title: Mike Norvell

text: Memphis went 10–3 in 2017. They started the season on August 31 with a 37–29 victory over Louisiana-Monroe. The Tigers were supposed to play UCF on September 9, but due to Hurricane Irma, the game, which originally had been moved up one day to September 8, was rescheduled for September 30. In order to reschedule the American Athletic Conference game, Memphis canceled their game with Georgia State, leaving the team with only 11 regular season games as opposed to the usual 12. On September 16, the Tigers picked up a 48–45 upset victory over #25 UCLA, marking only their second victory over a ranked opponent in 21 years. After a 44–31 victory over Football Championship Subdivision opponent Southern Illinois, Norvell's Tigers suffered their first loss of the season in the form of a 40–13 defeat in the rescheduled UCF game. On October 6, Memphis obliterated UConn by a margin of 70–31. That was followed by a 30–27 victory over #25 Navy, marking the first time the Tigers had ever defeated two ranked opponents in a single season in school history. Ranked #25 in the country in the AP Poll, the Tigers won their third consecutive contest with an exciting 42–38 win over Houston. A fourth straight win followed on October 27 with a 56–26 blowout victory over Tulane. Norvell's Tigers made it five in a row with a 41–14 victory over Tulsa. On November 18, the Tigers defeated SMU in a high-scoring 66–45 contest to clinch the American Athletic Conference's West Division and a berth in the 2017 American Athletic Conference Football Championship Game. Memphis finished off the regular season with a 70–13 beat down of East Carolina, recording their seventh consecutive victory. In the 2017 American Athletic Conference Football Championship Game, the Tigers lost a hard-fought 62–55 double overtime contest to UCF. Memphis accepted a berth in the 2017 Liberty Bowl on their home field, losing the game to Iowa State by a nail biting margin of 21–20. On December 5, 2017, Memphis signed Norvell to another contract extension, a five-year addition to his deal worth $13 million. The extension increased Norvell's annual pay to $2.6 million and made him the highest paid Group of 5 head coach in the country. Following the 2017 season, offensive coordinator Darrell Dickey left Norvell's staff to take the offensive coordinator position on newly hired head coach Jimbo Fisher's staff at Texas A&M. Kenny Dillingham was promoted from graduate assistant to replace Dickey.


title: Mike Norvell

text: After starting the 2018 season 4–4 overall and 1–3 in conference play, Memphis would win their last 4 games, including a 52–31 victory over Houston in the final week of the regular season to finish in a 3-way tie for first in the West with Houston and Tulane. After tiebreakers, Memphis was awarded with the West conference berth to the 2018 American Athletic Conference Football Championship Game, facing off against UCF again in Orlando. Despite having a 38–21 lead at the half, the Tigers would only manage to score 3 points in the second half and ended up losing 56–41. Memphis accepted a berth in the 2018 Birmingham Bowl, losing to Wake Forest 37–34 to finish the season 8–6.


title: Mike Norvell

text: The 2019 season was one of the best seasons in the program's history, as the Tigers went 11–1 in the regular season and clinched a spot in the 2019 American Athletic Conference Football Championship Game on December 7, the team's 3rd championship appearance in a row, this time they went up against Cincinnati, whom the Tigers defeated 34-24 the previous week to clinch home-field advantage for the championship game. After a back and forth battle between the two teams, Memphis quarterback Brady White would connect with Antonio Gibson for a go-ahead touchdown with 1:14 left in the 4th quarter to give Memphis a 29–24 victory over the Bearcats to win the conference championship. Since they were the highest ranked group of 5 team in the final CFP poll, they were awarded a new years' 6 bowl berth to the Cotton Bowl against Penn State. The next day, Norvell left Memphis to become the new head coach at Florida State.


title: Mike Norvell

text: On December 8, 2019, Florida State University formally announced Norvell as its head football coach. His contract is for $26.5 million over 6 years. On October 17, 2020, Norvell led the Seminoles to a win over North Carolina, becoming the first ACC coach to defeat a Top 20 opponent in their first year; the team finished with a record of 3–6 in Norvell's first season. However, Norvell tested positive for COVID-19 ahead of the rivalry game with The University of Miami, and was not the acting head coach. As such he finished the season with a 3–5 record as head coach.


title: Mike Norvell

text: In Norvell's second season with the Seminoles, the program started 0-4 for the first time in 45 years and suffered its first ever loss to an FCS program in a 20–17 defeat to Jacksonville State.


title: Mike Norvell

text: In his third season, Florida State started off strong with a 4-0 record and entered the rankings at #23. This included a 24-23 victory over the eventual SEC West champion LSU in the first edition of the Louisiana Kickoff in New Orleans. They lost 3 consecutive games to ACC Atlantic foes Wake Forest, NC State, and Clemson before handily defeating Georgia Tech, rival Miami, and Syracuse. They became bowl eligible for the first time since 2019 following their 45-3 defeat of arch-rival Miami, and reached #19 in the College Football Playoff rankings following their 38-3 defeat of Syracuse. Following a 49-17 home victory against Sun Belt Conference foe, Louisiana, FSU had jumped four ranked spots in the AP Poll to #16, a season high since Week 4 of the 2017 CFB season. The Seminoles notched their first victory over arch-rival Florida since 2017, and fans rushed the field in celebration. They finished in 2nd place in the ACC Atlantic, ahead of NC State and Wake Forest, which were 2 of the 3 teams they lost to (the other being Clemson); NC State and Wake Forest both had losses of their own after beating Florida State, and finished 4-4 and 3-5 in ACC play, respectively, allowing the 5-3 Seminoles to claim 2nd place in the division standings and thus assuring Florida State a better bowl bid.


title: Léopold Sédar Senghor

text: Léopold Sédar Senghor (; ; 9 October 1906 – 20 December 2001) was a Senegalese poet, politician and cultural theorist who was the first president of Senegal (1960–80).


title: Léopold Sédar Senghor

text: Ideologically an African socialist, he was the major theoretician of Négritude. Senghor was a proponent of African culture, black identity and African empowerment within the framework of French-African ties. He advocated for the extension of full civil and political rights for France's African territories while arguing that French Africans would be better off within a federal French structure than as independent nation-states.


title: Léopold Sédar Senghor

text: Senghor became the first President of independent Senegal. He fell out with his long-standing associate Mamadou Dia who was Prime Minister of Senegal, arresting him on suspicion of fomenting a coup and imprisoning him for 12 years. Senghor established an authoritarian single-party state in Senegal where all rival political parties were prohibited.


title: Léopold Sédar Senghor

text: Senghor was also the founder of the Senegalese Democratic Bloc party. Senghor was the first African elected as a member of the "Académie française". He won the 1985 International Nonino Prize in Italy. He is regarded by many as one of the most important African intellectuals of the 20th century.


title: Léopold Sédar Senghor

text: Léopold Sédar Senghor was born on 9 October 1906 in the city of Joal, some 110 kilometres south of Dakar, capital of Senegal. His father, Basile Diogoye Senghor (pronounced: Basile Jogoy Senghor), was a wealthy peanut merchant belonging to the bourgeois Serer people. Basile Senghor was said to be a man of great means and owned thousands of cattle and vast lands, some of which were given to him by his cousin the king of Sine. Gnilane Ndiémé Bakhoum (1861–1948), Senghor's mother, the third wife of his father, a Muslim with Fula origin who belonged to the Tabor tribe, was born near Djilor to a Christian family. She gave birth to six children, including two sons. Senghor's birth certificate states that he was born on 9 October 1906; however, there is a discrepancy with his certificate of baptism, which states it occurred on 9 August 1906. His Serer middle name "Sédar" comes from the Serer language, meaning "one that shall not be humiliated" or "the one you cannot humiliate". His surname "Senghor" is a combination of the Serer words "Sène" (a Serer surname and the name of the Supreme Deity in Serer religion called "Rog Sene") and "gor" or "ghor", the etymology of which is "kor" in the Serer language, meaning male or man. Tukura Badiar Senghor, the prince of Sine and a figure from whom Léopold Sédar Senghor has been reported to trace descent, was a Serer noble.


title: Léopold Sédar Senghor

text: At the age of eight, Senghor began his studies in Senegal in the Ngasobil boarding-school of the Fathers of the Holy Spirit. In 1922 he entered a seminary in Dakar. After being told the religious life was not for him, he attended a secular institution. By then, he was already passionate about French literature. He won distinctions in French, Latin, Greek and Algebra. With his Baccalaureate completed, he was awarded a scholarship to continue his studies in France.


title: Léopold Sédar Senghor

text: In 1928 Senghor sailed from Senegal for France, beginning, in his words, "sixteen years of wandering." Starting his post-secondary studies at the Sorbonne, he quit and went on to the Lycée Louis-le-Grand to finish his prep course for entrance to the "École Normale Supérieure", a "grande école"., Henri Queffélec, Robert Verdier and Georges Pompidou were also studying at this elite institution. After failing the entrance exam, Senghor prepared for his grammar "Agrégation". He was granted his "agrégation" in 1935 after a failed first attempt.


title: Léopold Sédar Senghor

text: Senghor graduated from the University of Paris, where he received the Agrégation in French Grammar. Subsequently, he was designated professor at the universities of Tours and Paris, where he taught during the period 1935–45.


title: Léopold Sédar Senghor

text: Senghor started his teaching years at the lycée René-Descartes in Tours; he also taught at the lycée Marcelin-Berthelot in Saint-Maur-des-Fosses near Paris. He also studied linguistics taught by Lilias Homburger at the "École pratique des hautes études". He studied with prominent social scientists such as Marcel Cohen, Marcel Mauss and Paul Rivet (director of the Institut d'ethnologie de Paris). Senghor, along with other intellectuals of the African diaspora who had come to study in the colonial capital, coined the term and conceived the notion of "négritude", which was a response to the racism still prevalent in France. It turned the racial slur "nègre" into a positively connoted celebration of African culture and character. The idea of "négritude" informed not only Senghor's cultural criticism and literary work, but also became a guiding principle for his political thought in his career as a statesman.


