Best printers for Home

Best Mixer Grinder

Best wired Earphones

Best 43 Inch TV in India

Best Wi Fi Routers

Best Home Theatre in India

Smart Watch under 5000

Best Laptops for Education

Best Laptop for Students

<keyword id="1851542" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="maratha-groups" source="Orion">Maratha groups</keyword> continued their protests for the third day across several districts in the state to press for reservation for the community here on Tuesday. Alarmed by the spread of agitation, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has convened an all-party meeting in Mumbai on Wednesday to discuss and resolve the issue. Maratha legislators from all political parties staged a protest near the Gandhi statue outside Mantralaya in Nariman Point and are likely to meet Governor Ramesh Bais later demanding a special legislature session to finalise the community quotas. The great grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, Tushar A. Gandhi said that the Centre had very successfully engineered violence in New Delhi to scuttle the anti-CAA-NRC protests that had become a big embarrassment for the government. "Now the same modus operandi has been employed in Maharashtra to defame and derail the Maratha reservation agitation," said <keyword id="97377" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="tushar-gandhi" source="Orion">Tushar Gandhi</keyword> sharply. Another incident of arson on a government office was reported from Jalna where a village panchayat office was torched by some unknown persons raising pro-quota slogans. Scores of Maratha activists lay down on the railway tracks in Solapur and blocked the passage of at least one long-distance train even as police attempted to clear the railway lines. A local office of the Bharatiya Janata Party was set ablaze at Naiknagar in Hingoli district, while a large number of Maratha activists got down in a stream in Pune for a 'jal-samadhi' protest. Public bus services remained shut for the second day in parts of Parbhani district and in Malkapur, Buldhana district, protestors smeared black paint on posters of the CM on a vehicle. Scores of Marathas launched relay hunger strikes at Chunabhatti in Mumbai and Mungse village in Nashik district demanding immediate announcement of quotas. Schools and colleges remained shut on Tuesday in Shevgaon, Ahmednagar district and students participated in the protests. In Pune, protestors blocked the Pune-Bengaluru Highway by throwing burning truck tyres on the Navale Bridge and squatting on the road, raising anti-government slogans, as 10-km long traffic snarls developed on both sides of the important thoroughfare. A large number of activists took out a symbolic 'funeral' procession of the state government in Tembhurni, Solapur district, while half a dozen services of the Nagpur-Pune sleeper bus services were suspended for the day. In Beed, which was rocked by large-scale arson and violence on Monday, a Nationalist Congress Party (SP) activist <keyword id="13209654" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="yogesh-kshirsagar" source="Orion">Yogesh Kshirsagar</keyword> alleged that the torching of his MLA brother Sandeep R. Kshirsagar was "a pre-planned conspiracy". "Before setting our house on fire, someone had snapped off the power supply here, the miscreants who indulged in stone-pelting were carrying bottles filled with petrol, and the police proved totally incapable of stopping them," claimed Yogesh Kshirsagar. The Shivba Sanghatana President Manoj Jarange-Patil, whose indefinite hunger strike entered the seventhday on Tuesday, again appealed to his supporters in the state to refrain from any violence and carry out a peaceful agitation.

Arson, roadblocks rock Maha on third day of Maratha pro-quota protests

<keyword id="19919639" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bangladesh" source="keywords">Bangladesh</keyword> Prime Minister <keyword id="20024637" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Sheikh-Hasina" source="keywords">Sheikh Hasina</keyword> has left Dhakha in a military chopper amid nationwide <keyword id="19972953" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="violence" source="keywords">violence</keyword> in the country, local media reported on Monday. As per latest reports from Bangladesh local media Sheikh Hasina has left for location in India. There is, however, no official confirmation. Media outlet ProthomAlo said that Hasina's military chopper, took off from her Bangabhaban the official residence of the Bangladesh president with her at 2:30 (local time) today. Sheikh Hasina was accompanied by her younger sister Sheikh Rehana in the chopper ProthomAlo reported citing sources that claimed that the Bangladesh Prime Minister departed for West Bengal in India by helicopter. Protesters forced open the gates of Gono Bhaban and entered the premises of the prime minister's residence around 3 pm today, The Daily Star reported. Thousands of people joined the Anti-Discrimination <keyword id="19929042" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="students" source="keywords">Students</keyword>' Movement's "<keyword id="22668836" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="March-to-Dhaka" source="keywords">March to Dhaka</keyword>" programme at the Mirpur 10 roundabout and moved towards Farmgate. Army Chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman's who was made to make a televised address has been pushed back Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) said as cited by Bangladesh publication The Daily Star. Earlier on August 3, organisers of the <keyword id="22668835" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Anti-Discrimination-student-movement" source="keywords">Anti-Discrimination Student Movement</keyword> announced a single-point demand for the <keyword id="19905453" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="resignation" source="keywords">resignation</keyword> of Hasina and her cabinet members. Nahid Islam, one of the key organisers, announced the demand at a rally at the Central Shaheed Minar. The Anti-Discrimination Student Movement's announcement came after Bangladesh PM Hasina urged the agitating students to sit with her at Gono Bhaban to end the violence focused on the quota reform <keyword id="19905184" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="protests" source="keywords">protests</keyword>. She said, "Doors of Gono Bhaban are open. I want to sit with the agitating students and listen to them. I want no conflict." She made the remarks during a meeting with the central leaders of the Peshajibi Somonnoy Parishad (Professionals Coordination Council) at Gono Bhaban on Saturday. Meanwhile, the anti-discrimination student movement has announced that it will hold a "March to Dhaka" programme today to raise its one-point demand, which is the resignation of the Sheikh Hasina-led government. The Daily Star reported. They urged students and people across the nation to participate in the march to Dhaka. Three coordinators of the movement--Asif Mahmud, Sarjis Alam, and Abu Baker Majumder, have confirmed their march, The Daily Star reported. Initially, the "March to Dhaka" was set to take place on Tuesday. However, later, the march was rescheduled for Monday. In the wake of the deepening crisis, Bangladesh announced the shutdown of public and private offices, including banks, for three days, while students have scheduled a long march for today, setting themselves on a potential collision course with pro-government groups, according to The Daily Star report. The new wave of protests comes as demonstrators raised only one demand: the resignations of Hasina and her cabinet members. They also initiated a campaign of non-cooperation at the same time, advising citizens not to pay taxes and migrant workers not to remit money home via banking systems. At least 93 people were killed as a fresh wave of violence gripped Bangladesh. Over thousands have sustained injuries, many with bullets, the Daily Star reported on Monday. The situation in Bangladesh became more tense after members of the ruling Awami League poured into the streets to quell anti-government demonstrations, turning things violent. The protests in Bangladesh have erupted due to demands for reforming the quota system that reserves civil service jobs for specific groups, including descendants of 1971 war veterans. The unrest intensified after students opposed a new policy allocating government jobs to descendants of freedom fighters, leading to violence, including attacks on state television headquarters and police booths in Dhaka.

