Obama in India: Issues like LGBT rights, forced labour that went unheard

Barack Obama’s visit to India has been all about big issues such as nuclear deal, clean energy and climate, counter-terrorism and economic efforts between the two nations etc. If the entire media attention has been on the developments in these areas in the last couple of days, it is obvious why. However, away from the glare of cameras and flashing bulbs there are issues which are calling out to be heard by the most powerful persons in both countries. Here are a few such campaigns that no one noticed. Homosexual rights A petition has been started by the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community on Change.org pleading the American President to support them and ask the Indian government to decriminalize gay sex and read down section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. The campaign ObamaforQueerIndia is highly visible both Twitter and Facebook. [caption id=“attachment_2065249” align=“alignleft” width=“380” class=" “] US President Barack Obama during a banquet hosted in his honour at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on Sunday. PTI[/caption] “We, the millions of LGBTQIA citizens of India call upon you to voice our concerns to our government that has turned a deaf ear to our grievances,” the petition reads. In 2012, Obama had said that he supported gay marriages. This has encouraged the LGBT community in India to seek for his support. “He is the most powerful man in the world and he supports gay marriages, hence his word or advise to Modi and the Indian government will definitely hold value,” Rajan Shekhar, a member of the community, said. Forced labour and trafficking of domestic help Humanrightsfirst.org has also urged the US President to raise the issue of modern day slavery – the practice of having domestic helps - and the trafficking done by Indian diplomats. Human rights advocates suspect that despite the Devyani Khobragade episode which witnessed visa fraud and exploitation of her domestic help, Indian diplomats have continued that practice in the US. In addition to that, the advocates also voiced their concern over forced labour and human trafficking inside India. “More people are enslaved in India than in any other country in the world… India’s primary trafficking problem is the forced labour of an estimated 20 to 65 million citizens: men, women, and children held in debt bondage—sometimes inherited from previous generations—who are forced to work in brick kilns, rice mills, agriculture, embroidery factories, and other industries” wrote Human Rights First President and CEO Elisa Massimino. “The challenge is to change this calculus—to increase the risk of prosecution and decrease the profits for exploiters. The Indian government needs to strengthen anti-trafficking laws and promote consistent enforcement at all government levels.” However, this topic has the least possibility of coming up during the bilateral talks due to the Khobragade incident in December 2013, which severely damaged the Indo-US relations and Obama presence in Delhi is to essentially mend it. Don’t budge on IPR Another petition on intellectual property rights, especially getting patents for new medicine, has been doing rounds on social media. However, this petition does not ask for Obama’s support, rather it pleads the Indian government to stand strong against the US, which has been trying to convince the Indian government to follow the US policy when it comes to medicine patent criteria. The US, which has a liberal patent criteria, enables pharmaceutical companies to make minor changes to the composition of a drug and get a patent for 20 years, hence no other company can manufacture the same drug for that period of time. This enables pharmaceutical companies to create monopolies and make their drug extremely expensive and keeps it out of reach for the poor. In India, however, such monopolies don’t exist as smaller pharmaceutical companies come out with cheaper substitutes of an expensive drug which is affordable for the poor, which India has in abundance. Oxfamindia.org has started a campaign called “Save our medicine, save lives” which is inviting people to join and stand strong with the Indian Government against US bullying and protect access to life-saving medicines for millions across the world.