title: Léopold Sédar Senghor

text: In 1939, Senghor was enrolled as a French army enlisted man ("2 Classe") with the rank of private within the 59th Colonial Infantry division in spite of his higher education and of his 1932 acquisition of the French Citizenship. A year later in 1940, during the German invasion of France, he was taken prisoner by the Germans in la Charité-sur-Loire. He was interned in different camps, and finally at Front Stalag 230, in Poitiers. Front Stalag 230 was reserved for colonial troops captured during the war. German soldiers wanted to execute him and the others the same day they were captured, but they escaped this fate by yelling "Vive la France, vive l'Afrique noire!" ("Long live France, long live Black Africa!") A French officer told the soldiers that executing the African prisoners would dishonour the Aryan race and the German Army. In total, Senghor spent two years in different prison camps, where he spent most of his time writing poems and learning enough German to read Goethe's poetry in the original. In 1942 he was released for medical reasons.


title: Léopold Sédar Senghor

text: He resumed his teaching career while remaining involved in the resistance during the Nazi occupation.


title: Léopold Sédar Senghor

text: Senghor advocated for African integration within the French Empire, arguing that independence for small, weak territories would lead to the perpetuation of oppression, whereas African empowerment within a federal French Empire could transform it for the better.


title: Léopold Sédar Senghor

text: Once the war was over, Senghor was selected as Dean of the Linguistics Department with the "École nationale de la France d'Outre-Mer", a position he would hold until Senegal's independence in 1960. While travelling on a research trip for his poetry, he met the local socialist leader, Lamine Guèye, who suggested that Senghor run for election as a member of the Assemblée nationale française. Senghor accepted and became "député" for the riding of Sénégal-Mauritanie, when colonies were granted the right to be represented by elected individuals. They took different positions when the train conductors on the Dakar-Niger line went on strike. Guèye voted against the strike, arguing the movement would paralyse the colony, while Senghor supported the workers, which gained him great support among Senegalese.


title: Léopold Sédar Senghor

text: During the negotiations to write the French Constitution of 1946, Senghor pushed for the extension of French citizenship to all French territories. Four Senegalese communes had citizenship since 1916 – Senghor argued that this should be extended to the rest of France's territory. Senghor argued for a federal model whereby each African territory would govern its own internal affairs, and this federation would be part of a larger French confederation that ran foreign affairs, defense and development policies. Senghor opposed indigenous nationalism, arguing that African territories would develop more successfully within a federal model where each territory had its "negro-African personality" along with French experience and resources.


title: Léopold Sédar Senghor

text: In 1947, Senghor left the African Division of the French Section of the Workers International (SFIO), which had given enormous financial support to the social movement. With Mamadou Dia, he founded the "Bloc démocratique sénégalais" (1948). They won the legislative elections of 1951, and Guèye lost his seat. Senghor was involved in the negotiations and drafting of the Fourth Republic's constitution.


title: Léopold Sédar Senghor

text: Re-elected deputy in 1951 as an independent overseas member, Senghor was appointed state secretary to the council's president in Edgar Faure's government from 1 March 1955 to 1 February 1956. He became mayor of the city of Thiès, Senegal in November 1956 and then advisory minister in the Michel Debré's government from 23 July 1959 to 19 May 1961. He was also a member of the commission responsible for drafting the Fifth Republic's constitution, general councillor for Senegal, member of the "Grand Conseil de l'Afrique Occidentale Francaise" and member for the parliamentary assembly of the European Council.


title: Léopold Sédar Senghor

text: In 1964 Senghor published the first volume of a series of five, titled "Liberté". The book contains a variety of speeches, essays and prefaces.


title: Léopold Sédar Senghor

text: Senghor supported federalism for newly independent African states, a type of "French Commonwealth", while retaining a degree of French involvement:


title: Léopold Sédar Senghor

text: Since federalism was not favoured by the African countries, he decided to form, along with Modibo Keita, the Mali Federation with former French Sudan (present-day Mali). Senghor was president of the Federal Assembly until its failure in 1960.


title: Léopold Sédar Senghor

text: Afterwards, Senghor became the first President of the Republic of Senegal, elected on 5 September 1960. He is the author of the Senegalese national anthem. The prime minister, Mamadou Dia, was in charge of executing Senegal's long-term development plan, while Senghor was in charge of foreign relations. The two men quickly disagreed. In December 1962, Mamadou Dia was arrested under suspicion of fomenting a "coup d'état". He was held in prison for 12 years. Following this, Senghor established an authoritarian presidential regime where all rival political parties were suppressed.


title: Léopold Sédar Senghor

text: On 22 March 1967, Senghor survived an assassination attempt. The suspect, Moustapha Lô, pointed his pistol towards the President after he had participated in the sermon of Tabaski, but the gun did not fire. Lô was sentenced to death for treason and executed on 15 June 1967, even though it remained unclear if he had actually wanted to kill Senghor.


title: Léopold Sédar Senghor

text: Following an announcement at the beginning of December 1980, Senghor resigned his position at the end of the year, before the end of his fifth term. Abdou Diouf replaced him as the head of the country. Under his presidency, Senegal adopted a multi-party system (limited to three: socialist, communist and liberal). He created a performing education system. Despite the end of official colonialism, the value of Senegalese currency continued to be fixed by France, the language of learning remained French, and Senghor ruled the country with French political advisors.


title: Léopold Sédar Senghor

text: He supported the creation of la Francophonie and was elected vice-president of the High Council of the Francophonie. In 1982, he was one of the founders of the Association France and developing countries whose objectives were to bring attention to the problems of developing countries, in the wake of the changes affecting the latter.


title: Léopold Sédar Senghor

text: He was elected a member of the Académie française on 2 June 1983, at the 16th seat where he succeeded Antoine de Lévis Mirepoix. He was the first African to sit at the Académie. The entrance ceremony in his honour took place on 29 March 1984, in presence of French President François Mitterrand. This was considered a further step towards greater openness in the Académie, after the previous election of a woman, Marguerite Yourcenar.


title: Léopold Sédar Senghor

text: In 1993, the last and fifth book of the "Liberté" series was published: "Liberté 5: le dialogue des cultures."


title: Léopold Sédar Senghor

text: Senghor's first marriage was to Ginette Éboué (1 March 1923 – 1992), daughter of Félix Éboué. They married on 9 September 1946 and divorced in 1955. They had two sons, Francis in 1947 and Guy in 1948. His second wife, ] (20 November 1925 – 18 November 2019), who was from France, became Senegal's first First Lady upon independence in 1960. Senghor had three sons between his two marriages.


title: Léopold Sédar Senghor

text: Senghor spent the last years of his life with his wife in Verson, near the city of Caen in Normandy, where he died on 20 December 2001. His funeral was held on 29 December 2001 in Dakar. Officials attending the ceremony included Raymond Forni, president of the Assemblée nationale and Charles Josselin, state secretary for the minister of foreign affairs, in charge of the Francophonie. Jacques Chirac (who said, upon hearing of Senghor's death: "Poetry has lost one of its masters, Senegal a statesman, Africa a visionary and France a friend") and Lionel Jospin, respectively president of the French Republic and the prime minister, did not attend. Their failure to attend Senghor's funeral made waves as it was deemed a lack of acknowledgement for what the politician had been in his life. The analogy was made with the Senegalese Tirailleurs who, after having contributed to the liberation of France, had to wait more than forty years to receive an equal pension (in terms of buying power) to their French counterparts. The scholar Érik Orsenna wrote in the newspaper "Le Monde" an editorial entitled "J'ai honte" (I am ashamed).


title: Léopold Sédar Senghor

text: Although a socialist, Senghor avoided the Marxist and anti-Western ideology that had become popular in post-colonial Africa, favouring the maintenance of close ties with France and the western world.


title: Léopold Sédar Senghor

text: Senghor's tenure as president was characterised by the development of African socialism, which was created as an indigenous alternative to Marxism, drawing heavily from the "négritude" philosophy. In developing this, he was assisted by Ousmane Tanor Dieng. On 31 December 1980, he retired in favour of his prime minister, Abdou Diouf. Politically, Senghor's stamp can also be identified today. With regards to Senegal in particular, his willful abdication of power to his successor, Abdou Diouf, led to Diouf's peaceful leave from office as well. Senegal's special relationship to France and economic legacy are more highly contested, but Senghor's impact on democracy remains nonetheless. Senghor managed to retain his identity as both a poet and a politician even throughout his busy careers as both, living by his philosophy of achieving equilibrium between competing forces. Whether it was France and Africa, poetics and politics, or other disparate parts of his identity, Senghor balanced the two.


title: Léopold Sédar Senghor

text: Literarily, Senghor's influence on political thought and poetic form are wide reaching even through to our modern day. Senghor's poetry endures as the "record of an individual sensibility at a particular moment in history," capturing the spirit of the Négritude movement at its peak, but also marks a definitive place in literary history. Senghor's thoughts were exceedingly radical for this time, arguing that Africans could only progress if they developed a culture distinct and separate from the colonial powers that oppressed them, pushing against popular thought at the time. Senghor was deeply influenced by poets from the US like Langston Hughes, and his work in turn resonates among today's young US population despite the generations that have passed.


title: Léopold Sédar Senghor

text: Seat number 16 of the Académie was vacant after the Senegalese poet's death. He was ultimately replaced by another former president, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.


title: Léopold Sédar Senghor

text: Senghor received several honours in the course of his life. He was made Grand-Croix of the Légion d'honneur, Grand-Croix of the l'Ordre national du Mérite, commander of arts and letters. He also received academic palms and the Grand Cross of the National Order of the Lion. His war exploits earned him the Reconnaissance Franco-alliée Medal of 1939–1945 and the Combattant Cross of 1939–1945. He received honorary doctorates from thirty-seven universities.


title: Léopold Sédar Senghor

text: Senghor received the Commemorative Medal of the 2500th Anniversary of the founding of the Persian Empire on 14 October 1971.


title: Léopold Sédar Senghor

text: On 13 November 1978, he was created a Knight of the Collar of the Order of Isabella the Catholic of Spain. Members of the order at the rank of Knight and above enjoy personal nobility and have the privilege of adding a golden heraldic mantle to their coats of arms. Those at the rank of the Collar also receive the official style "His or Her Most Excellent Lord".


title: Léopold Sédar Senghor

text: The Senghor French Language International University, named after him was officially opened in Alexandria in 1990.


title: Léopold Sédar Senghor

text: In 1994 he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the African Studies Association; however, there was controversy about whether he met the standard of contributing "a lifetime record of outstanding scholarship in African studies and service to the Africanist community." Michael Mbabuike, president of the New York African Studies Association (NYASA), said that the award also honours those who have worked "to make the world a better place for mankind."


title: Léopold Sédar Senghor

text: The airport of Dakar was renamed "Aéroport International Léopold Sédar Senghor" in 1996, on his 90th birthday.


title: Léopold Sédar Senghor

text: His poem "A l'appel de la race de Saba", published in 1936, was inspired by the entry of Italian troops in Addis Ababa.


title: Léopold Sédar Senghor

text: In 1948, Senghor compiled and edited a volume of Francophone poetry called "Anthologie de la nouvelle poésie nègre et malgache" for which Jean-Paul Sartre wrote an introduction, entitled "Orphée Noir" (Black Orpheus).


title: Léopold Sédar Senghor

text: With Aimé Césaire and Léon Damas, Senghor created the concept of "Négritude", an important intellectual movement that sought to assert and to valorise what they believed to be distinctive African characteristics, values, and aesthetics. One of these African characteristics that Senghor theorised was asserted when he wrote "the Negro has reactions that are more "lived," in the sense that they are more direct and concrete expressions of the sensation and of the stimulus, and so of the object itself with all its original qualities and power." This was a reaction against the too strong dominance of French culture in the colonies, and against the perception that Africa did not have culture developed enough to stand alongside that of Europe. In that respect "négritude" owes significantly to the pioneering work of Leo Frobenius.


title: Léopold Sédar Senghor

text: Building upon historical research identifying ancient Egypt with black Africa, Senghor argued that sub-Saharan Africa and Europe are in fact part of the same cultural continuum, reaching from Egypt to classical Greece, through Rome to the European colonial powers of the modern age. Négritude was by no means—as it has in many quarters been perceived—an anti-white racism, but rather emphasised the importance of dialogue and exchange among different cultures (e.g., European, African, Arab, etc.).


title: Léopold Sédar Senghor

text: In colloquial French, the term décalage is used to describe jetlag, lag or a general discrepancy between two things. However, Senghor uses the term to describe the unevenness in the African Diaspora. The complete phrase he uses is "Il s'agit, en réalité, d'un simple décalage—dans le temps et dans l'espace", meaning that between Black Africans and African Americans there exists an inconsistency, both temporally and spatially. The time element points to the advancing or delaying of a schedule or agenda, while the space aspects designates the displacing and shifting of an object. The term points to "a bias that refuses to pass over when one crosses the water". He asks, how can we expect any sort of solidarity or intimacy from two populations that diverged over 500 years ago?


title: The Bletchley Circle

text: The Bletchley Circle is a television mystery drama series, set in 1952–53, about four women who worked as codebreakers at Bletchley Park. Dissatisfied with the officials' failure to investigate complex crimes, the women join to investigate for themselves.


title: The Bletchley Circle

text: The first series of the miniseries, produced for ITV, was originally shown in the UK in 2012 and premiered in the U.S. in April 2013, on PBS. A second series was broadcast on ITV in January 2014 and on PBS in April 2014. Both series were later aired by Australia's ABC TV. The series was distributed worldwide by Kew Media.


title: The Bletchley Circle

text: The programme was not renewed for a third series. However, in 2018, a spinoff series titled "" was announced by ITV and BritBox.


title: The Bletchley Circle

text: Susan Gray, Millie, Lucy, and Jean worked together at Bletchley Park to decipher German military codes for the British military, during World War II. After a brief introduction of the four women at Bletchley during the war, the series begins in 1952, seven years after the war's end, when Susan, Millie, Lucy, and Jean have returned to their ordinary lives. As the story begins, Susan learns about a series of murders that have occurred in the London area and begins to recognise patterns connecting the killings. This inspires her to return to her codebreaking past, and she reaches out first to Millie, and then to Lucy and Jean, after unsuccessfully trying to convince the police to follow up her theory about the crimes.


title: The Bletchley Circle

text: As they all signed orders of secrecy about their work during the war, the two married women (Susan and Lucy), disguise their activities from their husbands as a book club. Failing to secure police involvement, they move from codebreaking and investigation into the realm of field work, with dangerous consequences on several occasions. Scenes of domestic tranquility are contrasted with scenes of the killer stalking and torturing his victims. While initially skeptical about becoming involved, Millie, Jean, and Lucy are convinced to help Susan once they realise the lives of many women are on the line.


title: The Bletchley Circle

text: The series contrasts the conventional but very different lives of the four women and the sense of usefulness they felt while codebreaking during the war. In the Series 1 finale, the women are forced to confront the man they suspect to be the killer.


title: The Bletchley Circle

text: The premise of the series is based on the women who worked at Bletchley Park during World War II, who for the most part did not continue in intelligence work, and under the rules of the Official Secrets Act 1939 in the UK never shared the nature of their contributions to crucial aspects of the Allies' victory.


title: The Bletchley Circle

text: In the second series, one character refers to sarin gas as having been developed by the Germans during World War II, along with other such chemical weapons, then taken up by the former Allies. The UK did have an incident of a young man killed from experiments with the gas in 1953; in 2004, his inquest was reopened, and the cause of death was altered from death by misadventure to death by "application of a nerve agent in a non-therapeutic experiment".


title: The Bletchley Circle

text: Upon its U.S. premiere—which occurred in prime time following U.S. episodes of "Call the Midwife" and "Mr Selfridge"—"Variety" called "The Bletchley Circle" "smart, addictive and situated in a fascinating historical moment". In a review of the first series, "The New York Times" said the series finds "a clever, entertaining way to pay tribute to women who in their time were often overlooked and underestimated, and nevertheless found ways to never be ordinary".


title: Steve Baker (politician)

text: Steven John Baker (born 6 June 1971) is a British politician serving as Minister of State for Northern Ireland since 2022. He is a former Royal Air Force engineer, consultant and bank worker, who was chair of the European Research Group (ERG) from 2016 to 2017 and 2019 to 2020. A member of the Conservative Party, he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wycombe in Buckinghamshire since 2010.


title: Steve Baker (politician)

text: In June 2015 he became co-chair of Conservatives for Britain, a campaigning organisation formed of Eurosceptic MPs. He co-founded The Cobden Centre and sits on its advisory board. He established and chairs the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on Economics, Money and Banking. He was chair of the ERG, a pro-Brexit group of Conservative MPs, from 20 November 2016 until his promotion to ministerial office at the Department for Exiting the European Union on 13 June 2017, but resigned from his office on 9 July 2018 following the resignation of David Davis over concerns with the government's strategy on Brexit. The same day Jacob Rees-Mogg appointed Baker as the deputy chair and "de facto" whip of the ERG, alongside Mark Francois. In September 2019 Baker was again elected as the group's chair, taking over from Rees-Mogg. In February 2020 he announced his resignation from the post, but confirmed that he would continue as a member.


title: Steve Baker (politician)

text: Baker was born on 6 June 1971 in St Austell in Cornwall, one of nine children. He was educated at Poltair School in St Austell and St Austell Sixth Form College followed by the University of Southampton where he gained a BEng in Aerospace Engineering. He later studied at St Cross College, Oxford, where he earned an MSc in Computation.


title: Steve Baker (politician)

text: On 3 September 1989, Baker joined the Royal Air Force as an engineer and became an Engineering Officer, with the rank of pilot officer, on 15 July 1992. He was promoted to flying officer in 1993 and flight lieutenant in 1996. Remaining in that latter rank, Baker retired from the RAF on 1 August 1999 at his own request. He later worked as a consulting software engineer and manager. He was head of client services with DecisionSoft Ltd (now named CoreFiling) in Oxford from 2000 to 2001.


title: Steve Baker (politician)

text: Baker has worked as a Unix system administrator. He was appointed as Chief Technical Officer at BASDA Ltd, Great Missenden in 2002, a position he held until 2007. For a year from 2005 he was director of product development at CoreFiling Ltd. He was the chief architect of global financing and asset service platforms at Lehman Brothers from 2006 to 2008. He has been principal of Ambriel Consulting Ltd since 2001. He is a founding member of The Cobden Centre, an educational charity promoting Austrian economics.


title: Steve Baker (politician)

text: Baker was selected as the Conservative candidate for Wycombe on 31 October 2009, after former Conservative MP Paul Goodman stood down; it was the first seat for which Baker had sought selection. Baker held the seat for the Conservative Party. He received 23,423 votes – a vote share of 48.6%, higher than Goodman's 42.4% and 45.8% in the 2001 and 2005 general elections respectively. He was re-elected at the 2015 general election and 2017 general election. The 2017 election saw Baker's majority cut to just 6,500, with Labour gaining 37.7% of the vote. Wycombe is now listed as a marginal, and despite it being number 43 on Labour's list of target seats requiring a 6.15% swing for Labour to win, Baker held onto the seat in the 2019 general election with a reduced majority.


title: Steve Baker (politician)

text: Baker was rated as one of the Conservatives' top 10 most rebellious MPs of the 2010 intake. He was nominated as a 'Newcomer of the Year' on ConservativeHome. He was named as the most authoritative Member of Parliament on Twitter in January 2011. In March 2011, Baker initiated an adjournment debate alleging a malicious prosecution of an operator of an independent mental health unit. Eventually, the Solicitor General Edward Garnier issued an apology. That year, Baker attracted controversy after he was one of three Conservative MPs who went on a luxury trip to Equatorial Guinea, funded by the Government of the state, via a trust based in Malta. They reported at the end of the trip that human rights violations in the country were "trivial", in contrast to Amnesty International, which had reported repeated incidents of torture in the country.


title: Steve Baker (politician)

text: Baker has campaigned for banking reform, calling for banks to re-adopt Generally Accepted Accounting Practice to account for devalued loans, as well as failed ones; in May 2011, he calculated that the use of IFRS instead of GAAP over-stated the strength of Royal Bank of Scotland's balance sheet by £25bn. He introduced a Ten Minute Rule bill to 'bring casino banking into the light', by changing rules by which banks account for derivatives. He was elected to the executive of the 1922 Committee on 16 May 2012, saying he was 'fed up with factionalism' and wanted 'to stand as neither a modernising 301 candidate or a traditionalist'.


title: Steve Baker (politician)

text: Baker was shortlisted for the Grassroot Diplomat Initiative Award in 2015 for the founding of the Cobden Centre, and remains in the directory of the Grassroot Diplomat Who's Who publication. In 2017, the Unite Union raised concerns that Baker had lobbied for the deregulation of white asbestos. In 2010, in a series of parliamentary questions, Baker asked the Work and Pensions Secretary: "If he will bring forward proposals to distinguish the white form of asbestos and the blue and brown forms of that substance", also questioning: "If he will commission an inquiry into the appropriateness of the health and safety precautions in force in respect of asbestos cement."


title: Steve Baker (politician)

text: In February 2018, as a minister in the Department for Exiting the European Union he was forced to apologise after inaccurately claiming that civil servants had deliberately produced negative economic models to influence policy. Answering questions in the House of Commons, Baker confirmed a claim by the Eurosceptic backbencher Jacob Rees-Mogg that Charles Grant, the Director of the Centre for European Reform, had reported that Treasury officials "had deliberately developed a model to show that all options other than staying in the customs union were bad, and that officials intended to use this to influence policy". Audio then emerged of the event in question, which showed that Grant had not made the comments attributed to him. By the time the audio was released by "Prospect" magazine, the Prime Minister's spokesman had already backed Baker's claims. The spokesman later said that Baker had made a "genuine mistake". On 8 July 2018, Baker resigned following the resignation of the Brexit Secretary, David Davis after working on a Brexit white paper which Baker said "did not accord with what was put to the cabinet" a few days earlier.


title: Steve Baker (politician)

text: On 22 October 2018, Baker submitted a letter of no confidence in Theresa May's leadership over her Brexit Withdrawal Agreement proposals, stating that he had become convinced it was not possible to "separate the person from the policy." A few days earlier, Baker had told fellow members of the European Research Group that by his count they likely already had the 48 letters necessary to trigger a motion of no confidence in Theresa May's leadership, and told "BBC Politics" they were "pretty close" to getting them "with a dozen more probables on top".


title: Steve Baker (politician)

text: In May 2020 he called for Dominic Cummings's resignation. He is a steering committee member of the COVID Recovery Group, a group of Conservative MPs who opposed the UK government's December 2020 lockdown. "The Telegraph" described them as being seen by Westminster as an "echo" of the Brexiteer European Research Group (ERG), and a response by backbench Conservatives to Nigel Farage's anti-lockdown Reform UK party.


title: Steve Baker (politician)

text: In April 2022, in the wake of the Partygate scandal surrounding British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Baker stated in the House of Commons that "the gig is up" and that Johnson should be "long gone by now". He said this two days after he had praised the prime minister's new apology given that week for his actions during the period of behaviour restrictions imposed over the COVID pandemic.


title: Steve Baker (politician)

text: On 7 September 2022, he was appointed Minister of State in the Northern Ireland Office as part of Liz Truss’s administration. The appointment comes at a sensitive time with the government facing challenges over the Northern Ireland Protocol.


title: Steve Baker (politician)

text: Some commentators, such as Ian Birrell of "The Guardian", regard Baker as being on the right wing of the Conservative Party. The Associated Press has described him as a libertarian. He is a member of the socially conservative Cornerstone Group. He describes his political inspiration as being the Liberal Richard Cobden, founding the Cobden Centre under the motto: 'Peace will come to earth when the people have more to do with each other and governments less'. He identifies as a born again Christian.


title: Steve Baker (politician)

text: Baker has expressed scepticism about the exact scope of human influence on climate change, stating in 2010 that the science appears to be subject to uncertainties and that bad economics are a greater threat to civilisation than climate change. In 2022, he shared a paper on social media which denied climate change. He was a trustee of the Global Warming Policy Foundation from May 2021 to September 2022, an organisation which has historically breached Charity Commission rules on impartiality in its climate change coverage. At an event hosted in parliament in July 2022, by the GWPF, Baker accused climate campaigners of “terrifying children” and said he regarded their warnings as “child abuse.”


title: Steve Baker (politician)

text: DeSmog, the climate science fact checking website, has documented the extensive ties between the GWPF and Baker’s Net Zero Scrutiny Group of MPs opposed to the UK’s climate goals.


title: Steve Baker (politician)

text: Baker has said he would end incentives for wind and solar power because "they are fundamentally intermittent sources of energy", and instead would encourage domestic production of natural gas. He said many green measures including farmers' support payments were "anti-human life on Earth in the name of environmentalism", and would encourage maximising food production.


title: Steve Baker (politician)

text: Baker voted against the party whip to oppose the construction of the High Speed 2 rail line in 2010, although the line did not pass through his own constituency, arguing that the whole plan should be scrapped.


title: Steve Baker (politician)

text: Baker campaigned for Brexit before and during the 2016 referendum. He says he originally joined the Conservative Party with the express intention of campaigning for the UK to leave the EU. He chaired Conservatives for Britain, a predecessor group to the official Vote Leave campaign and the Eurosceptic European Research Group until becoming a minister. He was described by the "New Statesman" as someone who had been "the most doctrinaire Leaver inside government and one of the few sincere advocates for a no-deal exit on the government payroll" before resigning. Back in 2010, he stated at a meeting of the Libertarian Alliance that he thought "the European Union needs to be wholly torn down", considering it "an obstacle to ... free trade and peace among all the nations of Europe as well as the world". Baker argues Brexit presents an opportunity for more free trade outside the EU but also favours protectionism against China. During an interview with Sky News after a debate on Brexit in April 2019, Baker referred to himself as "the hard man of Brexit".


title: Steve Baker (politician)

text: Baker has advocated a return to the gold standard and identifies with the Austrian School of Economics. He opposed quantitative easing policies in 2011, arguing they would create a worse crisis.


title: Steve Baker (politician)

text: Baker voted in opposition to the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013, and called for the denationalisation of marriage. He argued that the current situation risks infringing both the freedoms of the religious and LGBT communities, and that private individuals should define the term "marriage", rather than the state.


title: Steve Baker (politician)

text: Regarding parliamentary procedures, Baker wants to reform early day motions (EDMs), possibly replacing them with "Members' Motions" on the grounds that EDMs 'are used to publicise the views of individual MPs', whereas a system such as 'Members' Motions' could be 'debated by the House'.


title: Steve Baker (politician)

text: In February 2021, Baker proposed to reform the Public Health Act legislation to "prevent ministers [from] imposing job-destroying restrictions without warning or scrutiny" in light of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, to ensure that economists have a share of seats on the advisory board where "decisions on social restrictions are made", and drew inspiration for his proposed monthly sunset clauses from the Civil Contingencies Act.


title: Steve Baker (politician)

text: Steve Baker is married to Beth (Julia Elizabeth), a former RAF officer in the medical branch whom he met on his first tour which was at RAF Leeming. He is a committed evangelical Christian and attends a local Baptist church. He lists skydiving and advanced motorcycling as his hobbies. An advanced driver, he has successfully passed the High Performance Course. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.


title: Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989

text: The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 (its correct name) was enacted by the Parliament of India to prevent atrocities and hate crimes against the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. The Act is popularly known as the SC/ST Act, PoA, or simply the 'Atrocities Act'.


text: It was enacted when the existing legal provisions (such as the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955 and the Indian Penal Code) were found to be inadequate to check these crimes (defined as 'atrocities' in Section 3 of the Act). Recognising the continuing gross indignities and offences against Scheduled Castes and Tribes, the Parliament passed the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.


text: The Act was passed in Parliament of India on 11 September 1989 and notified on 30 January 1990. It was comprehensively amended in 2015 (including renumbering sub-sections of Section 3), and notified on 26 January 2016. It was subsequently amended in 2018 and 2019.


text: The rules were notified on 31 March 1995. They were comprehensively amended and notified on 14 April 2016. There were a few amendments to the rules and annexures in 2018.


text: A study conducted by the National Commission for SCs and STs in 1990 on "Atrocities on Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes: Causes and Remedies" pointed out various causal factors for atrocities: land disputes; land alienation; bonded labour; indebtedness; non-payment of minimum wages; caste prejudice and practice of untouchability; political factions on caste lines; refusal to perform traditional works such as digging burial pits, arranging cremations, removing carcasses of dead animals and beating drums; etc. The deep root for such atrocities is traceable to the caste system, which "encompasses a complete ordering of social groups on the basis of the so-called ritual purity. A person is considered a member of the caste into which s/he is born and remains within that caste until death…."


text: Considered ritually impure, Dalits have been physically and socially excluded from caste Hindu society, denied basic resources and services, and discriminated against in all areas of life. Consequently, they face various forms of exploitation, insults, and violence, as well as degrading practices of untouchability. The Scheduled Tribes are equally exploited on grounds of not falling within the caste system but having a distinct culture and worldview of their own. "Women belonging to these castes and tribes bore double burden. They were exploited by caste and gender, and were vulnerable and powerless against sexual exploitation".


text: The post-Independence era was marked by frequent instances of atrocities springing up across the country: for example, the assassination of the young, educated Dalit leader Emmanuel Sekaran in Tamil Nadu for defying the untouchability-based interdicts on Scheduled Castes (SCs, also called Dalits), which resulted in the Ramanathapuram riots of 1957; the Kilavenmani massacre of 42 Dalits in 1968 in Tamil Nadu; the gruesome killing of Dalit Kotesu in Kanchikacherla in 1969 in Andhra Pradesh; the killings of 10 Scheduled Tribes (STs, also called Adivasis, literally 'first dweller') by police in connection with a land dispute in Indravalli in Andhra Pradesh in 1978. All such events shook the then national leadership. Hence, under pressure from Dalit MPs, the Government of India started monitoring atrocities against Dalits from 1974, and in the case of Adivasis from 1981 onwards, with special focus on murder, rape, arson and grievous hurt.


text: Atrocities continued to increase in ferocity and frequency – for example, in Bihar the massacres of Dalits at Belchi in 1979 and at Pipra in 1980; in Uttar Pradesh the massacre following a Dalit bridegroom riding on horseback at Kafalta in 1980; in Madhya Pradesh the killing of Bacchdas in Mandsaur district in 1982; in Bihar the killing in police firing on 15 tribals at Banjhi in Sahebganj district in 1985. In all such cases, the Indian state at both the national and state levels avoided addressing basic contradictions, vulnerabilities and causative factors; the treatment was mainly symptomatic and palliative instead of the required radical solutions.