Amid violence, Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina leaves country in Army helicopter: Local media reports

Members of <keyword id="4863655" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Maratha-organisations">Maratha organisations</keyword> hit the streets in <keyword id="2358003" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="different-parts">different parts</keyword> of Maharashtra on Friday to protest against the inept handling of the issue of quota for the community in jobs and education by <keyword id="9276462" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="the-maha-vikas-aghadi">the Maha Vikas Aghadi</keyword> (MVA) government. In Osmanabad district in central Maharashtra, protesters held a demonstration near the famous Tuljabhavani temple over the quota issue. BJP MP Sambhaji <keyword id="8860" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Chhatrapati">Chhatrapati</keyword> also took part in the protest. Another protest was held at Parliin Beed district, also in central Maharashtra. The protesters accused the Shiv Sena-led government of adopting a lackadaisical attitude towards the quota issue. Because of an indifferent attitude by the three-party alliance government, the 2018 quota law was stayed by the Supreme Court, they alleged "We oppose the government going ahead with the police recruitment and Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC) exams," they said. Maratha groups say these exams should not be conducted till there is a clarity on reservation for candidates from the community in government jobs. Meanwhile, BJP Rajya Sabha MP <keyword id="178535" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Udayanraje-Bhosale">Udayanraje Bhosale</keyword>, the direct descendant of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, supported the demand to postpone the October 11 MPSC exams. In a Facebook post, he said the Maratha Kranti Morcha and student organisations have demanded postponement of the MPSC exams, but the state government is going ahead with the them, which is unfair. "If there is any flare up, the state government will be held responsible," Bhosale said. Early last month, the Supreme Court stayed the implementation of the 2018 Maharashtra law granting reservation to Marathas in education and jobs. It referred to a larger constitution bench the batch of pleas challenging the validity of the law granting reservation to Marathas in education and jobs. The Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) Act, 2018, was enacted to grant reservation to people of the Maratha community in jobs and admissions. <keyword id="1201797" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="The-Bombay-High-Court">The Bombay High Court</keyword>, while upholding the law in June last year, had held that 16 per cent reservation was not justifiable and said that quota should not exceed 12 per cent in employment and 13 per cent in admissions. <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/entertainment/news/mira-nairs-a-suitable-boy-to-premiere-on-netflix-in-october/articleshow/78571222.cms">Mira Nair's 'A Suitable Boy' to premiere on Netflix in October</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/thelife/personalities/news/what-was-the-harshad-mehta-scam-1992-checkout-this-story-on-sonyliv/articleshow/78571540.cms">Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story is streaming on SonyLIV— Here's what the infamous scam was all about</a>

Maratha Organisations hit the streets to protest against job reservation

Despite government warning, <keyword id="391175" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="pro-Kannada">pro-Kannada</keyword> organisations on Friday decided to go ahead with the <keyword id="535643" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Karnataka-Bandh">Karnataka Bandh</keyword> on December 5 in protest against the formation of the Maratha Development Authority (MDA). Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa had on November 13 announced setting up the MDA, earmarking Rs 50 crore for the overall development of the Maratha population in the state. The move was seen in some quarters as an attempt to woo the sizeable community members in Basavakalyan Assembly segment in Bidar district in north Karnataka and Belagavi Lok Sabha constituency bordering Maharashtra where by-elections are due. The decision has not gone down well with several pro-Kannada organisations. The consortium of the pro-Kannada organisations such as Kannada <keyword id="10304053" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="chalavali-Vatal-paksha">Chalavali Vatal Paksha</keyword> (KCVP) and Karnataka Rakshana Vedike (Shivarame Gowda faction) passed a resolution opposing the government move and deciding to stage the bandh. The Ola-Uber Drivers and Owners Association too has extended its support to the bandh. In a statement, KCVP chief Vatal Nagaraj claimed support of the former chief of the Kannada Development Authority Mukhyamantri Chandru and former head of the Kannada Film Chamber of Commerce, Sa Ra Govindu, among others, for the consortium. However, two other factions of Karnataka Rakshana Vedike belonging to T A Narayana Gowda and Praveen Shetty have said they would take a call only after discussing with their leaders. As the matter snowballed into a controversy after his announcement, Yediyurappa clarified that he was only setting up the Maratha Development Authority and not the Marathi Development Authority. He stated that Maratha community members are "staunch Hindutvavadis", many of whom need to be elevated socially and economically. The Chief Minister had warned that he would not allow any 'forced bandh' on December 5. "We will take strict action if the forced bandh is called," he had said. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/mumbais-massive-power-cut-last-month-may-have-been-the-work-of-hackers/articleshow/79318282.cms">Mumbai’s massive power cut last month may have been the work of hackers</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/vodafone-idea-shares-jump-after-selling-stake-in-indus-towers-for-3760-crore/articleshow/79316662.cms">Vodafone Idea soars nearly 5% on fund infusion from Indus Towers stake sale</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/pubg-mobile-india-was-supposed-to-launch-today/articleshow/79315462.cms">PUBG Mobile India was rumoured to launch today — but there is no official update from the company</a>

Pro-Kannada outfits to stage Karnataka bandh opposing Maratha board move on December 5 despite government warning

<ul class="summary-list"><li>President <keyword id="6354484" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Donald-Trump">Donald Trump</keyword> signed an executive order on policing Tuesday that's primarily concerned with avoiding the demonization of <keyword id="11098" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="police">police</keyword>. </li><li>The executive order is meant to respond to nationwide protests over <keyword id="53374" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Police-Brutality">police brutality</keyword> and racism and comes as Trump's polling numbers are rapidly tanking.</li><li>But it's low on substance and doesn't go nearly as far as other proposals regarding policing in the US from activists and lawmakers.</li><li>As Trump announced the executive order at the White House on Tuesday, he showered law enforcement with praise. </li><li>"Without police, there is chaos," Trump said. "The vast majority of police officers are selfless and courageous public servants."</li></ul>President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order on policing that does not address the demands of activists who've flooded America's streets or go nearly as far as legislation proposed by Democrats and Republicans in Congress.As Americans demonstrate against the use of excessive force by police, the president showered law enforcement with praise and called for more "law and order" in the US. Trump's executive order is primarily concerned with not demonizing police officers. "We will have reform without undermining our great police officers," Trump said in announcing the executive order on Tuesday. "Americans want law and order. They demand law and order. They may not say it; they may not be talking about it, but that's what they want. Some of them don't even know that that's what they want. But that's what they want.""Without police, there is chaos," he added. Before Tuesday's announcement, which took place in the White House's Rose Garden, Trump said he met with the families of victims of police violence, including Ahmaud Arbery, Botham Jean, Antwon Rose, Jemel Roberson, Atatiana Jefferson, Michael Dean, Darius Tarver, Cameron Lamb, and Everett Palmer. <h2>Trump's executive order is more about optics than making major changes</h2><div type="image" title="george floyd protest nyc" height="1333" width="1777" msid="76413215" hostid="261"></div>Trump's executive order calls for the creation of a national database to track police misconduct. It also emphasizes the need for the increased involvement of mental-health professionals in policing to help deal with nonviolent situations involving issues such homelessness and addiction. Additionally, the executive order seeks to use federal grants to incentivize departments to reach certain standards on their use of force.There is overwhelming public and bipartisan support for an outright ban on choke holds, but Trump's order does not go that far. "As part of this new credentialing process, choke holds will be banned — except for if an officer's life is at risk," Trump said.With protests against police brutality and racism occurring in virtually every major US city over the past few weeks — largely catalyzed by the killing of <keyword id="9295731" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="george-floyd">George Floyd</keyword> — the Trump administration has been under increasing pressure to offer policy proposals directed at reforming policing.Earlier this month, Trump controversially threatened to use the US military to quell protests and unrest across the country over Floyd's death. That same day, law enforcement violently dispersed peaceful protesters to clear a path for Trump to take a photo with a Bible at a nearby church. This incident did not help matters and sparked widespread condemnation — <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mattis-unloads-on-trump-for-dividing-america-in-blistering-statement-2020-6">including from former top advisers to the president</a>.The president's polling numbers <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/312572/trump-job-approval-slides.aspx">have been tanking</a> amid the protests and his response to the coronavirus pandemic. More than 116,000 people have died from COVID-19 in a matter of months under Trump's watch. Trump's executive order came well after a variety of proposals were put forward by various localities and congressional lawmakers. With polling showing strong support for the nationwide demonstrations, the order is an effort to answer the call for policing reform without taking steps that might anger or alienate law enforcement. "The vast majority of police officers are selfless and courageous public servants," Trump said on Tuesday as he made it clear that he opposes efforts to disband and defund police departments. "Law and order must be further restored nationwide."<h2>Beyond Trump's executive order, here are some of the most notable proposals that have recently been put forward: </h2><ul><li>House and Senate Democrats want to ban choke holds, end no-knock warrants in federal drug cases, and create a national police-misconduct registry.<ul><li>House Democrats have <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/summary-justice-in-policing-act-democrats-2020-6">put forward the Justice in Policing Act</a>, the most sweeping law-enforcement overhaul proposed by Congress in recent decades. It focuses on increasing police accountability and curbing some of the most controversial police tactics.</li><li>The bill would put an end to qualified immunity, which protects law-enforcement officers from civil lawsuits; create a higher federal use-of-force standard; log a national registry of police misconduct; and ban choke holds and no-knock warrants.</li><li>House leaders have rejected calls to defund police departments.</li><li>"We want to work with our police departments," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/6/8/21283841/democrats-police-reform-bill-explained-george-floyd">said last week</a>. "There are many things we call upon our police departments to deal with — mental-health issues, policing in schools, and the rest — that we could rebalance some of our funding to address some of those issues more directly. But this isn't about that."</li></ul></li><li>Senate Republicans, led by Sen. Tim Scott, support significantly fewer far-reaching changes, which they're preparing to unveil in new legislation this week.<ul><li>Some of the measures in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/republican-senators-outline-gops-police-reform-bill/2020/06/14/8d10a3a0-ae6f-11ea-856d-5054296735e5_story.html">the GOP bill</a> will be similar to those in the Democratic bill, including a national database of law-enforcement misconduct, a ban on neck restraints and no-knock warrants, and a lower legal bar for civil lawsuits against officers, The Washington Post reported.</li><li>But Republicans have rejected other measures proposed by Democrats, including ending qualified immunity, which <a href="https://www.axios.com/tim-scott-police-reform-bill-qualified-immunity-899fccfe-f517-4512-b890-bd19be0ffbfa.html">Scott has called</a> a "poison pill" for the GOP.</li></ul></li><li>Black Lives Matter cofounder Alicia Garza is calling for a national defunding of police and the reallocation of resources to social services, including housing and healthcare.<ul><li>"So much of policing right now is generated and directed towards quality-of-life issues, homelessness, drug addiction, domestic violence," Garza <a href="https://www.axios.com/defund-police-black-lives-matter-7007efac-0b24-44e2-a45c-c7f180c17b2e.html">told NBC News</a>.</li><li>"What we do need is increased funding for housing, we need increased funding for education, we need increased funding for quality of life of communities who are over-policed and over-surveilled," Garza added.</li></ul></li><li>Joe Biden, the presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential nominee, wants to spend $300 million more on community policing.<ul><li>Biden has said he doesn't support calls to defund the police but that funding should be conditional on the department's standards.</li><li>"I support conditioning federal aid to police based on whether or not they meet certain basic standards of decency and honorableness and in fact are able to demonstrate they can protect the community and everybody in the community," Biden <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/biden-federal-aid-police-epartments-defunding/">told CBS News last week</a>.</li><li>Biden announced last week that he was still calling for <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/biden-300-million-for-reshaped-police-departments-in-op-ed-2020-6">an additional $300 million</a> in federal funding "to reinvigorate community policing." He also wants to see increased investment in "mental health services, drug treatment and prevention programs, and services for people experiencing homelessness," he wrote in <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/06/10/biden-root-out-systemic-racism-not-just-divisive-trump-talk-column/5327631002/">a USA Today op-ed</a>.</li><li>"That may also mean having social service providers respond to calls with police officers," Biden added.</li><li>While many progressives are calling to reduce police interaction with Black and brown communities, Biden <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/joe-biden-pushed-police-now-confronts-challenge-police/story?id=71177383">has long argued</a> that having more police officers on the streets improves safety. </li><li>And Biden's record on policing and criminal-justice policy has long been scrutinized by progressives, who point to the <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/6/20/18677998/joe-biden-1994-crime-bill-law-mass-incarceration">1994 crime bill</a> he championed as a reason for mass incarceration, harsh sentencing, and the criminalization of poverty.</li></ul></li><li>Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, wants to stop the federal militarization of local police departments' and end no-knock warrants, like the one that led to Breonna Taylor's killing in Louisville.<ul><li>Paul is <a href="https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/2020/06/11/breonna-taylor-shooting-rand-paul-files-bill-ban-no-knock-warrants/5345478002/">drafting legislation</a> that would ban no-knock warrants, which allow the police to enter a residence without identifying themselves or the reason for their entry. He said he was motivated by the March killing of Taylor, who was shot by police officers who raided her apartment in the middle of the night. </li><li>"After talking with Breonna Taylor's family, I've come to the conclusion that it's long past time to get rid of no-knock warrants," he said. "This bill will effectively end no-knock raids in the United States."</li><li>Paul also supports a bipartisan bill, the Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act, that calls for a ban on the transfer of military weapons to local police departments.</li><li>"I support our officers, but I do not believe it is beneficial for neighborhoods across the United States to have the same kind of military-grade weapons that are commonly used in Afghanistan," Paul told Business Insider in a statement. </li><li>Notably, Paul has prevented a federal anti-lynching bill from becoming law, saying it defines lynching too broadly.</li></ul></li><li>Some local leaders and civil-rights groups have also put forward proposals.<ul><li>New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson wants to make "significant cuts to the NYPD budget and reinvest that money in communities" and "get cops out of schools, out of homeless services, and out of mental health."</li><li>Ed Mullins, the president of the NYPD sergeants union, supports ending arrest quotas, expanding police departments' Big Brother Big Sister programs, and creating "public service announcements" that "explain what transpires during a police encounter."</li><li>The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, along with several hundred civil- and human-rights groups, is calling for eight key policing reforms, including a national use-of-force standard, a ban on choke holds, and an end to racial profiling.</li></ul></li></ul>

Trump's executive order on policing is pro-police and doesn't call for major changes

Dhaka: As the situation in <keyword id="19919639" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bangladesh" source="keywords">Bangladesh</keyword> deteriorates following <keyword id="20024637" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Sheikh-Hasina" source="keywords">Sheikh Hasina</keyword>'s resignation, the <keyword id="19967845" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Supreme-Court-Bar-Association" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Supreme Court Bar Association" meta.hostid="153" meta.entityid="Supreme Court Bar Association">Supreme Court Bar Association</keyword> (SCBA) President, AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon, has urged India to arrest the former Prime Minister and her sister, Sheikh Rehana, and return them to Bangladesh, as reported by Dhaka Tribune. At a press conference held at the SCBA auditorium, Khokon said, "We want to maintain a positive relationship with the people of India. Please arrest Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana, who fled the country, and send them back to Bangladesh." He also accused Hasina of causing numerous deaths in Bangladesh, adding, "Sheikh Hasina has killed many people in Bangladesh." Several pro-BNP lawyers were present at the conference. Khokon, who is also a joint secretary general of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), urged against declaring a state of emergency and demanded the resignation of Supreme Court judges involved in political activities and corruption within a week, Dhaka Tribune reported. He also called for the resignation of state law officers, including Attorney General AM Amin Uddin, and the heads and officials of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), as they were appointed by the Hasina-led government. Additionally, Khokon demanded the release of political prisoners. Bangladesh is facing a fluid political situation with Sheikh Hasina, on August 5, tendering her resignation from her post in the wake of mounting protests. The protests, led majorly by students demanding an end to a quota system for government jobs, took the shape of anti-government protests. Earlier in the day, President Mohammed Shahabuddin, announced the dissolution of the country's parliament to make way for the formation of an interim administration, Dhaka Tribune reported. In another major development, BNP chairperson and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia was also released. Hasina arrived in India on Monday evening and it is not clear if she will stay in Delhi or move to another location. Meanwhile, in Dhaka, leaders of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement have proposed an interim government led by Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus, in a bid to address Bangladesh's ongoing challenge.

Bangladesh SCBA President urges India to arrest and return Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Since 2021, China has been promoting the idea that it runs a new version of democracy.</li><li>The concept is to avoid elections but to consult common people on how the country should run.</li></ul>China is having a field day with former UK Prime Minister Lizz Truss' resignation.On Weibo, China's heavily censored version of Twitter, the hashtag "Prime Minister Truss resigns" is flush with <a href="https://weibo.com/1663072851/MbdMKupuA?refer_flag=1001030103_">comments</a> of glee and ridicule. As of Thursday, it had been seen more than <a href="https://s.weibo.com/hot?q=%23%E8%8B%B1%E5%9B%BD%E9%A6%96%E7%9B%B8%E7%89%B9%E6%8B%89%E6%96%AF%E8%BE%9E%E8%81%8C%23&amp;xsort=hot&amp;suball=1&amp;tw=hotweibo&amp;Refer=weibo_hot">360 million times</a>.But the jeering goes deeper than race-against-lettuce memes. On Weibo, it's not just Truss and her economic plan that are the butt of the joke — the mockery also extends to the very political system that governs the West.Beijing has in recent years stepped up its <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/12/china-criticizes-us-democracy-while-promoting-xis-growing-power.html">criticism of "Western democracy,</a>" deriding it as a "game of the rich" and downplaying the fairness of elections. Whenever a controversial leader makes headlines, Weibo users rarely give up the chance to needle the system under which Donald Trumps and Jair Bolsonaros come to power.President Xi Jinping offers an ideological alternative. He first introduced the term "whole-process democracy" to China in a <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Editor-s-Picks/China-up-close/Chinese-democracy-Xi-says-whole-process-of-decision-making-is-sound">2019 speech</a>. Chinese media explained that it was an answer to a Western system in which politicians focus only on promises and winning races instead of governing.By 2021, the idea had taken Chinese state media by storm. People's Daily, the main state outlet, had only mentioned the term once before July 2021, according to the <a href="https://chinamediaproject.org/the_ccp_dictionary/whole-process-democracy/">China Media Project</a>, a Hong Kong-based non-profit that tracks Chinese media trends. However, by November that year, "whole-process democracy" was mentioned in 128 People's Daily articles, per CMP.The official definition of the term is vague. "China's whole-process people's democracy integrates process-oriented democracy with results-oriented democracy, procedural democracy with substantive democracy, direct democracy with indirect democracy and people's democracy with the will of the state," says China's white paper on the subject, <a href="http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2021-06/25/c_1310028067_2.htm">per CGTN.</a>Semantics aside, a key point to note is that "whole-process democracy" plays down the need for elections. Instead, it allows its citizens to exercise their will by submitting opinions or directly influencing government policy and decisions through surveys, according to Beijing.It's still not clear how successful the implementation of "whole process democracy" has been, but political scientists studying China told Insider that the system doesn't really represent a change in how Beijing governs.Rather, it's being used to alter the reputation of China's political system to become one that's on par with the West's and listens to its citizens — a sign that Beijing's leaders are learning from the mistakes of past administrations.<h2>Listening to the people?</h2>China's plans for whole-process democracy started taking shape in June. Xi <a href="https://english.news.cn/20220626/ee163d9f556e4e2a97199467748310ea/c.html">announced</a> that Beijing had gathered online opinions from 8.54 million citizens in April and May "to contribute ideas to the country's development and the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation."Xi tied the survey to this year's 20th National Congress, where China's top leadership for the next five years is confirmed. It sets the stage for what Xi's likely third term — unprecedented since Mao Zedong's rule — as <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/Xi-s-ambitions-and-concerns-5-takeaways-from-centenary-speech#">China's supreme leader might look like. </a><div type="image" title="The 19th National Congress of Communist Party of China closed at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in 2017." height="3264" width="4896" msid="95033134" hostid="261" sizebytes="981580"></div>There are no details on what people actually suggested to the Communist party, but Rana Mitter, a professor of the history and politics of modern China at Oxford University, told Insider that Beijing likely did obtain the millions of responses from citizens as it claimed."The question is: What level of quality of information is being gauged? What were the circumstances in which opinions were gathered? How open and robust and anonymized was the process?" he said. "How free were people to give their thoughts?"Ian Chong, who teaches political science at the National University of Singapore, said China has a history of claiming to consult its people, but that this has been limited in practice."As Mao consolidated power, consultativeness became a means to weed out opponents," Chong told Insider, referring to Mao Zedong, who led China from 1949 to 1976. Mao infamously encouraged educated individuals to air their views on his policies in 1956, then <a href="https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/theme/chinese-foreign-policy-database/timeline?year=1957">launched a campaign</a> to arrest, expel, or execute critics the following year."When there's opinion polling done in authoritarian settings, you often get people responding that they 'don't know' or 'they have no opinion' on various issues," Chong said."8.5 million people is a large number of people but a tiny proportion of China's population," Chong noted. "It's not even 10% of China's Communist Party members. Who is within this 8.5 million and what is the degree to which they're allowed to speak their mind?"<h2>Redefining democracy, sort of</h2>If building a form of "democracy" sounds uncharacteristic of Beijing, that's because the modern conversation around communism and democracy has only focused on the last three decades, Mitter said."The last 30 years has been, in historical terms, an unusual period in which there has been quite a wide range of electoral democracies lined up against a relatively smaller number of authoritarian states," he said. "And it's been possible to define the two as opposed to each other."In the early to mid-20th century, many nations and communities were still debating the definition of democracy. Today, many associate democracies with elections, but some governments in past decades tried to tie democracy more to other civil liberties like freedom of speech or freedom of assembly, Mitter said."And it's that confusion that I think China is now using to try and redefine its own version of what it's doing," he said.Mitter said Xi's approach is better defined as "consultative Leninism," <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10670560903174705">a term coined by Professor Steve Tsang of the SOAS University of London</a>, and not a version of democracy.Chong said Beijing is committing more to conjuring its own version of democracy so it can present China's government as more attractive in terms of participation — so long as it doesn't involve elections."This current Chinese regime and Xi generally frown upon competitive elections," Chong said. "They don't like that level of uncertainty and risk that comes with elections because it can be a more direct threat to people at the apex of power."Since 1988, China has tried small-scale elections that allow villagers to select their community leaders, but the program fell to the wayside after <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/feb/27/china-jasmine-revolution-beijing-police">Beijing smashed a series of pro-democracy protests in 2011.</a>Meanwhile, increased restrictions on village-level democracy and on Hong Kong under Xi's rule indicate his administration is apprehensive about allowing citizens to exercise their popular will, Chong said.<div type="image" title="Workers count ballots during a village committee election at Geping village on March 4, 2021 in Xiajiang County, Jiangxi Province of China." height="2862" width="4293" msid="95033137" hostid="261" sizebytes="516670"></div>As for why China is trying to sell the idea of a democracy, that's because democracies are generally looked upon favorably by people, Chong added."It's like saying you support good. Everybody would say that they do," he said.That's not to say that China is abandoning talk of Marxism-Leninism, which is still core to China's politics, Mitter said."The Chinese Communist Party has been quite effective in finding language that enables it to find whatever policy is helpful to that particular moment," he said.<h2>Keeping information flowing in</h2>According to Mitter, China's survey and its idea of whole-process democracy shows that Beijing is aware of the need to adapt and listen to its citizens."The Chinese Communist Party is very concerned to make sure that, unlike say the Communist Party of the Soviet Union back in the 70s and 80s, it does not lose power," Mitter said. "And it understands that if it wants to hold onto its existing power, then it has to be flexible in terms of its governance mechanisms within the boundaries of keeping an absolute grip on one-party power," he added. Key to this is keeping the government informed of its citizens' attitudes and realities on the ground, Mitter said. "One of the ultimate periods of low information flow was back in the 1950s during the Great Leap Forward, when Chinese officials were having to forge and falsify production figures on cereals, grains, and so forth to suit production quotas," he said. <a href="https://www.asianstudies.org/publications/eaa/archives/chinas-great-leap-forward/">The Great Leap Forward</a> was a radical five-year plan in which Mao tasked all farming households with also producing steel. The disastrous policy resulted in 30 million people dying of starvation, but by the time the policy was introduced, Mao's critics had mostly been eradicated.<div type="image" title="A team of workers labouring in a stone quarry in heavy rain during the 'Great Leap Forward' (1959 - 1961.)" height="3555" width="5000" msid="95033140" hostid="261" sizebytes="1096468"></div>Conversely, China saw an economic boom in the 1980s after its then-leader Deng Xiaoping revived an emphasis on discerning "truth from facts," allowing more topics on politics and growth to be discussed, Mitter said."The other situation I think you have is in North Korea, where basically nobody can say anything at all," he said. "It's very difficult to monitor that opinion."Mitter noted that while China has become <a href="https://www.insider.com/china-social-media-censorship-review-every-single-comment-weibo-2022-6">notorious for internet censorship under Xi</a>, authorities generally allow some issues to bubble up on social media so they can understand what people are concerned about.Chong said that as social media continues to dominate China's discussion space, it's likely the average Chinese person's ability to engage with Beijing will increasingly depend on whether they have internet access.Around 70% of China's people use the internet, <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IT.NET.USER.ZS?locations=CN">per World Bank data</a>, but that still leaves 400 million in the country — more people than in the US — who don't have regular online access.Even so, Chong said, whole-process democracy might still help the CCP give the impression that it cares about the average citizen."In exchange for increased prosperity and wealth, people accept the CCP's perpetual rule and don't challenge it," Chong said.With China's economy facing <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/07/15/1111652023/chinas-economic-growth-slows-following-covid-lockdowns">headwinds amid the pandemic</a> and a <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/trump-us-china-trade-war-timeline-of-everything-thats-happened-2019-8-1028474486">trade war with the US</a>, Beijing may be under pressure to show citizens that they're listening to them."It does help lend a sheen of legitimacy. Perhaps it's something that Xi finds useful," he said.

China says it's running on a new version of democracy that doesn't rely on elections. Experts say it's just another mind game.

