| News From CUTS-May 2006 |
| There be provisions for the Child Domestic
Workers in The Child Labour Act — Justice N.K. Jain |
There
be provisions for the Child Domestic Workers in The Child Labour Act
May 27, 2006, Jaipur, Press Release “Although there are laws to protect other forms of child labour, the Child Domestic Workers have not been included in the legal provisions till date. Unless the common man wakes up to the needs of these children and changes the attitudes, the efforts made for these children will not be fruitful. All of us will have to make it a habit to do our work ourselves.” The above thoughts were shared by Justice N.K. Jain, Chairman of State Human Rights Commission and Retired Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court, as the Chief Guest during the State Level Advocacy Seminar on May 26th, 2006 at Hotel Maharani Plaza for the Child Domestic Workers under the project called ‘Hum Bhi Bachche Hain’ run by CUTS Centre for Consumer Action, Research and Training (CUTS-CART) for the last one year in partnership with Save The Children (UK). He further said that the laws will have to ensure that the parents of these children fulfill their responsibilities and that they don’t send their children for meager benefits. Along with this there will have to be a check on the greediness of the employers. Justice Jain further stated that although many laws exist in order to ensure the Right to Equality but the implementation is very weak. To achieve the aforesaid, political will, public and parents’ support will have to be ensured. On the occasion special guest Mr. Jivraj Singh, Project Director, National Child Labour Project (NCLP), addressed the participants by saying that there is a dire need to develop and follow a common code of conduct to get rid of the issue. Media plays a vital role in propagating such issues. There has to be a focused approach towards these problems along with a positive outlook, only then can some concrete outputs will be seen. Ms. Neetu Sahi, Programme Coordinator, Save the Children (UK), emphasized over the fact that there needs to be a lot of awareness in order to deal with the Child Domestic Workers. She appreciated the work done by CUTS-CART during the year long project. She said that it is essential to locate child domestic workers and sensitise each and every person for which all the likeminded organizations will have to join hands and work for it. Mr. Dharmendre Chaturvedi, Project Coordinator, CUTS-CART briefed the people about all the activities undertaken during the project implementation. Mr. George Cheriyan, Associate Director, CUTS-CART, threw light on the objectives of the project, emphasized upon the legal provisions and sustainability of the goals of the project. On the basis of the suggestions that came during the seminar, CUTS-CART will formulate strategies for future and also forward the recommendations to the State Government. On this occasion the chief guest also distributed prizes to the children who participated in various year long competitions under the project activities. Approximately 100 participants like representatives of various NGOs, teachers and students of the selected schools of Jaipur who participated in the project, Government Officials gave their valuable suggestions. The programme was anchored by Ms. Priyanka Gupta and Mr. K.C. Sharma gave the Vote of Thanks. |
TRAI
must distinguish between ‘ordinary’ and ‘commercial’ consumer while
fixing commercial tariff for broadcasting and cable television services
May 25, 2006, New Delhi, Press Release The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), must make a clear distinction between the ordinary cable subscriber and commercial cable subscriber while fixing tariffs. This was stated in a Submission given by Consumer Unity and Trust Society (CUTS International) at an open house on ‘Issues related to Commercial Tariff for Broadcasting and Cable Television Services’ organised by TRAI in the capital today. “The key line of distinction should be whether the services are being commercially exploited or not’” said Mani Lamba, Director, CUTS International. “‘Consumer’ should be viewed as an ultimate user of goods and services. Therefore the distinction between ordinary cable subscriber and commercial cable subscriber should in on the basis of the nature of end use.” The nature of end use should be further distinguished as whether the service is used for own use or packaged as a value added service with other services provided and sold to consumer at a charge, she added. With this change, the definition of commercial cable operator will bring within its ambit hotels, restaurants, private hospitals, private educational institutions, bars, clubs, pubs, guesthouses, cinema halls, theatres, stadiums etc. There should however be clear distinction for institutions like government hospitals and school which are already subsidized and do not commercially exploit broadcasting service by offering it as a value added service packaged with other services. CUTS International was also of the view that the rates for commercial consumers should not be fixed and left to their mutual negotiating power. Regarding providing safeguard for those commercial consumers who are only paying the cable operator and do not have written agreements with the broadcasters, Lamba suggested that TRAI should mandate them to enter into agreements with their respective service provider and register the agreement with the authority. TRAI should specify a formula for revenue sharing among service providers which could for instance be equal revenue sharing amongst all service providers. For more information, please contact |
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May 22, 2006, Uttarkashi & Pouri, Press