text: As late as October 2021, the Supreme Court of India was constrained to observe that "Atrocities against members of the SCs and STs are not a thing of the past. They continue to be a reality in our society even today. Hence the statutory provisions which have been enacted by Parliament as a measure of protecting the constitutional rights of persons belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes must be complied with and enforced conscientiously" (Justices Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud and BV Nagarathna).


text: They went on to note that several members of the scheduled communities “"face insurmountable hurdles in accessing justice from the stage of filing the complaint to the conclusion of the trial” and that they “specifically suffer on account of procedural lapses in the criminal justice system"”.


text: They noted that due to the fear of retribution from members of dominant caste groups, ignorance, or police apathy, many victims do not register complaints in the first place and when they do so, the police officials are reluctant to register complaints or do not record allegations accurately.


text: “"Eventually, if the case does get registered, the victims and witnesses are vulnerable to intimidation, violence, and social and economic boycott. Further, many perpetrators of caste-based atrocities get away scot free due to shoddy investigations and the negligence of prosecuting advocates,” rued the bench. “This results in low conviction rates under the SC/ST Act, giving rise to the erroneous perception that cases registered under the Act are false and that it is being misused. On the contrary, the reality is that many acquittals are a result of improper investigation and prosecution of crime, leading to insufficient evidence"”.


text: The Act is rooted in Articles 15 and 17 of the Indian Constitution. Article 15 prohibits discrimination on the basis of caste. Article 17 of the Constitution of India states that ‘Untouchability is abolished and its practice in any form is forbidden. The enforcement of any disability arising out of “Untouchability” shall be an offence punishable in accordance with law’.


text: Five years after the Constitution of India was adopted, the necessary legislation - the Untouchability (Offences) Act (UOA) 1955 - was enacted. It was amended and renamed in 1976 as the Protection of Civil Rights Act (PCRA).


text: Though UOA did not precisely define the offence, it was a major step forward, and had several enabling provisions. UOA recognised ‘wilful negligence’ [UOA S10] and was proactive in that it stated clearly that the presumption of court would be that the crime arose from ‘untouchability’ and it was the defendant who should prove that it wasn't [UOA S12]. The Act was farsighted in that it recognised the culpability of companies and those in charge, including their directors [UOA S14].


text: However, due to legal loopholes, the levels of punishments being less (compared to those of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (IPC)), and the law and order machinery being neither professionally trained nor socially inclined to implement such social legislation, a more comprehensive deterrent Act was required to protect the scheduled communities from inter-community violence committed by the dominant communities.


text: It was later recognised that the Untouchability (Offences) Act 1955 was not sufficient to eradicate untouchability and to punish the perpetrators. So the parliament brought about many changes to UOA after 21 years on 19 November 1976 (the then prime minister's birthday), and renamed it the Protection of Civil Rights Act (PCRA), 1955. In the 1976 amendment, discrimination on the basis of untouchability was also brought under this Act [PCRA S4]. 'Untouchability' as a result of religious and social disabilities was made punishable. The amendments made it clear that all offences under this Act are cognisable [PCRA S15(1)]. It made mandatory the provision of legal aid, appointment of supervising officers, setting up of special courts and committees, and periodic survey of the working of the provisions of this Act to suggest measures for the better implementation [PCRA S15A2]. It even had provision for state and central government annual implementation reports being placed before parliament [PCRA S15A4]. Much of this is carried forward to POA and its amendments, though the liability of companies has been removed.


text: However, PCRA suffered from severe infirmities, chief among them being that it did not even recognise many of the caste based crimes, was too lenient, and did not have an empowered mechanism to monitor the implementation of the Act (especially given that the police and judiciary were drawn from the same social milieu).


text: Consequently, caste based crimes continued and even increased both in intensity and scale. Under continued pressure from Dalit MPs and political leaders, the magnitude and gravity of the problem was finally recognised by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. In his Independence day address on 15 August 1987, he announced that an Act would be passed, if necessary, to check atrocities. This nudged the parliament to legislate the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.


text: Instead of tinkering with the PCRA, the parliament of India passed a new legislation to explicitly "prevent" offences against the scheduled communities by members of non-scheduled communities, that would set up speedy justice, monitoring, accountability, relief, and rehabilitation mechanisms. The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act (POA), 1989 was thus passed on 11 September 1989. The Act was notified in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, sec. 3(ii), dated 29 January 1990 (notification No. S.O. 106(E)) and came into force on 30 January 1990. The rules were notified on 31 March 1995.


text: The 1989 Act and 1995 rules underwent substantial amendments in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2018, and 2019. The 8 November 2013 amendment to the Rules inserted Rule 17A that added vigilance and monitoring committees at the sub-divisional level, and provided for nominees of the union government in the vigilance and monitoring committees.


text: The Amendment Ordinance 2014 was signed by the president on 4 March 2014 - the last day before the model code of conduct for parliamentary elections came into force - and came into force immediately. Unsurprisingly, dominant communities campaigned for the total repeal of the Act during the parliamentary elections. Since it was an ordinance, and was not ratified by (the next) parliament within six months, it lapsed. It was then referred back to the cabinet.


text: It was later passed as the Amendment Act 2015 and the Amendment Rules 2016. The Amendment Act 2015 and Amendment Rules 2016 comprehensively overhauled the parent Act and Rules. The Act added Chapter IVA Section 15A (the rights of victims and witnesses), and defined dereliction of duty by officials and accountability mechanisms more precisely. It added several new offences in Section 3 and (bizarrely) renumbered the entire section since the recognised crime almost doubled. It filled several gaps in the previous version of the Act (such as adding a schedule for Section 3(2)(va) showing which offence under Section 3 should be invoked for which IPC crime) apart from making accountability of officials clearer. Section 14A to ensure time bound trials was also inserted. The amended Act 2015 came into effect on 26 January 2016.


text: The amended rules enhance and streamline relief and rehabilitation, with clear timelines and deliverables. The amended Rules came into effect on 14 April 2016.


text: The Supreme Court of India, in its verdict of 20 March 2018, banned immediate arrest of a person accused of insulting or injuring a member of a scheduled community to prevent arbitrary arrest. This led to a furore, which in turn led to a stunned parliament voting to overturn the judgement. In August 2018, the parliament passed an amendment to override the ruling (with effect from 20 August 2018) by inserting section 18A(1)(a) "'preliminary enquiry shall not be required for registration of an FIR against any person" and section 18A(1)(b), "the investigating officer shall not require approval for the arrest, if necessary, of any person against whom an accusation of having committed an offence under this Act has been made and no procedure, other than that provided under this Act or the Code, shall apply". The amendments categorically rule out anticipatory bail for a person accused of atrocities against the scheduled communities, notwithstanding any court order. The Supreme Court of India upheld the constitutional validity of the amendment on 10 February 2020.


text: On 27 June 2018 the Rules were amended to clarify that the relief provided in the Rule 15(1) contingency plan and Rule 12(4) Annexe Schedule I was in addition to relief from other sources [Rule 12(5)], removed the restriction of 25 members in the State Vigilance and Monitoring Committee [Rule 16(1)], and tweaked the relief provisions in the Rule 12(4) Annexe Schedule I.


text: The basic objective and purpose of this more comprehensive legislation was enunciated when the Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha:


text: Despite various measures to improve the socio-economic conditions of the SCs and STs, they remain vulnerable... They have in several brutal incidents, been deprived of their life and property... Because of the awareness created... through spread of education, etc., when they assert their rights and resist practices of untouchability against them or demand statutory minimum wages or refuse to do any bonded and forced labour, the vested interests try to cow them down and terrorise them. When the SCs and STs try to preserve their self-respect or honour of their women, they become irritants for the dominant and the mighty...


text: Under the circumstances, the existing laws like the Protection of Civil Rights Act 1955 and the normal provisions of the Indian Penal Code have been found to be inadequate to check and deter crimes against them committed by non-SCs and non-STs... It is considered necessary that not only the term 'atrocity' should be defined, but also stringent measures should be introduced to provide for higher punishment for committing such atrocities. It is also proposed to enjoin on the States and Union Territories to take specific preventive and punitive measures to protect SCs and STs from being victimized and, where atrocities are committed, to provide adequate relief and assistance to rehabilitate them.


text: An Act to prevent the commission of offences of atrocities against the members of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, to provide for Special Courts for the trial of such offences and for the relief and rehabilitation of the victims of such offences and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.


text: The objectives of the Act, therefore, very clearly emphasise the intention of the Indian state to deliver justice to the scheduled caste and scheduled tribe communities through affirmative action in order to enable them to live in society with dignity and self-esteem and without fear, violence or suppression from the dominant castes.


text: The Supreme Court of India too reiterated the significance and importance of the Act in 1995 and at periodic intervals.


text: On 25 October 2021, the Supreme Court bench consisting of Chief Justice N.V. Ramana, Justice J Surya Kant and Justice Hima Kohli held that


text: The SC/ST Act has been specifically enacted to deter acts of indignity, humiliation and harassment against members of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The Act is also a recognition of the depressing reality that despite undertaking several measures, the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes continue to be subjected to various atrocities at the hands of uppercastes. The Courts have to be mindful of the fact that the Act has been enacted keeping in view the express constitutional safeguards enumerated in Articles 15, 17 and 21 of the Constitution, with a twinfold objective of protecting the members of these vulnerable communities as well as to provide relief and rehabilitation to the victims of castebased atrocities.


text: The provisions of the Act and Rules can be divided into three different categories, covering a variety of issues related to atrocities against the scheduled communities and their position in society.


text: The salient features of the Act as amended to date are given below. (Please note that the section and rule references used here are as of the 2016 amendment. They - especially subsections of Section 3(1) - have changed significantly from the original Act of 1989).


