Analysis
Bhutan: Behind decriminalisation of homosexuality
Mihir Bhonsale
In the first week of this month, on 7 June, the National Assembly of Bhutan passed a legislation to decriminalise homosexuality. Now, it will be introduced in the upper house and then sent to the King. This legislation follows the trend of progressive laws being passed by numerous Asian countries, and marks a huge victory for the lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender, inter-sex and queer (LGBTQ) community in the Himalayan nation.
A month earlier, Taiwan had become the first Asian country to allow same-sex marriage. In September last year, India’s Supreme Court had decriminalised homosexuality. Many many years before that, Nepal, following the end of monarchy in 2007, had given rights to the LGBTQ community, besides decriminalising homosexuality.
Bhutan’s progressive legislation needs to be viewed against this backdrop of the efforts to universalise the rights of ‘sexual minorities’. It is also the recognition of the rights groups and their efforts. Rights groups reason that the lack of awareness is the main cause behind the stigmatisation and discrimination of the LGBTQ’s.
Reacting to the welcome development in Bhutan, South Asia Director of Human Rights Watch, Meenakshi Ganguly, noted how the ”South Asian region is conservative and culturally and religiously diverse with the dominance of major religions such as Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism”.
Preceding the Lower House decision, the legislative committee had recommended repeal of the Sections 213 and 214 in the Penal Code of Bhutan (PCB). Section 213 reads that a person is guilty of the offence of unnatural sex if the individual engages in sodomy or any other sexual conduct that is against the order of nature. The offence is a petty misdemeanour with a maximum jail sentence of a year.
Lyonpo Namgay Tshering, the Finance Minister, first submitted a recommendation to the House during the second reading of the Bill. He then submitted a written recommendation to the legislative committee to be included as part of its recommendation for amendment to the Code.
Nearly 90% of the parliamentarians in the Lower House voted in favour of the amendment, thus paving the way for the adaptation of the bill. Now, the legislation would be referred to the upper house, the National Council, before it is sent to the King before becoming the law.
Struggle for recognition
What began as a campaign to spread awareness about HIV-AIDS among the LGBTQ people in 2015 rapidly transitioned to the one going beyond HIV-AIDS campaign by 2017. In November that year, the Royal Bhutan Police (RBP) decided to introduce a procedural guidebook on the LGBTQ community in the country to understand the sensitivity and needs in handling them.
The Bhutan Kuen-Nyam Party (BKP), in its election campaign, pledged to ensure the rights of sexual and gender minorities and other sections of the LGBT group and enhance the dignity of their lives.
Mere decriminalisation does not ensure the rights of the sexual minorities, who would know it better than the minorities themselves. Issues like stigmatisation and discrimination have been voiced as common problems that sexual minorities face in Bhutan.
Despite some organisations believing that the government is sympathetic to them, social and religious norms have generally tended to impede rights of the sexual minorities. Legal redress cannot solve the issue of social ostracism and deprivations of the sexual minorities.
The struggle for recognition as equal humans, the struggle for a right to live life on their own terms, to get equal access to jobs, shelter, health, education – these are struggles where LGBTs have a long way to go. LGBTs are yet to achieve equality, especially the civil rights to marry; adopt and inherit properties, like anyone else.
Myanmar: Public health concerns along India border
Sreeparna Banerjee
During a recent event, the Indian Government noted that there is a huge potential for partnership in cultural tourism between the north-eastern Indian State of Manipur and Myanmar as the two share strong cultural affinities. While addressing the inaugural function of the conference on “Connecting India’s North-East with North-West Region of Myanmar: Roadmap for all-round Prosperity”, Manipur Chief Minister Nongthombam Biren stated that physical and social infrastructures have to be robust to unlock the latent potentials and untapped opportunities in the State and the region.
Investments in infrastructure, skill development and film production have great potential while simultaneously promoting traditional and cultural art forms, and generating employment for the youth. While Manipur is the ‘Land Gateway of India to South-East Asia’, one cannot ignore that increased people-to-people links can also lead to major transmission of lethal diseases such as Malaria.
Threat of malaria
Malaria is one of the major infectious diseases threatening millions of lives in South and South-East Asia, including Myanmar and India’s North-Eastern region. 76% of Myanmar’s population lives in malaria endemic zone while the morbidity trend for 1988-2011 shows the number of malaria cases at 4.2-8.6 million a year. On the Indian side, the bordering States of Manipur and Mizoram detected the presence of drug-resistant malaria parasites along the Myanmarese border in 2014.
In 2014, a research team, led by Dr Kyaw Myo Tun of the Defence Services Medical Research Centre, Napyitaw, Myanmar, and coordinated by the Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU) in Bangkok, Thailand, brought to light the spread of drug resistant malaria parasites in the India-Myanmar border region. The drug-resistant parasites were found in Homalin, Sagaing region which is only 25 km from the India border. Though Manipur is trying to achieve zero malaria status by 2020, it is going to be a very difficult task.
Mizoram is the most malaria-prone State among the three North-Eastern States sharing border with Myanmar. According to media reports, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh had the highest deaths per 100,000 population to malaria between 2013 and September 2017. The Lawngtlai district in Mizoram along the Myanmar border is the most susceptible to attacks by malaria. Lawngtlai also has a poor rural public health delivery system. Also, Zokhawathar village in Champhai district is prone to malaria owing to poor sanitation and absence of primary health centres/sub-centres in the region.
In the event of a malaria epidemic, Mizoram is likely to suffer the most. According to another newspaper report in 2018, mosquito-borne diseases killed 16 persons in a village along the India-Myanmar border in Manipur. It has been argued in this context that without the Chin migrants being brought within the purview of healthcare facilities, a true assessment of the potency of malaria in the region is difficult to arrive at.
Plausible causes
The Indo-Myanmar border region form a potential site for unmonitored cross border population movement that can aid the spread of malaria parasites as well. It is this floating population that is most likely to carry malaria vectors from Myanmar into Manipur and Mizoram and vice versa. However, lack of health surveillance of this floating population and absence of coherent health data on the migrants residing on either side of the Indo-Myanmar border makes early detection of malaria and other vector-borne diseases nearly impossible and in the process, complicates disease management endeavours.
Another factor that is likely to facilitate outbreak of vector borne diseases in the Indo-Burma border region is largely institutional and political. It has as much to do with poor health infrastructure in the border districts and townships as with poor governance and alienation of migrants from mainstream healthcare practices. Researches show that drug-resistance malaria parasites can rapidly multiply in environments lacking proper information on the parasite and without adequate infrastructure to stall its spread.
As has been stated earlier, certain border districts in Manipur and Mizoram have already been designated as malaria prone owing to their location in Tropical belt, dense forest cover, and humid climate. What make the situation worse are low literacy rates and poor healthcare services in the border towns that underscore the socio-economic deprivations faced by border population, a veritable sign of poor governance. Lack of awareness about diseases because of low literacy rates and under resourced health care centres expose the local inhabitants as well as the migrant population to the scourge of vector borne diseases.
It has also come to light that Burmese migrants are often scared of utilising healthcare facilities offered by the state and local NGOs. A study revealed that the Chin migrants fear availing of the drugs distributed by the Young Mizo Association, a local voluntary association that is known to harbour hostile attitude towards the migrants. Without migrants being brought within the purview of healthcare facilities, a true assessment of the potency of vector borne diseases in the region is difficult to arrive at.
Disease control measures
In Myanmar, malaria control activities are regulated through the National Malaria Control Programme that has built partnership with NGOs, UN agencies and neighbouring countries for resource generation. With support from international agencies such as WHO, UNICEF and Three Disease Fund, the National Malaria Control Programme has succeeded in bringing the bordering townships of Myanmar within the scope of its work. However, such initiatives have failed to monitor the implementation of malaria control and eradication programmes on a sustained basis.
In India, the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP) is the nodal agency for the prevention and control of malaria. Tt does this with the support of NGOs, FBOs and local self-governments. In February 2016, Government of India has launched the National Framework for Malaria Elimination 2016-2030 by National Elimination Goal of 2030. Within this framework, all the 36 States and Union Territories are stratified into four categories according to endemic nature. Elimination in the case of low and moderate transmission will be achieved by 2022 while in the high- transmission States, the deadline has been shifted from 2017 to 2021.
Such steps taken by India and Myanmar within their respective regions are no doubt encouraging. Yet, specific measures designed towards monitoring the transmission of diseases in the border regions and preventing their outbreaks through spreading awareness amongst the border population and vaccinating them, where necessary, is sadly lacking. Moreover, without adequate monitoring of the migrants and mobile population and bringing them within disease surveillance mechanism, border regions are likely to remain susceptible to vector borne diseases.
Country Reports
Afghanistan
Taliban miitants killed
The Taliban militants had to face severe casualty after attacking a security check-post in the Bala Boluk district of the Farah province. In this regard, around seven Taliban militants were killed and around eleven were wounded. The National Directorate of Security (NDS) Special Forces also held massive weapons and ammunitions belonging to the Taliban group. Whether these were being prepared to attack Kabul city, is under speculation.
Bangladesh
Blame on repatriation
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has blamed Myanmar and international aid agencies for the delay in repatriation of Rohingya refugees. She observed that many international agencies that came to Bangladesh to extend voluntary services did not want the Rohingyas to return to their homeland because they feel their job would be rendered redundant if the issue is resolved. She also claimed that Myanmar does not want to take back the Rohingyas while the refugees too feared repression when they went back.
Budget targets 8.2 pc growth
The 48
th annual budget for fiscal 2019-20 in Parliament, presented by Finance Minister A H M Mustafa Kamal, targets a growth of 8.2 %. To achieve this, and to boost the developmental sector, the budget has allocated Tk 3, 20,469 crores for operation and other expenditure and Tk 2, 02,721 crores for the annual development programme. The Government is planning to support the expenses by collecting revenues through various sources. This is the first budget proposed by the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina government in her third term.
Women live longer
The report on “Bangladesh Sample Vital Statistics 2018” revealed that women in Bangladesh are living longer than man. The report unveiled in Dhaka claimed that average life expectancy is of a female in Bangladesh is 73.8 years and for man is 70.9 years.
Bhutan
EAM visits Bhutan
Dr. S Jaishankar, Minister of External Affairs (EAM) of India, paid a visit to Bhutan after taking over the charge. In Thimpu, he had an audience with His Majesty The King, met Prime Minister Dr. Lotay Tshering, and Foreign Minister Dr. Tandi Dorji. The two sides discussed various areas of cooperation and exchange of high-level visits.
Homosexuality okayed
The National Assembly of Bhutan on 7 June voted to drop Section 213 and 214 of the Penal Code of Bhutan that criminalises ‘unnatural sex’ and also prescribes a punishment for it. Namgay Tshering, Finance Minister, first submitted a recommendation to the House during the second reading of the bill. He then submitted a written recommendation to the legislative committee to be included as part of its recommendation for amendment to the Code.
India
Air-crash: Bodies found
The AN-32 aircraft, which had gone missing in the State of Arunachal Pradesh, was found to have crashed. The bodies of the 13 crew members have been subsequently retrieved from the crash site, along with the black box of the aircraft which contains the cockpit recordings, along with the rest of the flight data of the aircraft. While the black box is still to be analyzed, initial reports suggest bad weather and poor visibility due to cloud cover to the be the reasons for the crash.
Cyclone Vayu veers away
While latest meteorological reports suggest that the Cyclone Vayu will not make landfall in Gujarat, the State still remains in a state of high alert. Despite the change in course, the cyclone has still resulted in torrential rainfall, along with strong winds all over the Saurashtra coast. While the Airport Authority of India (AAI) has reopened airports in Kandla, Porbandar and Diu, officials have continued advising citizens to stay away from the sea shore due to the prevalence of winds and rain.
Terrorist attack in Anantnag
Five jawans of the CRPF were killed and three others injured when terrorists claiming to be part of the Pro-Pakistan Al-Umar Mujahideen attacked the convoy passing through a busy road in the Anantnag district of South Kashmir. During the attack, security forces managed to gun down one of the attackers, while the other one escaped. Search operations for the second terrorist are still underway. However, intelligence officials state that the terrorist group claiming responsibility has been defunct for some time, while also stating that this attack matches the Modus Operandi of the Jaish-e-Mohammed.
