World Bank Unmasked

An Independent People's Tribunal on the World Bank Group in India held in New Delhi gave the first ever opportunity to affected people, experts

Innocence on SALE
By Geetha Devarajan
Poor Indian children are being freely traded across the globe. A merciless adoption mafia's overdrive leaves authorities back home clueless even as Dutch Parliament initiates probe after a child from Tamil Nadu reaches Holland.

Driven to Desperation
By Anjali Lal Gupta
All is not well with the 'vibrant' Gujarat. Almost 500 farmers have committed suicide in the state since 2003. More and more debt-ridden farmers are taking this extreme step as crops fail repeatedly and government remains apathetic to their plight.

'Irrigation Policy in Complete Mess
By Himanshu Thakkar
Big irrigation projects are bringing small results. Yet billions of rupees drained out in the name of expanding irrigated area..

The Secret Factor
By Jai Singh
The official secrecy law brought in yore by the British has been preferred by powers-that-be until this day to deprive people of their right to know and selectively use it as and when it may suit the State despite fears of this coming in the way of people's right to information.

New Eyes For New Burma
By Satya Sagar
Democracy to Burmese is not a one dimensional, monochrome animal to be admired in a glorified zoo but a multi-coloured bird set to fly free for all to savour and see. Satya Sagar explains how in Burma it's not just elections but also environment, gender, race, diversity and the big 'realpolitik' stuff .

Propping Up Human Rights Old Style
By Archana Sarma and Subhradipta Sarkar
Street play has always been the best way to take any issue to the people including the victims of a human rights violation in the grassroot level. The medium creates a strong relation between the affected individual and the performers that is important for an individual to identify himself/ herself with the character leading to a better understanding of the issues.

Bargaining Lives
By Saurabh Bhattacharya, Madhumita Dutta and Usha Ramanathan
POSCO brings Orissa government to its knees as an MOU signed between the two is not only going to rob thousands of villagers of their tenuous preserves in far off hamlets but also ties state's hands from doing anything except to support, assist, protect and pave the way for investors' interests in all eventuality.

Access To Justice And Rights Of Needy
By Marc Galanter and Jayanth K Krishnan
Wheels of justice hardly chug along as per a fixed timetable despite the best intentions of courts and many among the crowd that throngs daily before them. And, thus, there has been talk of reforms that gave way for Lok Adalats or people's courts among other things. Empowered to bring conciliation and quick disposal of cases referred to them, Lok Adalats have turned out to be a forum meant to clear the dockets of regular courts where demands of justice are often not fully met as poor have to be content with the solutions offered. As the regular courts continue to remain backlog ridden, such a deal can well tilt the system in favour of rich, affluent, and well to do, warn Marc Galanter and Jayanth K Krishnan through an indepth study about accessibility of justice to the teeming millions.

Scope For Compromise
By Meihoubam Rakesh
In Manipur, Lok Adalat has become a regular feature for claims of motor accidents, hence, there is scope for settlement of other disputes as well.

Editorial

Letters to the Editor

Bittersweet Symphony
The major objective of the Lok Adalats remains to provide speedy disposal and amicable settlement of disputes, consequently saving time and money of the parties and the court. But the success of Lok Adalat in the fulfillment of the stated objective remains disputed. Faisel spoke to members of the legal fraternity of Kashmir to find out the significance and effectiveness of Lok Adalats. A summary of opinions expressed:

Crippling Lok Adalats
By Girsih Patel
As justice delivery system gets farther from people, a serious attempt like Lok Adalat to make justice accessible to large chunk of poor, needy and deserving too has been appropriated by powerful vested interests. The search for a reasonable and equitable justice delivery system has come to an end.

Access To Justice In Globalised Economy
By Upendra Baxi
In an age when politics is giving way to market, poor stand little chance as judiciary too undergoes restructuring. This is called for to suit the needs of market economy where billionaire's right to remain super rich and plight of the most impoverished to be super-poor are going to be accepted.

PIL And Indian Courts
By Sandra Fredman
"Though the PIL was originally intended to give access to those who would otherwise have no voice, it is easily captured by articulate and well organised interest groups".

Is Judiciary Biased Against The Poor?
By Balakrishnan Rajagopal
The onset of globalisation and liberalisation are resetting not just terms of market and trade but priorities in the judicial arena too are undergoing significant changes. Hope ignited among poor and less privileged through the seventies by a series of epoch making rulings in their favour by Supreme Court in India has started fading as court has of late been takding quite different view of issues involved.

'Lok Adalats Cannot Be A Solution'
By Abid Shah
Faced with spiralling backlog of cases throughout the country, courts started looking for 'improvisations'. Lok Adalats are results of the experiments resorted by the stalwarts of the judicial system, says Rajiv Khosla, former president of Delhi Bar Association. This, according to him, was a tacit acceptance of judicial system's inability to cope with their main task of hearing and deciding cases brought before them either by citizens, or state functionaries who draw their authority from the people of the country like the judges for Constitution vests authority mainly among people alone. Khosla spoke to Combat Law about Lok Adalats and other similar 'improvised tribunals' that are being served upon as 'analgesics to bring comfort to a fatigued' justice delivery system.

Militarised Democracy
By Colin Gonsalves
A retired IPS officer, who stood out as a consientious cop throughout his career, calls India as a seemingly democratic State that is highly militarised, using exceptional brutality against its own people while still picking up leaves from old colonial hand book. This and more figure in his new book at whose release Colin Gonsalves spoke about the book and policing in India.

Why US is the only 'Superpower'
By N Raghuram
In a controversial book, John Perkins narrates a real life tale. His personal journey from the member of international community of highly paid professionals who are employed to cheat poor countries around the globe to maintain US monopoly. Eventually he calls himself as a former economic hit man and deconstructs international intrigue and corruption, the sinister mechanics of imperial manipulations and control.

Betrayed
By Felix Padel
Oppression of tribals, evident corruption all around in Lanjigarh represents just the first stages of this mining project's costs to Orissa's environment, society and future generations, while the profits are set to accumulate with the foreign banks and metal traders.

Cultural And Environmental Genocide

The case to save Niyam Dongar needs a PIL filed at the earliest in the name of communities like Dongrias and perhaps Khambesis, since some of their village land is in the mining lease area. Majhi Konds also need to be included in the list as most of them regard Niyam Dongar as sacred and inviolate.

Other issues: