Indian village bans mobile phone use by women
In addition to the ban, the Sunderbari village council in a Muslim-dominated area some 385 kilometers east of Patna, the capital of Bihar, has also imposed a fine of $180 if a girl is caught using a mobile phone on the streets.
Married women would have to pay $36.60.
"It always gives us a lot of embarrassment when someone asks who has eloped this time," said Manuwar Alam, who heads a newly-formed committee tasked with enforcing the ban, referring to queries from neighbouring villages.
He said the number of elopements and extramarital love affairs had risen in the past few months, with at least six girls and women fleeing their homes.
"Even married women were deserting their husbands to elope with lovers. That was shameful for us," Alam said. "So, we decided to tackle it firmly. Mobile phones are debasing the social atmosphere".
Local officials have begun investigations, saying that such bans cannot be allowed in a healthy society, while women's rights activists called it an assault on freedom that could potentially end up harming women by stripping them of one source of protection from trouble, such as unwanted advances by men.
"Girls and women are capable enough to protect themselves," said activist Suman Lal during a debate on local television. "Technology is meant to be used, not to be banned...The order is nauseating."
Fellow activist Mohammad Islam said it was "disappointing" that the village council ignored the many advantages of mobile phones before placing a ban on them for one reason.
"I want every girl to be given a mobile phone so that she could call up family members if she has a problem", he said.
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@Roti Kapra aur makan Are you sure women agree with this democratic decision?
its not mobile its your rigid social, cultural and religious values that sets strict inhuman impositions on women. you expect them to be pious, subordinate. submissive while you your self doing totally the opposite
@abc: banning mobile is far better than practicing karo-kari,throwing acid and domestic violence or shooting them in the middle of the road..........
@abc: "And Indians were blasting us for the womens issues in our country…. Shining Glorious indeed"
You do realize that this is one village out of 600,000. The village local government took that decision which clearly does not seem legal. And this is NOT a done deal. This WILL be changed since officials are reviewing it.
Another ‘SHINING’ example of the ‘World’s Largest Fascist Autocracy” – INDIA [2]
And Indians were blasting us for the womens issues in our country.... Shining Glorious indeed
@Sam: "its usual trend in India to judge fellow indian-muslim through religious perspective when something bad happens, and through patriotic perspective when they shine"
Not at all. We own all our citizens. It is not a hidden fact that by and large Muslims are more socially conservative than other communities in India be it Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Parsis, Jains, Buddhists, Jews or atheists. The reference to the religion simply points to the root cause for why they decided the way they did.
The village level local government which was dominated by Muslims took a decision which is not consistent with India's laws. This decision will not be allowed to stand. But state and federal government need not be involved since decision was not at that level. The district collector can do the needful. As the article stated "Local officials have begun investigations, saying that such bans cannot be allowed in a healthy society"
Also not that that this is one 1 out of 600,000 villages in the country. Also note that local government exists at vilage level. Also that Muslim majority villages have Muslim leadership in panchayats in India.
@IceSoul: TO answer your question, the article states "Local officials have begun investigations, saying that such bans cannot be allowed in a healthy society". This issue is a local issue to a local village and will be solved at a local level. When you have a decentralized governance via local self government at village level, from time to time such curveballs will occur. This ban is clearly against the law and will get addressed accordingly. No need for state or central government to get involved. I am sure the district collector can fix this.
@Kaddu: "Another ‘SHINING’ example of the ‘World’s Largest Fascist Autocracy” – INDIA"
Did you notice that - this ban was by the village not by the country's federal or state government but by the village local government and - the village is a Muslim majority village and - the officials are investigating because they think the ban is illegal? Probably not. You just jumped in to make the coment after reading the headline. Situation is a little different from the ban in late mnight packages iplemented by your federal government. Also I do not believe you even have local governments in your big cities let alone your villages.
@pakistani brothers
please read nazariya-e-pakistan your country itself claims that no muslim can be Indian since its hindoo india .
This is because of 7th century ideology...Let them leave alone, who cares ?They will remain as such . I request ET to close this comment section , otherwise a section of people and their religion will be bashed heavily,though the bashers have a point to bash .
@Sam: Haha, when we choose to look through a prism(nationalism/religion/sex/..you name it) we don't see through. Think, many of us like to look through, but not see through.
freedom of speaches.....
yhis is muslim mijority area and its not included in india hahahahahahaahah
For Pakistanis another news..from India
http://www.rediff.com/news/slide-show/slide-show-1-fatwa-factory-no-yoga-insurance-veena-malik-tv/20121205.htm
Bihar, Kashmir, Bengal, Central India, Gandhar, NWFP etc. were once Buddhist dominated centres of India..
Did you get the point..!!! Pakistanis
I wonder how Rakesh kumar(fake name)'s comment is published here. It is too uncivilised. Should we expect that only in ET henceforth?
@Kaddu: All this is the result of the practice and prevalance of 7th century ideology regarding women in the Musliim faith. India is still stuck with these illiterates unfortunately. It will take time to bring them up to speed.as India progreses.
@IceSoul: Yup, talk is cheap. Village council is not an elected body. Govt will/should do nothing. If and when law gets broken I'm sure cops can handle it.
@IceSoul who asks "Put aside all the mudslinging and tell me what the Indian government plans to do about it?"
I had already written a comment about it. But ET doesn't publish comments against Musharraf and Manmohan Singh.
I will tell you what Indian government will do. Nothing.
Indian government is afraid of losing the votes of minorities that all organized crimes of the minorities is tolerated. Welcome to the Islamic republic of India.
Put aside all the mudslinging and tell me what the Indian government plans to do about it? Talk is cheap.
I support this ban. Have you seen their phone bills, who do you think pays them. One solution could be to set their phones to receive in-coming calls only , then all the girlfriends of the world will not be able to call each other and there will not be any bills to worry about.
village ban better than ban on entire nation...........
Pakistanis can't see to the truth and pseudo-secular Indians do not want to say the truth...but the reality is, you take up any news papers, you will find an disproportionately very high percentage of muslims are involved in all sorts of crimes.
This is true to any country. Be it USA or UK. In UK, a disproportionately very high percentage of muslims are lodged in jails. Compare that with a disproportionately very low percentage of Hindus lodged in UK jails. These are indisputable facts and you can find the statistics just by googling.
i want answer.
@Sam who writes "its usual trend in India to judge fellow indian-muslim through religious perspective when something bad happens, and through patriotic perspective when they shine. Such a hypocrisy by a nation, who consider themselves to be secular."
Well Sam, if you gave it some thought, I assure you that you will realize that there's no hypocrisy in this.
In India, the only muslims who are thriving are democratic secular muslims. The muslims who are backward are all religious bigots.
THIS IS THE TRUTH. Any honest Indian muslims will also accept this.
So what... what if it is a popular decision and majority of population is in its favor... Democracy! Stupid!! Democracy!
This is from Bihar village @Sam: The village is muslim majority area- true village banned mobile phone- true. That guy kabbu want to insult 'hindu India'- true.- so he enlightened the situation for extremist pakis like Kabbu but this is some remote village in Bihar, which is one of tens of thousands. so that is not enough to make generalization. Its not like that situation where entire country banned mobilphones and your friend Kabbu forgot that
If this would have happen in Pakistan then offense should have come form west that you are extreme Muslims you don't give rights to the Women. Now where is democratic usa , england or india?
This news could have happened in Pakistan. When I saw the headline, I half knew that somewhere in there the word "Muslim" would crop up. I was not disappointed.
Paki christian : What do u expect ?
why we hear these non sense from muslim dominated community??
@python,
you took a deep breath as soon you read "muslim dominated area", didn't you. pretty quick to disown the news like it never happened in India.its usual trend in India to judge fellow indian-muslim through religious perspective when something bad happens, and through patriotic perspective when they shine. Such a hypocrisy by a nation, who consider themselves to be secular.
@kaddu
People like you are the ones behind the ban. You guys are like computer, installed only with anti-India program, no hope.
@Kaddu
Here i am pasting the first line for you:
"In addition to the ban, the Sunderbari village council in a Muslim-dominated area...." I think now you get it why the ban was done?
Taliban gaining a foothold in India now.
Another 'SHINING' example of the 'World's Largest Fascist Autocracy" - INDIA