements. If not in the number of days — three days actually — the festival showcased the virtuosity of the folk dances from eight states in the North East, a slight extension of the ‘seven sisters’ group of NE states that is Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Tripura with the addition of Sikkim. These states extending from the foothills of the Himalayas have a certain homogenous quality, though the differences are as great in performing arts. 

Most of the dances on display made it amply clear that the folk dances of the region are basically based on agriculture and celebration of Nature. Spring — a time to plough the field for sowing and harvest are of supreme importance to the farmer community and folk dances and songs are woven around them all across the world. The essentially folk beliefs and elements have now entered into the urban milieu as folk art traditions of a country or region. 

The spring Bihu or Rangali Bihu (Bihu of joy) of the Brahmaputra valley is now firmly ensconced as a symbol of Assamese folk dance. The vibrancy, the nymph-like movements of the women resplendent in Muga mekhela-chadar who whirl to the beat of the dhol, is now pretty familiar to the audience across the country. Why, even abroad! The group that came to perform in Kolkata  has also travelled to New York and other cities.

But less well-known are dances like Eme-Relo dance of Arunachal Pradesh or Hozagiri dance of Tripura. In Eme-Relo dance, women dress in black and white sarong-cum top dress. They belong to the Galo tribe of the Adis living in the West Siang district. The theme of the dance is based on the creation of rivers and animals living in the water.

The Hozagiri dance of Tripura was a discovery of sorts for most city-breds as they are less exposed to this folk dance. It belongs to the Reang community who, next to the Tripuris, constitute the second biggest group among the tribal population of Tripura. It is believed that they migrated to Tripura from somewhere in the Chittagong Hill Tracts in the middle of the 15th century. However, some pundits point out that since in older times the boundary extended from Burma (Myanmar) to the Bay of Bengal, including the Lusai Hills (Mizoram), they were the original inhabitants of Tripura and have similarities with some tribes of Burma.

The women dancers dress in black sarongs and striped material tied at the back like a kachuli to cover the upper part (Pachra and Rea); heavy chains made of coins completely cover the upper part. They move to the beat rhythmically creating wonderful waves of lasya while round plates made of metal twirl around their fingers.

Only the lower portion below the waist moves since the dance also involves acrobatic movements. More awe-inspiring is the way they keep on moving even as they prop themselves up on earthen pitchers with a bottle on the head and a lighted lamp on it but never missing a beat. The dancers even form acrobatic formations with one girl standing on the shoulders of another, all the while keeping the lighted bottle intact. Musical instruments like Khamb, flute made of bamboo and bamboo cymbal are used.

From Meghalaya came the dancers of Masieh associated with the Nongkrem dance festival. Nongkrem dance is a part of the original autumn festival of the Khasi people which is held in autumn. The festivities are to celebrate a good harvest and appease Ka Blei Synshar, the ruling goddess of crops.
The Nongkrem dance is actually a part of the pom-blang (goat killing ceremony) performed by the Siem (king) of Khyrim (or Nongkrem). Traditionally, the Siem sends words to all villages to congregate with their offerings for the worship. The dance called Ka Shad Mastieh (dance of men) starts with men with sword and shields and chowries (fly-flaps or whisks) They are dressed in black and white attires of dhotis, full sleeved shirts, embroidered sleeveless coats and turbans which are adorned with cock’s feathers (U thuiyah).

The women, usually unmarried debutants, dance at the centre taking tiny steps, barely lifting their feet from the ground. Their dance is called Ka Shad Kynthei. The women wear rich silk clothes and silver or gold crowns with plates and hold down their arms to the sides and their eyes are demurely cast down.

Tiew Lasubon (a rare sweet scented golden coloured flower found only in the deep jungles), worn on the crown indicates the purity of women. The hair is worn tied in a knot behind the head but with a long tail hanging down and adorned with silver ornaments at the end. They also wear an assortment of silver and gold chains, coral beads, bracelets and earrings.

Meanwhile, to the sound of Tangmuri (pipes) and drums, the men dance round the south side of the circle of women holding their swords on their right hands and whisks in their left. The sword symbolises the man’s defence of himself, his house and his family and his mother, and the whisk signifies his care and sound advice.

The Cheraw dance or bamboo dance of Mizoram which was also on display recently made news by figuring in the Guinness World Records as the largest and the longest dance ensemble in the world. A total number of 10,736 dancers in 671 bu or groups performed this intricate dance. In the dance men sit face to face on the ground and tap long pairs of horizontal and cross bamboo staves opening and closing in rhythmic beats. Girls in colourful Mizo costumes of  Punchei, Vakiri and Yhihna dance in and out between the beats of bamboo to the accompaniment  of gongs and drums.
Cheraw is a very old traditional dance of the Mizos. It is believed that the dance form goes back to the first century AD, while the Mizos were still somewhere in the Yunan province of China, before their migration into the Chin Hills in the 13th century AD to the east of present Manipur-Nagaland border and eventually to the present Mizoram. Some of the tribes living in South East Asia have similar dances in one form or the other with different names.

