Social evils like violence over inter-caste marriages and women undergoing hysterectomy to retain jobs besides issues like recent spate of incidents of building collapse killing scores of people and plight of people due to floods in Bihar figured prominently in the Rajya Sabha on Friday.
Drawing the attention of the House to violence against couples going for inter-caste marriages, Kumari Selja(Congress) said in the month of July, 82 years back Mahatma Gandhi's daughter also married a person from another caste. Moreover, Bhimrao Ambedkar observed that the casteless society can only come about through inter-caste marriages, she said and urged the lawmakers to pro-actively promote it.
Expressing concern over the spurt in incidents of violence against couples in some states, Selja said the plight of Dalits was even more pitiable in this regard. She also said protection homes set up for such couples will not serve the purpose and the need of the hour was a change in mindsets. Several opposition members endorsed her views.
Raising the issue of women undergoing hysterectomy, Vandana Chavan(NCP) said this was taking place in Beed district of Maharashtra. Terming it as a new form of violence against women, she said contractors engaged in sugarcane mill business hired only those women who did not have periods. Several poor women were opting for hysterectomy in the age group of 20 to 30 years and the contractors paid them Rs 20,000 -30,000 as loan for the operation. The entire Opposition associated itself with her.
Some Rajya Sabha members including Viplove Thakur and Husain Dalwai(Congress) besides Rakesh Sinha(nominated) voiced concern over incidents of buildings collapse and the resultant casualties and suggested cheaper loans to people for repair of their old buildings.
Sinha said accountability should be fixed for buildings collapse on builders, engineers and architects and favoured a provision for loan at lower interest rates, especially for senior citizens, for repair of old residential structures.
Ram Nath Thakur(JD-U) and C P Thakur(BJP) highlighted the plight of people affected by floods in Bihar. They urged the central government to hold urgent talks with Nepal for building a dam there to prevent floods.
R K Sinha(BJP) highlighted the rising cases of sexual assault on children. He said investigations suggest that most of the accused are under influence of drugs and liquor and suggested that a nodal ministry should be established with a single point agenda to deal with this grave social issue. Sukhendu Sekhar Roy (TMC) opposed the proposed disinvestment of Bengal Chemical and Pharmaceutical Ltd.
Opposition members also raised a din for some minutes over an alleged attack on a former legislatorof Madhya Pradesh onboard a train and criticised Minister of State for Railways Suresh Angadi for not adequately responding to the grievance. Responding to the Opposition's criticism, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said the Government Railway Police (GRP), under state governments, was responsible for passenger safety while the Railway Protection Force (RPF) under central government's purview was responsible for safety of railway assets. He said the GRP had registered a case and is investigating it.