Liability

It pains. It pains to face the reality. The fun element of a metro reader vanishes when the reality of a suburban fringe comes to the fore. A supreme court women judge listing two daughters among 'liabilities' may raise eyebrows. The reason cited : "two daughters to be married". One may question whether a Delhi based SC judge who belong to an enlightened strata of the society should feel that way. But we are never wise enough to know the ground realities. This reality makes a bright class XI girl from a poor farmer family give private tutions to support her study and stand on her own feet. Yes, local residents adored this teen for her determination to 'stay in school in spite of the odds'.

Yesterday, on her way home after giving tution she was abducted, raped and then murdered.





Let not simply a pal of gloom, or feelings of helplessness sink in us. Let us ask ourselves :Are we, who can, doing enough to change such realities? Do we have a desire to do something? Or do we consider it is a liability on our 'over-burdened' lives to take note of such realities that may take our attention away and we may miss a few career milestones?
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BARASAT HORROR

Schoolgirl raped, killed

TIMES NEWS NETWORK 29.12.2010

Barasat: A 17-year-old schoolgirl was raped and murdered at Dadpur, some 45km from Kolkata, on Monday night. The victim, who used to give tuitions to manage her school fees, was abducted on her way home, raped in a field and strangled.
The body was found at 6.30am on Tuesday. When police arrived at the spot, they were gheraoed by a mob. Local residents, who were very fond of the girl for her determination to stay in school in spite of the odds, accused police of not acting tough on criminals and allowing goons a free run.
The victim was a Class XI student of Dadpur Girl’s High School and regularly gave tuitions to support the family. She left home around 6pm on Monday. When she did not return by 10pm, her parents got
worried. Her cellphone was switched off. The family lodged a missing person’s complaint.
“Preliminary investigation says she was raped and strangled. We will track down the culprits,” a police officer said.
Her father, a farmer, is shattered. “She was the light of our lives. She was a very good student and we had struggled very hard to keep he in school,” he said.

SC woman judge lists daughters as ‘liabilities’

TIMES NEWS NETWORK 29.12.2010

New Delhi: It is a line that even Bollywood has banished for a while now. But while declaring her assets and liabilities, sitting Supreme Court judge Gyan Sudha Mishra has listed the marriage of her two daughters in the “liabilities” column, apparently without considering anything to be much amiss.
The Supreme Court’s official website in its assets of sitting judges column gives Justice Mishra’s declaration in which she lists “two daughters to be married” in the liabilities column. This might be a sentiment still shared by a section of the middle class, but could be regarded as politically incorrect, especially on the part of India’s senior-most woman judge.
Other entries in the liabilities column are “guarantor for education loan of my daughter” and residential house to be built post-retirement. The view that daughters are a “liability” (often because of the high cost of their marriage), or a burden of some sort, is a notion the government is fighting to eradicate through campaigns. The declaration is likely to attract comment as it is does not seem in sync with the Supreme Court’s otherwise progressive image on social issues in general and women’s rights in particular.
It could be seen to be betraying a thinking on which the Supreme Court is often called to deliberate while handling sensitive gender parity cases.
The assets of Justice Mishra, who formerly headed the Chhattisgarh high court, has declared are not out of the ordinary. “Stridhan” of one gold set and “few gold rings and a pair of bangles” are listed under jewellery. There are no shares or mutual funds and fixed deposits total just 5 lakh.