Brit tourist killed and wife critical after reckless rental driver crushed them into a wall in tourist hotspot
Harish Solanki, 86, was crushed against a wall at the picturesque town of Candolim, while his 81-year-old wife, Chandrakanta, remains in critical condition, local media reports.
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BBC News
2 hours ago
- BBC News
Should teen sex be a crime? Indian woman lawyer mounts challenge
In late July, lawyer Indira Jaising mounted a challenge against the legal age for having sex in India - which is 18 years - in the Supreme Court, renewing conversations around the criminalisation of teen Jaising argued that consensual sex between 16 and 18-year-olds is neither exploitative nor abusive and urged the court to exempt it from criminal prosecution."The purpose of age-based laws is to prevent abuse, not to criminalise consensual, age-appropriate intimacy," Ms Jaising has said in her written submissions to the the federal government has opposed this, saying that introducing such an exemption would jeopardise the safety and protection of children (persons under the age of 18, according to Indian laws), opening them up to abuse and case has re-ignited debate around consent and whether Indian laws, especially the country's main law against child sexual abuse - Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 or Pocso - should be altered to introduce a provision exempting 16 to 18 year-olds having consensual sex from their rights activists say exempting teens protects their autonomy, while opponents warn it could fuel crimes like trafficking and child question whether teens can bear the burden of proof if abused. More importantly, who decides the age of consent laws - and whose interests do they truly serve? Like many countries, India has struggled to set its age of sexual consent. Unlike the US, where it varies by state, India enforces a uniform age legal age for having sex is also much higher than most European countries, or places like UK and Canada, where it is was 10 years when India's criminal code was enacted in 1860 and was increased to 16 in 1940 when the code was introduced the next major change, pushing the "age of consent" to 18 years in 2012. A year later, India's criminal laws were amended to reflect this change and the country's new criminal code, introduced in 2024, has adhered to this revised is consensual teen sex a crime in India?But over the past decade or so, many child rights activists and even courts have taken a critical view of the country's legal age to have sex and have called for it to be lowered to 16 years. They say the law criminalises consensual teen relationships and is often misused by adults to control or block relationships - especially those of remains a taboo topic in the country even though studies have shown that millions of Indian teenagers are sexually active."As a society, we're also divided along caste, class and religious lines, which makes the [age of consent] law even more susceptible to misuse," says Sharmila Raje, co-founder of Foundation for Child Protection-Muskaan, a non-profit working to prevent child sexual abuse for over two decades. In 2022, the Karnataka High court directed India's Law Commission - an executive panel that advices the government on legal reform - to rethink the age of consent under Pocso, "so as to take into consideration the ground realities".It noted several cases where girls over 16 fell in love, eloped, and had sex, only for the boy to be charged with rape and abduction under Pocso and criminal its report the following year, the Law Commission ruled out lowering the age of consent, but recommended "guided judicial discretion" during sentencing in cases involving "tacit approval" from children aged 16 to 18 years, meaning where the relationship has been this is yet to be implemented, courts across the country have been using this principle to allow for appeals, grant bail, make acquittals and even quash cases after taking into consideration the facts of the case and the victim's testimony. Many child rights activists, including Ms Raje, urge this provision be codified to standardise enforcement; left as a suggestion, courts may ignore April, the Madras High Court overturned the acquittal in a case where the 17-year-old victim was in a relationship with the 23-year-old accused and the two eloped after the victim's parents arranged her marriage to another man. The accused was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment."The court adopted a literal interpretation of the Pocso Act," Shruthi Ramakrishnan, a researcher at Enfold Proactive Health Trust - a child rights charity - noted in her column in The Indian Express newspaper, calling it a "grave miscarriage of justice". Ms Jaising argues that judicial discretion at sentencing isn't enough, as the accused still faces lengthy investigations and judicial system is infamously slow with millions of cases pending across all court levels. A research paper by India Child Protection Fund found that as of January 2023, nearly 250,000 Pocso cases were pending in special courts set up to try these cases."The process is the punishment for many," Ms Jaising notes. "A case-by-case approach leaving it to the discretion of judges is also not the best solution as it can result in uneven results and does not take into account the possibility of bias," she urges the court to add a "close-in-age exception" for consensual sex between 16- and 18-year-olds in Pocso and related laws. This "close-in-age exception" would prevent consensual acts between peers in that age group from being treated as and child rights activist Bhuwan Ribhu