Maldives
Judiciary tussle on
In a none-too-unexpected move, the anticipated triangular Executive-Legislature-Judiciary tussle commence with the ruling MDP-controlled, Independent Judicial Service Commission (JSC) ordered the suspension of Supreme Court Justice Abdulla Didi, and also later ignored the SC stay of the same, opening up possibilities with none-too-predictable consequences. The JSC action follows a complaint filed by Parliament Speaker and MDP boss, Mohammed Nasheed, that as the presiding officer of the trial court, Justice Didi had accepted $ 1-m in bribes for sentencing him to 13 years in prison, in the ‘Judge Abdulla abduction case’, pertaining to the former’s shortened presidential term, 2008-12.
Myanmar
Boosting tourism
The 4
th National Conference on Communities and Tourism, held from 6-8 June, saw nearly 350 participants from tourism businesses and community-based groups as well as the state chief minister. This year’s theme for the conference is “Decentralisation, Destination and Development”, mirroring the new Tourism Law which gives state and regional governments the power to build an enabling environment for responsible investment in tourism in their region and destination management.
Food items to be exported
The Ministry of Commerce (MOC) will now allow foreign and joint venture companies to export specific food and commodity items. Foreign companies with recommendations from relevant ministries can buy the commodities from local producers will be issued licenses to export the goods. The aim is to raise the quality of Myanmar exports and boost international demand for local goods as well as to raise earnings for domestic producers. The MOC allowed a total of seven items including rice, meat and fish, value-added crops, pulp and paper, seeds, refined metals, semi-finished or finished fruit products and wood based furniture.
Nepal
Army chief in China
In pursuit of strengthening defense ties between Nepal and China, Nepalese Chief of the Army Staff, Purna Chandra Thapa, would be on a visit to the giant neighbour. It will primarily be an eight-member delegation. The armies of the two countries will exchange their views, leading to a much better collaboration between the two, in near future.
Gurkhas’ issues
Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli’s visit to the UK has resulted in many comprehensive agreements. Apart from economic and trade issues, the long standing grievances of the former Gurkha veterans of the British Army were also acknowledged. This includes pay parity and other relevant areas of concern.
Pakistan
$518 m from World Bank
Pakistan has been granted a loan of $518 million by the World Bank in an effort to enhance its tax revenues. This money is being earmarked for two projects, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Revenue Mobilization and Public Resource Management Project and other tax reforms in the Federal Revenue. These loans have come after the incumbent Prime Minister Imran Khan accused the previous governments of the Pakistan People’s Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-N of adding Rs18 trillion to the public debt, also stating that the reason most of the public does not file its taxes is because of the corruption of the previous governments.
Imran meets Xi at SCO summit
Prime Minister Imran Khan met the Chinese Premier Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Shangai Cooperation Organisation Summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. The two leaders spoke on many issues, including bilateral relations between their respective neighbors and Pakistan's counter terrorism efforts. The meeting also saw the two leaders discuss matters related to the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), with Imran Khan stating that the project remains his government’s highest priority.
Concern over China loans
The China Pakistan Economic Corridor has had the Senate concerned over issues connected to the project, ranging from the money involved in the project to the fact that the government’s focus on these projects has led to the Balochistan corridor to be seriously overlooked in terms of development. The government, according to Minister for Planning Khusro Bakhtyar has started the installation of a Rs17 billion electricity grid while developing highways and dams within the region.
Sri Lanka
EU, US upset
In a statement, EU mission-heads in Colombo has expressed concern over the increasing pressure on the Muslim community in the country. In yet another coordinated yet separate move of the kind, an US official in the capital told newsmen that future Sri Lankan Governments should honour the nation’s current commitments on human rights and related issues.
President, PM overseas
As if to signal that all was well with the nation post-Easter blasts, President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe took off overseas almost simultaneously. While Sirisena left for Tajikistan to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, PM Wickremesinghe left for Singapore, on one of his not-so-infrequent personal visits. This, even as the President cancelled the weekly Cabinet meeting without citing reasons in the aftermath of the blasts-centred politics taking yet another new turn, and PM Wickremesinghe clarifying that not holding a week’s meeting did not make the Cabinet defunct.
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Winning Hearts: A Paradigm Shift”,
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Contributors
Afghanistan & Pakistan: Sohini Bose
Bangladesh: Joyeeta Bhattacharjee
Bhutan: Mihir Bhonsale
India: Ameya Kelkar
Maldives & Sri Lanka: N Sathiya Moorthy
Myanmar: Sreeparna Banerjee
Nepal: Sohini Nayak
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