Jail Reform

When a talented actor goes to jail, it is worth giving a thought to the event. I have no specific comments on Sanjay Dutt’s jail term that begins today, but feel that there are questions that go beyond his case.

A jail sentence can be thought of as a punishment as well as a correctional step. There is rigorous imprisonment which goes beyond denial of freedom and inflicts physical labour as a punitive measure. Depending on the crime, convicts serve fairly long terms like 10 years or more.  It is worth asking to what extent a jail term acts as a correctional device. In a vast majority of cases, convicts are poor and not well-educated individuals. In addition to correctional education/training, training them to do something economically useful will equip them to take care of themselves and their family after coming out.  In exceptional cases, Indian jails have shown flexibility and have given opportunities to convicts. Nalini was originally handed down a death sentence in the Rajiv Gandhi murder case, but she was allowed by the jail system to study for and earn a Master of Computer Applications degree.  

I would like to raise a question about prisoners who are going to spend years in a jail. If they are young enough to be able to study, is it not fair to give them opportunities to undergo part-time education? If the system is a true correctional system, should it not motivate the bulk of them to benefit from such a scheme? I do not plead for any reduction in workload that is required by their sentence. Let them do the work that is specified. But if they have any spare time left, they should be free to use it to learn something instead of being merely locked up like caged animals.

The TV Channel “National Geographic” offers episodes from a series named “Banged up Abroad” dealing with real life stories of people who do stupid things like smuggling narcotics and get caught in countries which have very harsh laws. They usually suffer terrifying conditions in jails. The episodes use a variety of presentation techniques, letting them tell their story, using staged flashbacks, using interviews with members of their family etc. to throw some light on their crime and the punishment they got. There is no preaching, but I am sure that the episodes make a very useful impression on the viewers. 

I wonder for a minute if Sanjay would be allowed in this country to use his spare time in jail to trigger a series like that about crimes and prisoners in India in general, and contribute in some way to it being made. If he goes to a jail with several hundred inmates, many of them would be willing to tell their own stories. Perhaps a nearby film institute could create the series.

A truly correctional system should not reduce a creative human being to do mindless repetitive work only.  He should be free to do the prescribed hours of that and do something in addition involving his talents - as a contribution to society, without any benefits, special privileges or payments.

Srinivasan Ramani

    

Amitabh Bachan on Caste

Karnataka State Election results came out on the 8^th May. TV channels showed off their skills in Caste Arithmetic. This was a sorry sight in a country that decided decades ago that the practice of caste had held us back for centuries. But here was caste on steroids. Visit http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/specials/news/They-will-caste-their-vote-Karnataka-still-remains-extremely-caste-conscious/articleshow/19773104.cms Caste consciousness is on the increase and not otherwise. Graphics showed what region of the state had what percentage of Lingayats, Vokkaligas, etc. The anchors expounded on how a leader had defeated his former party by taking away the bulk of the votes of people of his caste. I do not know why the discussion of caste in the context of election cannot be banned by the Election Commission. This appears to me to be the worst form of corrupt practice in elections - to manipulate caste feelings and to seek votes on the basis of caste.

Amitabh Bachan was on Headlines TV this evening and happened to mention how his family did not respect the notion of caste. When his father admitted Amitabh to school, he was asked to mention the student’s caste. The father wrote “Bachan”, which in fact was the pseudonym under which he wrote poetry – not “Srivastava” which had been the family name. I remembered a well-known computer scientist of Indian origin, Arvind, who had also chosen to drop his last name which would have been a caste name.

Amitabh added another example of how his father was above these narrow loyalties. His mother had been a Punjabi – one of the first Punjabi brides to set foot into Allahabad. 

He (Amitabh) went on to say that a few years ago, the census taker had insisted that he should record his caste name. Amitabh had to stand firm to avoid this. This reminded me of my own experience over 30 years ago.  I had told a census taker that my mother tongue was English.  (To this day, my mother speaks in English to me). The census taker told me that he would not accept my declaration. He suggested that I mention any language I wanted to – Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi, etc., but English was not acceptable! He warned me that I could be arrested for giving “false” information to a census taker!  Satyameva Jayate!

Now, come back to caste. Why don’t we invent a new synthetic caste name, for example, “Daata” meaning a donor or giver! We could invent an incantation like “We will not let evil netas divide us in the name of caste”. To become a member of this “caste” one needs only recite this incantation and donate Rs 10 or more to a Society to Eradicate the Evil of Caste. 

What use will this be? Will the census taker accept it? Forget him. It is enough if a man or women could declare his/her caste to be Daata to the chosen partner.

Tamil Nadu had adopted the custom of dropping caste names long ago. This worked in most cases. Why can’t the rest of India follow this excellent idea?

Srinivasan Ramani