The performance of other dances from the NE as part of the festival, like Nuknarar Tsungsang dance of Nagaland, the whirling-drum Pung Chalam dance of Manipur in Vaishnavite tradition, vindicated the diversity of North East not only in flora and fauna but also in folk traditions. Not to forget the Buddhist tradition reflected in Singhi Chham dance of Sikkim where dancers are attired as snow lions the guardian deity of the land as decreed by Guru Padamsambhava. He is revered as the teacher who first spread the word of Buddha in  Bhutan, Sikkim, Tibet etc. The dance performed in autumn is also  a tribute to mount Khan-Chen Dzongpa, or the Kanchenjunga, worshipped in the land.
Octave rightly showcased how every corner of India has a unique folk dance tradition to offer.

[ via Deccan Herald ]

Indian Security Forces Want Indo-Burmese Border Fenced Immediately

By Sujit Chakraborty

Imphal, Apr 17 : Security forces, deployed along the 1,463 km long Indo-Myanmar international border, want a time-bound execution of the ongoing border fencing. A senior officer pointed out that at present the fencing work, in progress between pillar 79 and pillar 81, is really slow.

“This is a very slow pace of work. There is an urgent need to seal this stretch of the border, particularly the stretch with Manipur. Anti-Indian insurgents move freely and transport weapons through this route. Drug peddlers are equally at ease in trafficking drugs through this strategic route,” he added.

Moreh town and its nearby areas were left out of the border fencing exercise, apparently to avoid the shifting of a very old Tamil temple, a portion of which has fallen on the other side of the demarcated boundary line. Initially, the priests were ready to shift the temple into Indian territory but vested interests have forced them to change their stand. Now they refuse to relocate the temple.

While the legal trade through the Moreh transit point earns about Rs 10-12 crore per annum, the volume of illegal trade is much higher. If the fencing is executed without any gaps, this illegal trade will receive a major setback, the sources highlighted.

However, the Assam Rifles and state police personnel, who are engaged in a relentless battle against the militants, are keen to seal the route. The two major insurgent groups of Manipur, the People’s Liberation Army and the United Liberation Front of Manipur besides other groups like the United Liberation Front of Asom and the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Issac-Muivah) and NSCN (Khaplang) groups have their base camps in Myanmarese territory bordering India.

These militants use the Friendship Road along the border and transport weapons through the National Highway 39 which goes from Moreh to Dimapur. Myanmarese army officials are cooperative and share information and participate in joint patrolling and operations, but the lower rungs are believed to cause the problem. Their low pay and spread out deployment along this border stretch, combined with the fact that the militants allegedly pay cash ensures that the insurgents have a free hand in the region.

Drug trafficking is another menace that has become a source of concern for quite sometime now. The United Nations Drug Control Programme and the International Narcotic Control Board in their reports in 2001, identified Manipur, Nagaland and Mizoram as the transit points for illegal drug trafficking from across the border. The report stated that these three states were fast emerging as the epicenter of the narco business.

The flow of drugs from across the border has already caused an AIDS epidemic in the region turning it into a high risk zone. The Konyak inhabited Eastern Nagaland border line with Myanmar, particularly Longwa, Noklak and the upper Konyak region of Tobu are known as ‘silk routes’ to drug peddlers.

Sources expressed concern over the lack of an effective mechanism to check this border stretch although it is a very sensitive zone because of the huge investments by China in Myanmar and the presence of most of the anti-Indian insurgent outfits just across the border.

The security issue and the effective joint patrolling along this border stretch was discussed in detail during the recent visit of Union Home Secretary G K Pillai to Myanmar. But the ground realities are yet to witness any substantial change on this matter, added the source.

Handicrafts Output Methods Need to be Upgraded – Designer

Kohima, Apr 17 : Couple of days back, DC (Handicrafts), Ministry of Textiles, Government of India, Kohima, conducted a workshop on ‘Prospect of designing in the development of handicrafts’ in Nagaland.

During the workshop, Kos Zhasa, fashion and textile designer said that, traditional Naga handicrafts of Nagaland have been popular since ages. But, with the changing era, these handicrafts also need modification. Therefore, in order to make these handicrafts more competitive in the potential market of handicrafts and design, their production methods need to be upgraded.

Since, Naga art is popular in both Indian and foreign markets, Zhasa informed that, proper guidance to develop this art would help provide world-class production. She said, “Currently, the state fails to fulfill their market demand due to limited production and lack of good designs. The designs produced so far are restricted only for local consumption as they are very traditional in nature.

