The unacceptability of this vaccine anti-hCG became clear on three counts after the Phase II trials: the antibodies produced were too variable for an acceptable product; a high failure rate. (excerpt)
In 1871 a Criminal Tribes was passed by the British which notified approximately 150 tribes around India as criminals giving police powers to arrest them and monitor their movements. Arguably this Act was part of an entire model of how law and order was to be preserved in colonial India. However Rajnarayan Chandavarkar a Cambridge University historian writes that criminal tribes were created as a convenient target a scapegoat. By acting against them the state could keep up the pretense of law enforcement even if a lot more crime happened and was left unpunished. The case of the Pardhis shows that when one commits crimes part of the blame lies in societal attitudes that leave them with no choice. Consequently when the highest elected official refers to the criminal instincts of these tribals and newspapers write about their criminal antecedents there seems to be little hope that they will ever be seen as ordinary Indians. The case of Pinya Hari Kale however offers some hope that Indias ex-criminal tribes will no longer suffer the stigma of being labeled; that they will no longer be a convenient target via which the police can pretend that they are fighting crime.
In 1986, major amendments were introduced to the Indian penal law, in which two new sections were added to the penal code. These sections made violence leading to murder of women within 7 years of marriage, as well as harassment by a husband or his relatives leading to suicide, punishable. At the same time, the Indian Evidence Act was also amended, shifting the burden of proof for such deaths on the accused, which meant that, contrary to normal practice, the husband and his family would be presumed guilty unless proven innocent. Despite such amendments, the Vimochana, a leading voluntary organization working on cases of domestic violence in Bangalore, indicates that the number of cases registered by the police and eventually punished by the courts has not increased. It seems to have only discredited the legal process as an ineffective method of protecting weak citizens within the democratic framework. According to the Vimochana, this may be because every stage of the recording and investigation of an incident of domestic violence, even when it leads to death is poorly handled. This paper presents the experiences of the Vimochana, which show how the law, courts, and police fail victims of domestic violence in the region. Moreover, it provides recommended strategies on addressing this issue.