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="46161" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Disney">Disney</keyword> filmed scenes from "<keyword id="3026859" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Mulan">Mulan</keyword>" in <keyword id="46500" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Xinjiang">Xinjiang</keyword>, a western Chinese region where the government is detaining and oppressing millions of ethnic Muslims.</li><li>In the credits, the movie thanked the Chinese Communist Party Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Committee and the Bureau of Public Security in Turpan, a city in the region.</li><li>Both bodies have facilitated the detention of more than one million <keyword id="45300" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Uighur">Uighur</keyword> Muslims in detention camps masquerading as "reeducation centers."</li><li>At the camps, people are brainwashed, made to adopt Han Chinese culture, and forced to work production lines. To slash birth rates, women are sterilized or made to have abortions.</li><li>Liu Yifei, the lead actor in "Mulan," has also beem criticized for saying that she supported the Hong Kong police's crackdown on protesters last year.</li></ul>Disney filmed parts of its live-action remake of "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-watch-mulan-movie">Mulan</a>" in Xinjiang, western <keyword id="1334" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="China">China</keyword>, where the government is detaining and committing human-rights atrocities against millions of Uighur Muslims.In the end credits of "Mulan" — which premiered on the Disney+ streaming platform last Friday — Disney thanked the Chinese Communist Party Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Committee and the Bureau of Public Security in the city of Turpan. (Uyghur is an alternative spelling for "Uighur.")In an interview published <a href="https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/inside-the-sets-mulan-live-action">in Architectural Digest</a> on Friday, Grant Major, the film's production designer, said his team had spent "months in and around the northwest province of Xinjiang."Novelist Jeannette Ng also <a href="https://twitter.com/jeannette_ng/status/1302767969466974208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1302767969466974208%7Ctwgr%5Eshare_3&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.businessinsider.com%2Fdisney20mulan20thanks20china20filming20xinjiang20uighur20muslims20detained-2020-920-9">tweeted</a> that in "Mulan," Xinjiang is referred to simply as Western China.Since 2016, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/life-inside-china-internment-camps-for-uighur-minority-in-xinjiang-bbc-report-2018-8">more than one million Uighurs and other Turkic minorities have been detained</a> in at least 500 prison camps masquerading as "reeducation centers" across Xinjiang.The Bureau of Public Security in the city of Turpan "has been deeply involved in the Xinjiang concentration camps," Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian, China reporter for Axios, <a href="https://twitter.com/BethanyAllenEbr/status/1302966333475348483">tweeted</a> Monday. The US <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/07/22/2020-15827/addition-of-certain-entities-to-the-entity-list-revision-of-existing-entries-on-the-entity-list">placed the bureau on the Entity List</a> of the Export Administration Regulations in July 2020, saying it was implicated in "human rights violations and abuses in the implementation of China's campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention, forced labor, and high-technology surveillance against Uighurs."<div type="image" title="Hong Kong Uighur protest masks.JPG" height="1357" width="2714" msid="77995797" hostid="261"></div>China has singled out Uighurs as a terror threat, and has spent at least three years trying to brainwash them and slash the birth rate with <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-xinjiang-hospitals-abort-uighur-pregnancies-killed-newborns-report-2020-8">forced abortions, sterilizations</a>, and child quotas.In the camps, ethnic Muslims are forced to learn Mandarin Chinese and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/uighur-muslims-made-redecorate-homes-look-more-chinese-report-2020-1">adopt Han Chinese culture</a>. Thousands are <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-ppe-exports-uighur-labor-nyt-2020-7">made to work on production lines</a>. China <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-harvesting-organs-of-uighur-muslims-china-tribunal-tells-un-2019-9">has also been accused of harvesting the organs</a> of some Uighurs.Uighurs living across China that are not interned in camps are also <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/22/world/asia/china-surveillance-xinjiang.html">subject to 24/7 surveillance</a>. Those who lives outside China are also <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-uighurs-spooked-even-outside-country-2019-12">forced to cut off contact</a> with their friends and family in the region.Joshua Wong, a prominent human-rights activist from Hong Kong, <a href="https://twitter.com/joshuawongcf/status/1302795856786137093?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1302795856786137093%7Ctwgr%5Eshare_3&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Ffilm%2F2020%2Fsep%2F07%2Fdisney-remake-of-mulan-criticised-for-filming-in-xinjiangiang">tweeted</a>: "When you watch #Mulan ... you're also potentially complicit in the mass incarceration of Muslim Uyghurs."<div type="image" title="mulan liu yifei" height="952" width="1904" msid="77995800" hostid="261"></div>It is not the first time that "Mulan" and Disney have been met with criticism.In August 2019, the Chinese actor Liu Yifei, who plays the title character Mulan, <a href="https://static.insider.com/boycott-mulan-trends-disney-actress-liu-yifei-hong-kong-police-2019-8?jwsource=cl">said Hong Kong Police were right to crackdown</a> on pro-democracy protesters with violence in early 2020."I support Hong Kong's police. You can all beat me up now," she wrote in post on the Chinese blogging site Weibo. Since that time, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mulan-boycott-calls-gain-steam-as-movie-available-disney-plus-2020-9">#BoycottMulan has trended multiple times</a> across English-language Twitter. "Disney kowtows to Beijing, and because Liu Yifei openly and proudly endorses police brutality in Hong Kong," Wong, the activist, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/09/05/mulan-disney-china-hongkong-boycott/">tweeted</a> on Friday. "I urge everyone who believes in human rights to #BoycottMulan."Disney did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.The release date of "Mulan" was pushed back a number of times due to the coronavirus pandemic. In an apparent attempt to gain subscribers, Disney has said "Mulan" <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/aug/05/disney-opts-for-digital-first-release-of-mulan-shocking-cinema-owners">will not be shown in US cinemas.</a>