Release Farmers coming from those regions said that the government should discuss the policies and laws to be implemented in the farm sector with the primary stakeholders, who will be directly effected by those policies. The proposed Seed Bill, 2004 has been translated into Hindi and circulated in the meetings. In Uttarkashi, Suresh Bhai of Himalaya Bhagirathi Ashram, Matli analysed that government wants to pass this kind of anti farmers’ Bill under the pressure of multinationals. Proper sensitisation of the farmers on the issues is very crucial, so that they can protest against government policies. Many women participants have actively taken part in the Pouri Meeting and explained the difficulties of commercialization of traditional knowledge. They were of the opinion that market accessibility is the main reason, for which the communities could not commercialise the traditional medicines and traditional varieties of seeds in large scale. From local cooperatives the effort was there to market the traditional varieties, but most of the times the cooperatives suffer from corruptions, which left no alternative in front of the communities. Storage facilities are another problem for which the seeds cannot be preserved properly for marketing. No government has ever tried to facilitate this for the local communities. The lack of proper documentation is also responsible for the degradation of traditional knowledge at the regions. From local NGOs small efforts have been made, but that could not become successful for lack of fund and expertise. The farmers urged that the local panchayats should take the responsibility to deliver an official status of the documents on the traditional knowledge, what has been made so far by several NGOs and research institutions. For more information, please contact |
Single Appellate Body be Appointed for All Sectoral Regulators: Parliamentarians Unanimous May 18, 2006, New Delhi, Press Release At the meeting of Members of Parliament under the aegis of Parliamentarians' Forum on Economic Policy Issues (PAR-FORE) organised by CUTS International, there was unanimity across various political parties on the need to avoid a proliferation of Appellate Tribunals. The Competition Appellate Tribunal proposed in Competition Amendment Bill should also be the appellate tribunal for all sectoral regulators. “There should be only one Appellate Body covering all sector regulators instead of a multiplicity of Sectoral Appellate Bodies to hear appeals against the orders of their respective sectoral regulators.” Dr P. C. Alexander, MP Rajya Sabha and Chairman, PAR-FORE said. There is often an overlap between the functions performed by various regulatory agencies. Setting up of an appellate body for each regulatory agency can lead to forum shopping in similar cases and possibility of divergent decisions, the forum opined. The forum also felt that the Competition Commission of India could consist of a Chairperson and not more than six members as proposed in the Amendment Bill. However, there should be a provision for appointment of part time members, who could be appointed for their expertise on a case to case basis. This practice was being followed in many countries and also by TRAI. It would also enable expeditious disposal of cases. Stressing on the responsibilities of the members of CCI, Mr Sharad Joshi, MP, SBP, said that every Bill creates an authority but the final Act does not lay down proper guidelines for carrying out the work. This should not be repeated in the case of the Competition Amendment Bill especially since part time professionals are not currently envisaged. The work outline should be clearly defined and allocated for speedier results. There was also a consensus on the issue of reducing the age limit of Chairperson and other members to less than 65. “It has been observed that most of the Authorities so created become parking slots for retired bureaucrats. This should not happen in CCI. Hence every effort should be made to restrict the age limit to less than 65”, Mrs Jayaben, Thakkar, MP, BJP said. It was also felt that there was a need to overhaul the entire system of regulation. The purpose of any Act is protection of the interest of the public from monopoly economic power and this must always be kept in mind while formulating any law. On the need to improve the supervisory role of Parliament, the Forum was of the view that a Parliamentary Standing Committee on Regulation and Competition be constituted. The Committee could call all the regulatory authorities and CCI for a hearing and submit its Report to Parliament. Circulating its suggestions on the Competition Amendment Bill, CUTS International had stated that the need for a Competition Law arises to address anti competitive practices designed to restrict the free play of competition in the market, to address unfair means adopted by firms against the consumers and to extract maximum possible consumers’ surplus and to maintain and promote the competition spirit in the market. The purpose of Competition Advocacy is to create awareness on competition culture. However, CCI can merely advocate to the government when called upon to do so and its recommendations are only advisory, not mandatory. This clause needs to be amended and CCI should be empowered to suo moto participate in the formulation of a policy without being invited by the governments, CUTS International agenda stated. Shri Suresh Prabhu (SS), Dinesh Trivedi (AITC), N N Krishandas CPI(M) and representatives from consumer and civil society organisations were present in the meeting. For more information, please contact |
Can