text: Together, the Act and the Rules provide a framework for monitoring the state response to the atrocities against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. According to the Act and Rules, there are to be monthly reports from the District Magistrates (Rule 4(4)), quarterly review meetings at the district level by the District Monitoring and Vigilance Committee (DVMC, Rule 17(3)) and reviews in January and July by a State Monitoring and Vigilance Committee (SVMC) chaired by the Chief Minister (Rule 16(2)). The performance of every Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) will also have to be reviewed by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) every quarter (Rule 4(2)). Annual reports have to be sent to the union government by 31 March every year (Rule 18).


text: The Act and Rules are a potent mechanism and precision instruments that can be used in tandem with the Right To Information (RTI) Act 2005 to motivate the state to hold the mandatory meetings and enforce compliance. A Human Rights Defenders Monitoring Calendar has been developed from the Act and rules to help human rights defenders and others to clarify the functions and duties of the monitoring authorities (the SVMC and DVMC).


text: An atrocity is a crime against the Scheduled Castes (SCs) or the Scheduled Tribes (STs) in India listed in Section 3 of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 as amended to date. The term 'atrocity' was not defined until this Act was passed by the Parliament in 1989.


text: Section 3 of the Act lists offences shattering the self-respect and esteem of the scheduled communities, denial of economic, democratic and social rights, discrimination, exploitation and abuse of the legal process, etc.


text: The common denominator of the offences is that criminal liability can only be established if the offence is committed by a person who is "not" a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe "against" a person who belongs to a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe.


text: The Act and Rules are very precise about who should do the investigation, the sequence, and the procedure at every stage.


text: Step 1: When there is information (from any source) that an atrocity may be or may have been committed, an officer not below the rank of deputy superintendent of police (DSP) "or" sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) must visit the spot and conduct a preliminary inquiry (Rule 6(1)) and identify the perpetrators, the victims, and the extent of damage and prepare a report (Rule 6(2)).


text: Step 2: On confirmation that an atrocity has taken place, "both" the superintendent of police (SP) "and" the district magistrate must visit the spot and conduct a preliminary inquiry to access the loss of life and property, and identify the victims and their dependents entitled to relief. (Rule 12(1)).


text: Step 4: The SP will appoint an investigation officer (not below the rank of DSP) to continue the investigation (Rule 12(3)). According to Rule 7(1) investigation of an offence committed under the Act cannot be investigated by an officer below the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP).


text: Step 5: The investigation officer (DSP) should complete the investigation on "top priority" and file the charge sheet within 60 days of the FIR being filed (Rule 7(2)). If the investigation is not completed within 60 days, the DSP should file a written explanation (Rule 7(2A)). If the written explanation is not filed, the DSP is liable for prosecution under Section 4 for violation of Section 4(2)(e).


text: Various High Courts have set aside cases based on Rule 7(1). The rule is to ensure that the investigations are of high quality, and the assumption is that senior officials would not be as biased, nor as vulnerable to other pressures, as those in the lower rungs of the police force.


text: The Andhra Pradesh High Court, in "D. Ramlinga Reddy v. State of AP", took the position that provisions of Rule 7 are mandatory and held that investigation under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act has to be carried out by only an officer not below the rank of DSP. An investigation carried out and charge sheet filed by an incompetent officer is more than likely to be quashed. Similarly, the Madras High Court in "M. Kathiresam v. State of Tamil Nadu" held that investigation conducted by an officer other than a DSP is improper and bad in law and proceedings based on such an investigation are required to be quashed.


text: The Courts without taking into consideration the inadequacies of the State, have been punishing SC/STs (the victims) for the same. Shri Pravin Rashtrapal, Member of Parliament rightly pointed out that there are insufficient officers at that level. His statement is supported by the Annual Report of 2005-2006 of Ministry of Home Affairs. Of the total posts sanctioned by the government under Indian Police Service (IPS) more than 15 percent of the posts are vacant. This basically means that there is one IPS officer for 77,000 SC/STs.


text: In the case of Karnataka, there were no officers of the required rank in three districts, as admitted by the government at the State Vigilance and Monitoring Committee (SVMC) in September 2010. Though officers of higher rank can conduct the investigation (the Act only says 'at least of rank'), in practice they seldom do.


text: For speedy trial, Section 14 of the Act provides for a Court of Session to be a Special Court to try offences under this Act in each district. Rule 13(i) mandates that the judge in a special court be sensitive with right aptitude and understanding of the problems of the scheduled communities.


text: However, that is seldom the case. Most states have declared a court as a 'special court'. The hitch is that they are designated courts (as opposed to exclusive special courts) and so have to hear many other cases too. Consequently, at any time about 80% of the cases are pending—defeating the very purpose of having special courts in the first place.


text: Special Court Justice Ramaswamy observed in the case of State of Karnataka v. Ingale that more than seventy-five percent of the cases brought under the SC/ST Act end in acquittal at all levels. The situation has not improved much since 1992 according to the figures given by the 2002 Annual Report dealing with SC/ST Act (of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment) Of the total cases filed in 2002 only 21.72% were disposed of, and, of those, a mere 2.31% ended in conviction. The number of acquittals is 6 times more than the number of convictions and more than 70 percent of the cases are still pending. By 2019, pendency in courts had risen to 147,545 (92.97%) for scheduled castes and 26,025 (90.72%) for scheduled tribes.


text: Inaugurating a two-day annual conference of State Ministers of Welfare/Social Justice, 8 Sept 2009, Prime Minister Singh expressed 'shock' that the conviction rate of cases of atrocities against the SC/STs is less than 30% against the average of 42% for all cognisable offences under the Indian Penal Code. In rape cases the conviction rate is just 2%.


text: In 2010, Karnataka has only eight Special courts, though 15 of 30 districts are declared 'atrocity prone'. Overall conviction rates remain at or below 5%. Even the few special courts seem to be biased. Of the 101 cases disposed of in the Tumkur special court, not one was convicted. Gulbarga, another atrocity prone district had a conviction rate of just 2%. 7 districts had a conviction rate of 0%.


text: In 2019, despite the sizable and increasing pendency, only 11 states have exclusive special courts (mandated for district with high pendency under Section 14). In total, there are just 194 exclusive special courts in the country. Andhra 1, Bihar 5, Gujarat 16, Himanchal 3, Karnataka 8, Madhya Pradesh 43, Maharashtra 3, Odisha 5, Rajasthan 31, Tamil Nadu 14, and Uttar Pradesh 65.


text: The very first union report on the implementation of the Act, placed before parliament on 14 December 1993 notes that at the conference of the welfare ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Pondicherry held at Thiruvananthapuram on 28 and 29 August 1992 the first main recommendation was that "all atrocity cases should be decided by the courts in six months to one year". Thirty years on, in 2022, it remains a dream. The second main recommendation was that "cases of acquittals and cases in which accused get minor punishment should be seriously examined". Thirty years later, no action is seen.


text: Considering that there are 254,475 pending cases (96.1% pendency rate) in the court for scheduled castes as of 31 December 2021, and 40,640 pending cases (95.4% pendency rate) for the scheduled tribes, this is a substantial loss in relief since 25% of the relief is linked to completion of the case. Even assuming the lower end of the scale of relief (which varies from ₹85,000 to ₹825,000) the monetary loss alone due to wholely avoidable judicial delays is in the range of ₹15 billion, USD 200 million. As of 30 April 2022 at least one of these cases is in court since 1992 - i.e. 30 years.


text: Relief and socio-economic rehabilitation are dealt with under Section 15A Rights of Victims and Witnesses, Rule 12(4) Relief and Rehabilitation, and Rule 15(1) Contingency Plan (which deals with who is responsible and the time line).


text: Atrocities often take place when persons belonging to the scheduled communities do not fulfill their 'caste functions' by doing ritually prescribed 'unclean' work or break the caste boundaries such as sitting in the bus or wearing a turban or footwear or sporting a mustache—often the preserve of the dominant castes. Atrocities are a form of 'collective' punishment for daring to have even some semblance of non-dependence which is termed as 'prosperous', and the atrocity is to bring them back into the situation of total dependence and servitude. The state therefore has the duty to help the community back on its feet.


text: The Act has prescribed a schedule for relief and socio-economic rehabilitation under Rule 12(4) as Annexure 1 entitled Norms for Relief Amount which ranges from ₹85,000 to ₹825,000 depending on the crime. This is periodically updated. As is often the case, the 'minimum' becomes the maximum. In 2021, Tamil Nadu became the first state ever to increase the minimum amount to more than the guidance of the union government with a range from ₹100,000 to ₹1,200,000.


text: The relief is paid in parts depending on the stage of the case. Generally it is 25% on registering the FIR, 50% on filing the chargesheet, and 25% on conviction. However, there are exceptions and variations. For most crimes involving women, the final 25% is on completion of the trial irrespective of the verdict. For acid attack it is 50% on registering the FIR and 50% on getting the medical report, and for disability or murder it is 50% on getting the medical certificate or post mortem report and 50% when the chargesheet is sent to court.


text: Additional relief of up to ₹500,000 is provided in the case of murder, rape, permanent disability, and arson by the Dr. Ambedkar National Relief to the SC/ST Victims of Atrocities Scheme administered by the Ambedkar Foundation, an autonomous institution under the union government.


text: The survivors are also entitled to dietary expenses, travel allowance and maintenance expenses, and full cost of medical care (including hospitalisation) at government cost when injured. Attendants for those hospitalised, or for survivors and witnesses or their dependendents who are children, women, or senior citizens, are also entiled to travel allowance and maintenance expenses for the duration. These need to be paid immediately, or at the latest within three days (Rule 11).


text: Socio-economic rehabilitation (including relocation if required) for the victim, the dependents, informants, or witnesses during investigation, inquiry, and trial is the responsibility of the Special Court or the Exclusive Special Court trying a case under this Act [Section 15A(6)].


text: Individual rehabilitation is time-bound, and there is additional relief to victims of murder, death, massacre, rape, gang rape, permanent incapacitation, and dacoity. This is in addition to the cash relief and the relief provided by Ambedkar foundation (Rule 12(5)).


text: Rule 12(4) Schedule annexure-I Sr. No. 46 "Additional relief to victims of murder death, massacre, rape, gang rape, permanent incapacitation and dacoity:"


text: In addition to relief amounts paid under above items, relief may be arranged within three months of date of atrocity as follows:-


text: a) Basic pension of ₹5,000 as applicable to a government servant with admissible dearness allowance (About ₹10,000 per month in 2022).