warns that a blanket exception could be misused in cases of kidnapping, trafficking, and child marriage. He advocates judicial discretion paired with a justice system overhaul."We need faster processes so that cases are disposed off in a time-bound manner. We also need better rehabilitation facilities and compensation for victims," he Ganguly, co-founder of HAQ: Centre for Child Rights, however, agrees with Ms Jaising. "We can't shy away from making changes because we're afraid of the law being misused," she says, adding that Ms Jaising's argument is not new as over the years, many activists and experts have made similar recommendations."Laws need to keep pace with changes in society if they are to remain effective and relevant," she BBC News India on Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Labour MP Tulip Siddiq soon to be hauled into court in Bangladesh for over 'illegal land deal'
Former Labour anti-corruption minister Tulip Siddiq is to face trial in Bangladesh this month over allegations that she illegally received land from her aunt, the nation's ex-leader. The MP for Hampstead and Highgate is accused of having obtained plots from Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted as prime minister last year, through 'abuse of power and influence'. Bangladesh's new government has been investigating claims that her family embezzled up to £3.9billion from infrastructure spending. The nation's Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) accuses Ms Siddiq of obtaining a 7,200 sq ft plot of land in the Purbachal diplomatic zone of the capital, Dhaka. Prosecutor Mir Ahmed Ali Salam claimed she 'influenced her aunt to get land properties for family members'. On Thursday, two Bangladeshi courts indicted her and 26 others, including her aunt – who fled to India after being deposed – family members and officials. Mr Salam said that if Ms Siddiq was found guilty, Bangladesh authorities were likely to submit an Interpol Red Notice for her arrest, which would prove embarrassing for Sir Keir Starmer. Ms Siddiq insists she is the victim of an orchestrated campaign against her, and accused interim leader Muhammad Yunus of 'interfering with UK politics'. Her spokesman did not respond to questions about whether she would travel to Bangladesh to stand trial on August 11. Ms Siddiq, whom the ACC also accuses of money laundering and benefiting from a nuclear power deal with Russia, quit as a minister in January after an official investigation found her family's links with the ousted Bangladeshi regime exposed the Government to 'reputational risks'. She had referred herself to the Independent Adviser on Ministerial Standards after it emerged that she had lived in London homes linked to her aunt. Her lawyer, Paul Thwaite, said: 'Ms Siddiq has not received any official communication from the court and has never owned any plot of land in Purbachal.'
BBC News
4 hours ago
- BBC News
How a sinkhole revived a debate about migrant workers' rights in Singapore
When a 3m (10ft) deep sinkhole on a busy Singapore road swallowed a black Mazda on Saturday, a group of workers at a nearby construction site sprung into a rope from their work site, they tossed it into the sinkhole to the female driver, who had by this time made her way out of the under five minutes, they managed to pull her to safety."I was scared, but every feeling [sic] was that this woman must be rescued first," construction site foreman Suppiah Pitchai Udaiyappan later told of the incident quickly went viral on social media, with many hailing the workers as heroes. Mr Udaiyappan is a "migrant worker" - a term used in Singapore to describe the 1.17 million labourers who come to the wealthy city state from lower-income countries like Bangladesh, India and Myanmar.A vast majority of them work low-paying and labour intensive jobs that Singaporeans is not the first time migrant workers have served as first responders to save lives in Singapore. In April, four of them helped rescue children trapped in a shophouse after a fire broke recent actions have revived a debate on the rights – or lack thereof – of low-wage labourers in Singapore. Singapore's fast-growing economy is built on the backs of these workers who make up nearly three quarters of the country's foreign workforce. Many of them work in sectors like construction, marine shipyards and manufacturingWhile Singapore has no minimum wage, the workers earn as little as S$300 ($233; £175) a month according to advocacy groups, and they live in crowded dormitories that are often situated away from residential areas. Yet they are often subject to abuses by recruitment agencies and their employers, including overwork, unpaid labour and poor living conditions. These issues are well-documented, but activists say little has changed over the years."Today, you celebrate them. Tomorrow, you will go back to generalising them as cheats, liars and dirty," social worker Suraendher Kumarr wrote on Instagram, in response to the sinkhole the Covid pandemic in 2020, their living conditions were laid bare after worker dormitories emerged as a virus hotbed, with hundreds of workers testing positive daily. It sparked a public discussion about their conditions - which advocates had for decades warned about – and authorities later took action to improve dormitory persistent issue, on which the sinkhole incident has again cast a spotlight, is the use of flat-bed trucks to ferry these workers."There is something poignantly poetic about the fact that migrant workers, likely transported on the backs of lorries, went out of their way to save a Singaporean in her car," said Mr Kumarr, who is a member of rights group Workers Make laws prohibit people from travelling on the cargo decks of such trucks – except in medical emergencies. But it is allowed if they are employed by the owners of the as many as 12 workers get packed into the back of a flat-bed truck with no seatbelts on. This is an economical option for many employers who also use the trucks to transport goods. But this has led to multiple accidents, some involving deaths. In April 2021, two foreign workers died and more than a dozen were wounded after the lorry they were in crashed into a stationary flat-bed truck. In 2024, at least four workers were killed and more than 400 injured in similar accidents. Activists have long lobbied to ban this mode of transportation – the issue has also been debated time and again in parliament – but little has Singapore government repeatedly says that while it has been encouraging companies to transport workers on buses, an outright ban on such trucks is not feasible for small businesses."Many of them could be forced to shut down, causing workers, both local and foreign, to lose their jobs," a senior minister of state told parliament in February."It will also lead to delays for critical projects like [public housing], schools, hospitals and [train] lines, and result in higher costs for Singaporeans."Activists criticise authorities for reducing the workers' rights to mere economic considerations, noting that other countries that rely heavily on migrant workers, including the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, have outlawed transporting people on levies collected from foreign workers could be used to subsidise other modes of transport without passing costs on to businesses and consumers, Mr Kumarr government's rhetoric "preserves the status quo [and] places disproportionate power in the hands of employers, over the lives and livelihoods of migrant workers," said Jaya Anil Kumar, senior researcher with the Humanitarian Organization for Migration Economics, another organisation that advocates for migrants' rights.A ban on lorry rides is just one in a list of changes advocates have been calling for, which include a living wage, stronger whistleblower protections, and subsidised dedicating decades of their lives to Singapore, these workers also have no way of putting down roots because of the type of work permit they hold, which are different from that of foreign professionals and cannot qualify for permanent residency, no matter how long they've worked in the country. Mr Udaiyappan, who directed last weekend's sinkhole rescue effort, for example, has been working here for 22 permit holders also need government approval to marry Singaporeans - another issue activists have highlighted for years. "Legislative change has been slow as there has been insufficient political will to enact impactful change," Ms Anil Kumar said. Recognition or tokenism? Earlier this week, authorities presented the seven workers involved in the sinkhole rescue with commemorative coins, with a minister of state describing their actions as "a very good example of how migrant workers help society in general". But many have criticised the move as tokenism. "No amount of 'thanking' them for their heroism should excuse the exploitative economic model that oppresses them every day to sustain the lives we live in Singapore," said Mr echoed these thoughts on social, saying the men deserved more acknowledgement. Some called for them to be granted monetary rewards and even permanent manpower ministry said in a statement to the BBC that it is "encouraged to receive feedback calling for more forms of appreciation" for migrant workers but did not address the specific suggestions raised."Their everyday acts of care and bravery deserve to be acknowledged and celebrated as part of who we are as a community," the ministry's spokesman said in response to rights group Its Raining Raincoats has raised S$72,000 ($55,840; £41,790) from its own fundraiser, which will be divided equally among the seven men."So many times, we have seen how these migrant workers risk their own lives to rescue many citizens, including children, from dangerous situations," said AKM Mohsin, who runs an activity centre for Bangladeshi workers in central Singapore."They make the news and are held up as excellent examples of humanitarian work, but their own humanity and human rights are constantly being violated at their workplaces, in how they are transported, and how they live," Mr Mohsin there has been an increased awareness around migrant workers issues over the years. Advocacy groups and the government have organised activities that bring workers and the broader community together. Mr Mohsin, for instance, runs a space for migrant workers to write, dance, and play music – Singaporeans have helped translate and publish their works, and often provide an audience for their some activists say most in the country still see migrant workers as a class that is separate and inferior to the local community. Many live and work in industrial areas that are often further away from the city's residential regions. In 2008, some 1,400 residents in Serangoon Gardens, an upper middle-class neighbourhood, petitioned against the construction of a migrant worker dormitory near their placate them, authorities reduced the size of the dormitory and built a separate road for workers to access the dormitory."We basically see them as a different class of people. We expect to be served by them and believe that is the reason they are here," said Alex Au, vice president of advocacy group Transient Workers Count Too."Servants are supposed to leap to the aid of their masters."