competition Policy and Law not address developmental The 5th annual conference of the International Competition Network (ICN), a high profile global association of competition, anti trust and fair trade agencies just concluded at Cape Town, South Africa. The overriding theme of the conference was “competition policy implementation” which covered issues such as the role, effectiveness, sectoral cooperation and legitimacy of agencies promoting competition policy and law at national and regional level. Targeted advocacy, technical assistance, experience sharing, replicating best practices and effective functional co-operation among agencies in dealing with cartels, mergers and acquisition, monopolies and unfair trade practices dominated the discussion in this conference held during 3-5 May, 2006. While the functional interface between competition agencies, judiciary and sectoral regulators has been identified as important elements for promoting and implementing fair competition rules in the economy; inadequate and transparent regulatory laws, legitimacy and resource constraints, overlapping jurisdictions, poor business and stakeholder consultations as some of the challenges facing competition authorities. The evolutional and perception gap between the rich and poor countries in not only drafting and implementing competition policy and law but also the theoretical orientations behind fair competition principles have been clearly reflected in the deliberations. While the rich country representatives kept clamoring on economic efficiency, competitive markets, technologically neutral legislation and curtailing hard core cartels and economic concentration as key elements of this experience sharing conference, the developing country delegates focused more on the role of fair competition rules in achieving economic equity, access and affordability of basic goods and services such as food, water, electricity, information and communication services as pressing issues. It is quite evident that Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) group countries has a long experience in relying competition policy and law as a tool for regulating markets; most developing, least developed and former communist countries are relatively new entrants in this field. Among the developing countries South Africa, Brazil, Mexico and Chile have advanced competition policy, law and also institutional framework for implementing the law and policies. Kenya, Zambia and Egypt were quite vocal among the young competition agencies. Although, India is on the verge of implementing a new generation competition policy and law, the absence of official Indian representation was notable in this forum. Further, neither of the other six South Asian countries nor China participated in this conference. The conference was attended by 275 delegates from 70 countries, majority of them were competition and fair trade officials from rich and transitional economies. About a quarter of the delegates came from developing and least developed countries, apart from a handful of lawyers, academics, business and consumer and research organizations. However, it is notable that for the first time, an ICN conference was being held in a developing country. This conference introduced the crucial theme, the role of competition policy in promoting economic development in the ICN agenda, which will be carried forward by the network. Developing a proper understanding on the linkages between competition policy and development was identified as a crucial aspect of competition policy implementation by various third world delegates. An attempt was made to assess the contribution of competition policy towards achieving developmental objectives by looking at the following issues:
It was revealed that there is an urgent need to better understand the linkages between competition policy and development, and issue that has not been the subject of research, especially in developing and least developed countries. “We have been able to bring in new agencies and players on board such non state advisors and development agencies who were hitherto not part of the ICN ” said Shan Ramburuth of the South African Competition Authority. The intellectual contribution of “non state advisors” viz. academics, business, civil society, lawyers, media in establishing competition-business-academic linkages have been highlighted in the conference. William Kovacic, of the US anti-trust agency in his presentation underlined the benefit of network building for the competition agencies at national level by involving actors such as law associations, business chambers, consumer groups, media, universities and business schools. Reflecting on his first experience in the ICN conference as a consumer advocate Mosadeq Sahibdin of the Institute for Consumer Protection Mauritius said “ICN is the right forum for sharing experiences among competition authorities around the world and the sector specific working group on key aspects of competition law will benefit the young competition agencies in developing countries. However, ICN seems to overlook the interests of those who are the beneficiaries of the fair competition on the market, the consumers, and also the grass root consumer organisations.” As a pre cursor to the ICN conference, the development dimensions of competition policy and law was debated at a symposium held on 2nd May, which brought together an array of academics, policy makers, civil society and competition officials. Simon Evenett of the University of St. Gallen suggested that there is a potential link between competition policy and achieving millennium development goals (MDGs), when some others thought that this is a too ambitious agenda. While a media survey research on allegations of anti-competitive practices in sub-Saharan Africa presented by Frederic Jenny of the French Supreme Court, showed interesting trends suggesting public perceptions on the role of competition policy and law in Africa. The ICN conference ended with the adoption of a set of working group recommendations on cartels, technical assistance, best practices guidance and follow up agenda for competition authorities and practitioners. The sixth ICN global conference will be held in Moscow in the middle of 2007. For details on ICN conference and papers: www.internationalcompetitionnetwork.org
and for details of Pre-conference symposium www.tralac.org.za
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