So far, the lecture by Mr. Shivakumar about the Indian legal system has been the most fascinating to listen to. I cannot believe that nearly 30 million cases are pending within India's boarders! Our packet of readings validated the adverse effects of the choked-up legal system, stating that consequently "tens of thousands of Indians facing trial are crammed into overcrowded prisons, the majority incarcerated for terms far longer than any potential sentence would dictate" (Rahul Bedi, "India's legal system is grinding to a halt"). I also thought it was crazy how Indian women are permitted to marry at age 18, but Indian men have to be at least 21 years of age before doing so. Obviously, America focuses on the equality between men and women, so hearing about a law that treats the two genders separately like this seems pretty outrageous. Mr. Shivakumar also noted that women can only terminate the life of a fetus if the continued pregnancy causes potential harm to the mother or the fetus. With such a law put in place, I am curious how common it is for women who are not granted termination to use other self-inflicted methods of abortion in order to end an unwanted pregnancy.
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The trip to the District Court House was such an eye-opener! I couldn't believe how beat-up and run-down the entire place was. After sitting in a couple of the sessions and taking a short tour, I completely understand why we were getting such crazy looks from all the people who were standing on the grounds. It was very clear that they had no idea why anyone would want to be around that place, and after being inside, I couldn't agree more.
Dan and I sat by each other on the bus from Bangalore to Mysore, and we talked about how we both wanted to see what their jails are like. That site visit completely changed my mind; if the District Court House is that bad, I can't imagine what the overcrowded prisons look like. Yikes.
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Although I haven't seen one I would bet that the jails would be places of horror. As you can imagine people often are awaiting trial for long times in jail. But, as Mr. Shivakumar said, this is also all part of the revamping of the systems that will inevitably take place as the country grows.
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