Naga lacks designers who can formulate new design concepts to launch handicrafts that can create an impression in markets other than their local or state markets. Moreover, owing to the ancient techniques of production, which are slow and tedious, clubbed with financial restrains, the production rate of these handicraft items is limited. This soars up the production cost and ultimately affects its sale.”

Handicraft products could get a fillip with qualified designers who understand the market. Also, marketing agencies would then buy these products if they are available at an appropriate price, stated Zhasa. She further informed that, a number of design workshop schemes were available under the DC (Handicrafts), Ministry of Textiles.

Handicrafts in the region that, are carved of wood work, bamboo or textiles would witness a good market demand if designed by qualified designers. The industry requires designers, who can formulate concepts that can help sell traditional art work in a new package. This will help boost the sale of Naga handicrafts, emphasized Zhasa.

Product modification, with the help of modern designing methods, meeting the requirements of the current market trends, is the only way for Naga handicrafts to find a potential market.

[ via fibre2fashion ]

More Autonomy Assured For Northeast India Tribals

Agartala, Apr 14 : The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government is keen to give more autonomy to the autonomous district councils in northeast India for the development of the tribals, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs V. Narayanasamy said Tuesday.

“Congress governments, both at the centre and states, are always sincere for the development of tribals and to grant more autonomy to the backward tribals,” he told reporters here.

In the northeast, there are 16 tribal autonomous district councils (ADCs) – constitutional autonomous bodies to facilitate the socio-economic development of tribals, who constitute 26.93 percent of the northeast’s total population of 38,857,769 (2001 census). Of the 16 ADCs, six are in Manipur, three each in Assam, Meghalaya and Mizoram and one in Tripura.

Narayanasamy, who is also a Congress general secretary, was in Tripura to supervise the party’s organizational activities ahead of the May 3 elections to the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC).

“Late prime minister Indira Gandhi and the Congress had taken bold steps to constitute these ADCs in northeast India,” he said, charging the Left Front government in Tripura with utterly failing to ensure the development of the tribals and to solve their problems.

“The CPI-M (Communist Party of India-Marxist)-led Left Front government has been allocating fewer funds for the tribals even though they (tribals) constitute one-third of Tripura’s 3.5 million population,” the minister said.

Criticising the Left Front government, Narayanasamy said that due to its misrule, Tripura has been lagging in many sectors compared to the other northeastern states.

His remarks drew an angry response from the CPI-M. Terming the allegations as “rubbish”, CPI-M Tripura state committee secretary Bijon Dhar asked: “If Indira Gandhi had constitute the ADC in Tripura, why the Congress had boycotted the first ADC elections in 1985?”

“After a long struggle by the CPI-M and its frontal organizations, the ADC had been constituted in 1982, and the Left Front government had over the years strengthened the autonomous body. We want to give more power to ADC,” Dhar, also a CPI-M central committee member, told reporters.

“Congress is responsible for the backwardness of the tribals across the country,” he alleged.

Biometric Ration Cards For Northeast Soon

Shillong, Apr 13 : The central government is working on introducing biometric ration cards in the northeastern states to weed out bogus cards and curb corruption in the distribution of subsidized food commodities, an official said Monday.

“We are looking at the new technology to computerize the public distribution system (PDS) to ensure it is corruption free,” union Food Secretary Alka Sirohi said.

The new innovation is aimed at curbing diversion of rice and wheat and to strengthen targeted public distribution system (TPDS), as according to the evaluation study by ORG Centre for Social Research, New Delhi, the diversion of food grain is high in northeastern states, especially in Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland.

However, officials from these states rejected the findings during the meeting of food secretaries of the northeastern states here.

Sirohi, who reviewed the food scenario with the state food secretaries, said the central government is keen to introduce the biometric ration card to curb the menace of bogus ration cards.

In the biometric system, the fingerprints of the beneficiaries would be used for their identification so that transparency could be ensured.

Two years ago, the Meghalaya government had mooted the idea to introduce an electronic bar-coded food coupon system to plug out the pilferage of the highly-subsidized rice meant for poor people living under below poverty line in the state.

Sirohi, however, hoped that the introduction of the biometric ration cards would strengthen the PDS and help in maintaining transparency on every allocation for every states in the region.

“What concerns us is that northeast does not have adequate space storage for food grain and lack of sufficient number of railway siding sheds,” Sirohoi said.

She said the Food Corporation of India (FCI) is taking up construction of sheds at the highest priority godowns through the existing 11th Plan funds for northeast.

“We will go on massive construction programs of sheds which will have an additional storage capacity of over seven lakhs tones,” she said.