text: Common resources and services (such as wells and other water sources fouled, right of passage) are to be restored at government cost (Rule 12(4) Schedule annexure-I).


text: Rule 8 Protection Cell and Rule 9 Nodal Officers: 23 States have set up SC/ST Protection Cells. Nodal Officers have been appointed in 28 States.


text: Rule 13(2) Special police stations have been set up only in five states - Bihar 40, Chhattisgarh 26, Jharkhand 22, Keralam 3, and Madhya Pradesh 51 (total 142) (Annual Report under Section 21(4) for the calendar year 2019).


text: The pendency of cases in courts is increasing every year - from 174,931 in 2018 to 193,149 in 2019 to 223,017 in 2020, though the cases are supposed to be disposed off within two months of registering the FIR and there are supposed to be special courts and exclusive special courts for speedy disposal of cases. (Reply to question AU4152 in Parliament (lok sabha) on 29 March 2022).


text: Rule 15(1) Contingency plan: Only 11 states (Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Punjab, and Tamil Nadu) have prepared the mandatory contingency plan under Rule 15(1) as prescribed in Section 15A. (Reply to question AU1012 in parliament (lok sabha) on 8 February 2022).


text: Rule 16(2) State Vigilance and Monitoring Committee meetings: Despite being mandatory to conduct State Vigilance and Monitoring Committee (SVMC) meetings in January and July each year, 20 states did not conduct a single meeting in 2016, 2017, or 2018 - all pre-pandemic years. Assam conducted 1 (2018), Chhattisgarh 2 (2016=0, 2017=1, 2018=1), Gujarat 4 (0,1,3), Haryana 5 (1,2,2), Karnataka 2 (1,0,1), Kerala 1 (0,1,0), Maharashtra 1 (0,0,1), and West Bengal 4 (1,1,2). But for Puducherry (0,1,1) and Chandigarh (0,0,1), no union territory conducted a single meeting either. (Reply to question AS323 in Parliament (lok sabha) on 17 March 2020). Andhra has not constituted the SVMC ever since its bifurcation on 1 June 2014 (Annual Report under Section 21(4) for the calendar year 2019).


text: Section 21(1) and 21(2) of Act stipulates that the State Government shall take all such measures as may be necessary for its effective implementation. As 'police' and 'public order' are state subjects, primary responsibility for prevention of atrocities and maintenance of law and order rests with the State Governments. A responsive police administration has always been recognized as an essential requirement in any society that seeks to take care of its citizens. Such responsive administration is essential for prevention of atrocities likely to be inflicted upon the scheduled communities by unscrupulous elements from other communities.


text: However, despite the Act and Rules, the situation has not changed much. The incidence of recorded atrocities is increasing, and the implementation of the law leaves much to be desired as this statement of the Union Minister for Home Affairs shows:


text: "Madam, I must concede that the statistics do not reflect any decline in the atrocities. On the contrary, the information compiled by the Crime Records Bureau shows that the number of cases registered of atrocities against the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes is, in fact, on the rise. I have the numbers from 2006 to 2008, subsequent years are being compiled. Take for example the case of the Scheduled Castes. The number of cases of atrocities against the Scheduled Castes registered in 2006 was 26,665. That itself is an understatement. Many of the cases are simply not registered. In 2007, it was 29,825 and in 2008 it was 33,365. So, this clearly shows the rise in trend.


text: We cannot be happy about the fact that approximately 33,000 cases are being registered as atrocities against Scheduled Castes in one year. What makes it even more disturbing is that while so many cases are registered, the conviction rate hovers around 30%. What makes it doubly painful is that there is rise in atrocities, but when you try to prosecute and convict, the conviction rate is only 30%. It was 28%, 31.4% and 32%. Not only are acquittals very high; pendency is about 80%.


text: I am afraid that the disposal of the cases is low; the rate of conviction is low. Therefore, it is fair to conclude that the feeling amongst the Scheduled Castes and the Schedule Tribes that all these laws and all these statements, all these pronouncements have really not brought any relief to them. That feeling is running high and I cannot but say that feeling is justified." (p143,144 of the printed text).


text: Though the Act and rules are stringent, it is not a deterrent, as the Minister for Home Affairs P Chidambaram admitted in the Lok Sabha, referring to the Central Committee monitoring the implementation of the Act:


text: A committee under the Chairmanship of the Minister of Social Justice was set up after the Act was passed. That Committee has met, so far, 10 times. The situation in 25 States and 4 Union Territories were reviewed. That committee has expressed that the most important areas of concern are the following five:


text: For some, the low conviction rates are evidence of misuse of the Act by the SCs and STs to threaten and blackmail other communities. The acquittal rates are abnormally high, as acknowledged by the prime minister and home minister (quoted above). There is also a high rate of FIRs rejected as being 'false' by the police, with 10% of the total cases investigated in 2016 being closed as 'false'.


text: There has also been concern regarding misuse of the Act for settling of personal scores. 75% cases were found to be false in Madhya Pradesh in a survey. 81% cases under the Act were registered against persons from OBC section, 14% upper castes and 5 percent minorities sections. According to data available with Rajasthan police around 40% of cases filed under the Act are fake.


text: Justice Karnan, a High Court judge had used the provisions of this Act to pass orders against the then Chief Justice of India Jagdish Singh Khehar punishing him with 5 years rigorous imprisonment.


text: There has also been reports of a man committing suicide after being threatened with a case against him under the Act.


text: A man in UP had to spend 20 years in prison after being implicated in a false case under the provisions of this act.


text: Perhaps the most important bias (re implementation of this Act) is that there is little done to prevent atrocities. Most of the reports are of what is done after an atrocity has been committed. Few states have preventive measures in place. The 'relief' provided is a pittance and the confidence of the community is seldom rebuilt.


text: While the legal text is explicit in seeking remedies, the implementation of the text appears to evade actual performance. Laws and legal processes are not self-executing; they depend on the administrative structure and the judiciary with the anticipation that the social attitudes are driven by notions of equity, social justice and fair play. However, the increasingly indifferent responses of those involved in the implementation of laws protecting the weak, the oppressed and the socially disadvantaged have persisted over the years and the system has failed to provide for self-correction. The problem is that the victims of atrocities suffer not only bodily and mental pain but also feelings of insecurity and social avoidance which is not present for the victims of other crimes. If the judge delegated to protect them shows indifference, it further aggravates their already vulnerable position.


text: Going through the Indian judicial system is degrading for any Dalit because of the still existing biases of the court judges. One example is the conduct of an Allahabad High Court judge who had his chambers "purified" with water from the 'ganga jal' because a Dalit judge had previously sat in that chamber before him.


text: Another example is the case of State of Karnataka v. Ingale. The State of Karnataka had charged five individuals with violating the Act. At trial, four witnesses testified that the defendants had threatened Dalits with a gun to stop them from taking water from a well. The defendants told the Dalits that they had no right to take water, because they were 'untouchables'. The trial judge convicted all of the defendants. On appeal, the Additional Sessions judge confirmed the conviction of three defendants but acquitted two. On further appeal to the High Court, the judge acquitted all the defendants after rejecting testimony of the four Dalit witnesses. The Dalits finally got relief from the Supreme Court. The High Court's reluctance to believe the Dalits was a "patent error," according to Justice Ramaswamy.


text: The issue of false cases and misuse of the Act found its way into the March 2018 decision of a two judge bench of Justices UU Lalit and AK Goel of the Supreme Court of India in "Subhash Kashinath Mahajan v. State of Maharashtra & Anr." In addition to questioning Section 18 of the Act, which prohibits grant of anticipatory bail for offences committed under the Act, the court laid down guidelines, substantially diluting the provisions of the Act. The court granted additional powers to the investigating officer to conduct a preliminary inquiry before lodging a complaint. Further, written permission of the appointing authority for all public officials and of the District Superintendent of Police for other persons is required before a complaint is registered. - wilfully ignorant of the fact that all FIRs under this Act can only be filed after the District Magistrate and the Superintendent of Police visit the spot and conduct a preliminary enquiry (Rule 12(1)), and only then can the Superintendent of Police order an FIR to be filed (Rule 12(2)). Further, it also ignored the fact "'that the charges in this regard against the public servant shall be booked on the recommendation of an administrative enquiry" (Section 4(2)) - so the question of not conducting a preliminary inquiry does not arise. In fact, the law was clear that the FIR can be filed only after a spot visit and inquiry has been done by the senior-most police official in the district (in the case of civilians) [Rule 12(2)] and only after an administrative enquiry (in the case of public servants)[Section 4(2)].


text: If the steps for the investigation outlined above are followed, there is virtually no scope for 'false' or 'mistake of fact' cases (which DSP will dare say that the FIR ordered by an SP after a spot visit is false?!). Instead of taking the officials to task for not doing what is a legally mandated part of their job, the learned honourable judges of the supreme court held that the cases were false and a misuse of the Act, in effect blaming the victim.


text: This is the first law in India to detail the rights of victims and witnesses [Chapter IVA, Section 15A]. It is the duty of the state to ensure these rights [Section 15A(1)]. The rights are comprehensive - from the right to be "treated with fairness, respect and dignity and with due regard to any special need that arises because of the victim's age or gender or educational disadvantage or poverty" [Section 15A(2)], to protection, to the right to be assisted at all times by a concerned individual, organisation, and an advocate [Section 15A(12)].


text: Relief and socio-economic rehabilitation is a duty of the government, and independent of recovery of the amount from the perpetrator [Section 15A, Rule 11, Rule 12(4), and Rule 12(4) Annexe Schedule I].


text: Legal aid is available for all victims, dependents, and their families, regardless of financial status. This includes state payment for a private advocate of choice, who will be paid more than the panel advocate and the special public prosecutor [Rule 4(5)].


text: Many civil society organisations (CSOs) started using this Act to provide some relief to the victims almost immediately. The full monitoring of the Act by civil society is a later phenomenon.


text: The full monitoring of the Act is virtually a 'systems audit' that, in addition to the police and judicial process, includes the monthly, quarterly, half-yearly, and annual reports; compliance regarding prevention, rehabilitation, performance reviews, quarterly subdivisional (SdVMC) and district vigilance and monitoring committee (DVMC) meetings, and half yearly state vigilance and monitoring committee (SVMC) meetings.


