My Columns: Without Fear and Favour

Amendment to the Juvenile Law in India – Its Implications By  Deepak Parvatiyar August 8, 2014 There are some serious issues involved with the latest Union cabinet decision to approve the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Bill, 2014 that proposes treating minors older than 16 years as adults if charged with serious crimes such as rape. A Real Step Back? The United Nations International Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF) has termed the decision as a “real step back” – apprehending that the new JJ Bill could be a significant deviation from the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000, which was promulgated in compliance with the Child Rights Convention of 1989 (CRC). The CRC provided in Article 40.1 that the children accused of offences should be tried separately from adults ‘in a manner consistent with the child’s sense of dignity and worth. (In 1992, India was a signatory to the Child Rights Convention 1989). “The rece...

The idea was to provoke you a bit By Deepak Parvatiyar (This report was published in The Free Press Journal on 6th May 1994) Bombay:   The fashion show was outrageous; and the mannequins, delicate. Pierre Cardin, designer par excellence, was hellbent on turning Bombay into another Paris. The audience held their breath and the mandarins gasped, as a whole range of exotic designs on bouncy sirens bewitched their fantasies. As Madhu Sapre, Aishwarya Rai and others ramped to reveal, Anjali Mendes, Director of Pierre Cardin Fashion Private Limited, smiled: "The idea is to provoke you a bit." Thus thought the models too. "I enjoyed it a lot,"Mark Robinson of Kamasutra fame was overheard telling a friend. And the setting at the spacious Regal Room of Hotel Oberoi provided the required elixir to the fun-loving elite of the megapolis. The conservatives, as always, grumbled over this yet another foreign invasion on our socio-cultural fabric. "Yes,...