text: Comprehensive tools were developed to monitor the implementation of the Act for each case, and at the district and state levels. A few Dalit and human rights organisations took to monitoring violence against the scheduled communities, documenting them, publicising them and also monitoring the use of the Act in dealing with these crimes. One of the first to monitor the implementation of this Act was Sakshi Human Rights Watch Andhra Pradesh (Sakshi-AP), under the leadership of Nanda Gopal Vudayagiri from 1998 itself, in (undivided) Andhra Pradesh (present Telangana and Andhra Pradesh).


text: Civil society monitoring has not matured in that civil society shadow reports under Section 21(4) on the implementation of the Act are yet to be done at the union level.


text: At the state level, some organisations monitor the implementation of the Act and bring out reports and factsheets.


text: However, recorded atrocities across the country continue to rise, and convictions still remain low, as the annual Crime In India reports of the National Crime Records Bureau show.


text: As part of the monitoring by civil society, a dedicated website was launched on 11 September 2021 as the data repository by the Citizen's Vigilance and Monitoring Committee (CVMC).


text: In addition to the Act, Rules, and other information regarding additional relief in English, Hindi, Tamil, (and earlier versions in various other languages), it has the following information:


text: Some organisations used Public Interest Litigation (PIL) to demand better implementation of the Act at the High Courts and in the Supreme Court of India.


text: In Tamil Nadu, petitions were filed for judicial orders to conduct the State Vigilance and Monitoring Committee (SVMC) meetings in 2013 and 2020. The government complied days before the verdict in both cases.


text: In Karnataka, the Citizens Committee Monitoring and Strengthening the SCs and STs (PoA) Act in Karnataka, (CMASK) sued for compliance (Writ Petition No. 7990/2020) in June 2020.


text: The National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR) had earlier filed for compliance in the Supreme Court of India.


text: Just before the 20th anniversary of its enactment, CSOs came together from across the country to review its implementation and formed the National Coalition for Strengthening SC & ST Prevention of Atrocities Act. This coalition took stock of the implementation of the Act as of 2009 in a report card, analysed the lacunae and suggested a set of amendments for improving the implementation. State specific "fact sheets" were also made available for Madhya Pradesh and Bihar. This was followed up with a peoples reportcard in 2012.


text: Many important areas such as social and economic boycotts, causing hurt, destruction of property, defining the SC communities to include those who profess a religion other than Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, and better monitoring mechanisms identified earlier in the K B Saxena study commissioned by the National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, were revisited and a campaign was launched that culminated in the ordinance of 2014. The campaign continued its momentum till the Amendment Act was passed in 2015, and then had a brief revival in 2018 from the Supreme Court Judgement in March till the Amendment Act in August.


text: The Amendment Ordinance 2014 was signed by the president on 4 March 2014 and came into force immediately. Since it was an ordinance, and was not ratified by (the next) parliament within six months, it lapsed. It was then referred back to the cabinet.


text: This Act was passed to replace the ordinance of 2014. The bill was introduced in parliament on 7 July 2014 and referred to the standing committee on 17 July 2014. Subsequently, it was passed by the Lok Sabha on 4 August 2015 and then by the Rajya Sabha in December 2015. The amended Act received presidential assent on 31 December 2015, was notified as Act 1 of 2016 on 1 January 2016 in the Gazette of India Extraordinary, and came into force on 26 January 2016.


title: Leukopenia

text: Leukopenia () is a decrease in the number of leukocytes (WBC). Found in the blood, they are the white blood cells, and are the body's primary defense against an infection. Thus the condition of leukopenia places individuals at increased risk of infection.


title: Leukopenia

text: Neutropenia, a subtype of leukopenia, refers to a decrease in the number of circulating neutrophil granulocytes, the most abundant white blood cells. The terms "leukopenia" and "neutropenia" may occasionally be used interchangeably, as the neutrophil count is the most important indicator of infection risk. Agranulocytosis is an acute form of neutropenia.


title: Leukopenia

text: Low white cell count may be due to acute viral infections, such as a cold or influenza. It has been associated with chemotherapy, radiation therapy, myelofibrosis, aplastic anemia (failure of white cell, red cell and platelet production), stem cell transplant, bone marrow transplant, HIV, AIDS, and steroid use.


title: Leukopenia

text: Other causes of low white blood cell count include systemic lupus erythematosus, Hodgkin's lymphoma, some types of cancer, typhoid, malaria, tuberculosis, dengue, rickettsial infections, enlargement of the spleen, folate deficiencies, psittacosis, sepsis, Sjögren syndrome and Lyme disease. It has also been shown to be caused by deficiency in certain minerals, such as copper and zinc.


title: Leukopenia

text: Pseudoleukopenia can develop upon the onset of infection. The leukocytes (primarily neutrophils, responding to injury first) start migrating toward the site of infection, where they can be scanned. Their migration causes bone marrow to produce more WBCs to combat infection as well as to restore the leukocytes in circulation, but as the blood sample is taken upon the onset of infection, it contains low amount of WBCs, which is why it is termed "pseudoleukopenia".


title: Leukopenia

text: Medications that can cause leukopenia include clozapine, an antipsychotic medication with a rare adverse effect leading to the total absence of all granulocytes (neutrophils, basophils, eosinophils). The antidepressant and smoking addiction treatment drug bupropion HCl (Wellbutrin) can also cause leukopenia with long-term use. Minocycline, a commonly prescribed antibiotic, is another drug known to cause leukopenia. There are also reports of leukopenia caused by divalproex sodium or valproic acid (Depakote), a drug used for epilepsy (seizures), mania (with bipolar disorder) and migraine.


title: Leukopenia

text: The FDA monograph for metronidazole states that this medication can also cause leukopenia, and the prescriber information suggests a complete blood count, including differential cell count, before and after, in particular, high-dose therapy.


title: Leukopenia

text: Immunosuppressive drugs, such as sirolimus, mycophenolate mofetil, tacrolimus, ciclosporin, leflunomide and TNF inhibitors, have leukopenia as a known complication. Interferons used to treat multiple sclerosis, such as interferon beta-1a and interferon beta-1b, can also cause leukopenia.


title: Leukopenia

text: Chemotherapy targets cells that grow rapidly, such as tumors, but can also affect white blood cells, because they are characterized by bone marrow as rapid growing. A common side effect of cancer treatment is neutropenia, the lowering of neutrophils (a specific type of white blood cell).


title: Leukopenia

text: Below are blood reference ranges for various types leucocytes/WBCs. The 2.5 percentile (right limits in intervals in image, showing 95% prediction intervals) is a common limit for defining leukocytosis.


title: Third Eye Blind (album)

text: Third Eye Blind is the debut studio album by American rock band Third Eye Blind, released on April 8, 1997 by Elektra Records. The album was collectively written by Stephan Jenkins and Kevin Cadogan, while production was helmed by Jenkins and Eric Valentine. Recorded in and around San Francisco at Toast Studios, Skywalker Ranch, and H.O.S., the album incorporates elements of alternative rock, post-grunge, and power pop. Thematically, the album focuses on topics such as relationships, drug addiction, suicide prevention, and the band's experience of being signed to a major record label. "Third Eye Blind" was promoted with five singles: "Semi-Charmed Life", "Graduate", "How's It Going to Be", "Losing a Whole Year", and "Jumper".


title: Third Eye Blind (album)

text: The central theme of "Third Eye Blind" is loss, with the album exploring subjects such as suicide, crystal methamphetamine addiction, and sexual abuse. "Semi-Charmed Life", an alternative rock song composed with a rap-influenced singing style, was one of the first songs recorded for the album. The song focuses on a crystal methamphetamine addiction, although Jenkins contends that it more broadly relates to changing periods in one's life.


title: Third Eye Blind (album)

text: When developing a band name and a title for their debut record, Jenkins sought a name with "wit and a sense of punk-rock irony". The name "Third Eye Blind" is meant to refer to a metaphysical third eye, however, the band also intended to satirize the concept. Alli and Ro-Starr were responsible for the album's art direction, with the latter also crafting the band's "falling man" logo. Kate Garner was responsible for the album's photography, with the exclusion of the album cover which was shot by Christine Alicino on December 16, 1996 in San Francisco, California. The shot features model Shandra Boatwright, eyes closed with her mouth wide open, as her and Jenkins' hands are placed on her forehead. Alicino commented that she was hired to "photograph a young woman with an expressive mouth in my edgy polaroid style". In order to achieve this expressive appearance, Boatwright wore bright red lipstick and dark eyeliner.


title: Third Eye Blind (album)

text: The first pressing of "Third Eye Blind" in the United States featured a sepia-toned album cover with a red band logo. This pressing was limited to approximately 500,000 copies in the country, however, it was still employed in the United Kingdom and other European nations. The second pressing of the album featured these colors reverted, with a red-toned cover and yellow band logo. In Japan, the album was released with a cyan, negative photo cover. The 20th anniversary edition of the album features a black-toned version of the cover.


title: Third Eye Blind (album)

text: In April 2022, Jenkins stated on Twitter that the sepia-toned cover is "how [the artwork is] supposed to be," although the artwork was changed to a red-tone due to Elektra Records finding the latter to be "more flashy."


title: Third Eye Blind (album)

text: In December 2019, a 22-minute documentary short film titled "Motorcycle Drive By" was announced on Third Eye Blind's Twitter page. The documentary is directed by David Wexler and focuses on the backstory of the song of same name. The documentary was originally planned to premiere on April 17, 2020 at the 19th Tribeca Film Festival, although the film festival was indefinitely postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The documentary was then released on May 29, 2020 on YouTube as part of the .


title: Third Eye Blind (album)

text: Third Eye Blind performed across the United States alongside Eve 6 on MTV's Campus Invasion tour. The band also performed as an opening act for The Rolling Stones and U2 on their respective tours.


title: Third Eye Blind (album)

text: Critical reception to "Third Eye Blind" was generally positive. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic described "Third Eye Blind" as "easy on the ears," stating that "its straight-ahead professionalism makes it a pleasurable listen for post-grungers". David Grad of "Entertainment Weekly" described the album as "balancing a cheery ear for harmonies with a finely honed sense of despair".