Disney filmed parts of 'Mulan' in China's Xinjiang, where millions of Muslims are being spied on and locked up

Dylan Martinez / ReutersA largely invisible and vulnerable community of migrant workers clean London's offices at night.London, UK - From Monday to Friday between 9 and 11pm, Ramona* works at an office building near Finsbury Square, in the commercial heart of London.As the last employees trickle out through the rotating glass doors, she puts on her uniform.Then she begins cleaning: vacuuming five storeys along with another cleaner, clearing out all the rubbish, and washing and drying all the used cutlery and crockery in the communal kitchens which are often filthy by the time she arrives. She has just two hours to complete her work.Her least favourite task, she says, is cleaning the toilets."If the stench of human waste doesn't bother you, the bleach will," the 36-year-old explains.REUTERS / Nacho DoceIt is exhausting work, particularly as she has another cleaning job in the afternoons. But Ramona tries to lighten her mood by putting on earphones and listening to salsa music.Apart from the awkward greetings of those who pass her on their way out, Ramona barely speaks to anyone, but she says she doesn't mind."My life now is not so good, but still much better from when I first arrived in London," she says.Ramona, who is pink-cheeked and jovial, and wears her dyed blonde hair in pigtails, came to London in search of better employment opportunities.She left her native Bolivia in 2006, shortly before Evo Morales became president, when the country's extreme poverty rate was at an all-time high of 38.2 percent. For almost a year, she shared a flat with her sister and cousin, taking on commercial cleaning jobs at night in different offices on an informal basis. She'd learn about the work through word of mouth, usually from fellow Latin Americans in her neighbourhood."No contracts, no uniforms, nothing when I first started," Ramona, who was paid in cash, recalls. "Sometimes when I called my manager to ask when I would be paid after working for a week, he or she would respond, 'So, do you want this job or not?'"Patrycja Ebis / ShutterstockShe hadn't yet met her husband and working such unsocial hours meant that days or even weeks could pass without her speaking to anybody.Ramona is just one in a largely invisible and vulnerable community of hundreds of migrant night cleaners in London. Her journey to the UK is characteristic of others in the industry. They often enter the country as tourists looking for a way out of poverty, working illegally at first under informal arrangements, which leave them vulnerable to job insecurity and abuse. Undocumented migrants have some avenues for legal advice but taking a case to court puts them at risk of deportation.Ramona qualified to be a resident of the UK when she met and married her husband, a Spanish citizen of Ecuadorian descent. But the road can be just as tough for those workers who enter the UK legally. Several cleaners that Al Jazeera spoke to had spent a number of years working both legally and illegally first in another EU country, exposed to the same problems, before exercising their right to move to the UK under the principle of the single market. All nine cleaners that this reporter spoke to were legal residents in the UK at the point of their interviews.<h2>English classes</h2>The precariousness that Ramona faces is similar to that of Colombian sisters Gloria, 43, and Desdemona, 47.Matt Cardy / Getty ImagesBut their path to London was far more arduous. In 2001, they smuggled themselves to Spain where they worked undocumented as fruit collectors and then as domestic cleaners until three years ago.Then, after securing EU citizenship, a brother-in-law living in London invited them to the UK. They stayed with him for a short period of time and began working as commercial cleaners."Life is hard," Gloria says in Spanish. "I wake up at 1am to take the bus to work, and my office is near St Paul's Cathedral. My shifts are between 2[am] to 4am, and 5[am] to 7am every day.""When we first came here," Desdemona laughs, "we had this impression of London as a city full of blond people with blue eyes, who were rich and had a lot of money. We didn't know there were other poor people like us, too."Neither sister speaks any English."It's difficult even going to buy groceries at a supermarket because I'm too scared to ask for help," Gloria says.Their older sister died in Cali in Colombia in September 2016, but they couldn't afford to return home for the funeral. Gloria was also worried that she wouldn't be able to re-enter the UK if she left.Most of the time, the cleaners say they don't know where exactly they are going to work until their first day."I really wanted to learn English, and after saving for over a year, I finally paid 1,400 pounds (roughly $1,760) to attend morning classes at a language centre," Ramona says.She remembers the exact amount she paid because she ended up failing the course.<a href="http://pictures.reuters.com/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&amp;VBID=2C0FCIZZGBOJS&amp;SMLS=1&amp;RW=1440&amp;RH=716#/SearchResult&amp;VBID=2C0FCIZZGBOJS&amp;SMLS=1&amp;RW=1440&amp;RH=716&amp;PN=7&amp;POPUPPN=374&amp;POPUPIID=2C0BF172TMQI">REUTERS/Toby Melville</a>"I slept through every lesson. It was so difficult to keep focus when I'd been cleaning for 14 hours through the night."After that came a particularly painful period of time when one of Ramona's several employers did not pay her for three months straight.Calls to the cleaning company went unanswered, and when she finally got hold of her manager, she was told that she had been dismissed."He said, 'We lost your contract. Don't call again,'" she says ruefully. There was nothing she could do as she was working illegally at the time and feared being sent back to Bolivia. Her savings were being depleted at an alarming rate, and she would walk from office to office to save on bus fares, even if it took over an hour.She didn't consider seeking legal aid or exposing the employment abuse she was suffering. "It's better to be exploited than to have no job," she reflects.Desdemona and Gloria see their work as a trap."We have no TV and no internet in our home. If we're not catching up on sleep in our free time, we go to the park and eat outside in the cold," Desdemona says. "How is this life?"<h2>Migration and exploitation</h2>The stories of Ramona, Gloria and Desdemona are all too ubiquitous. There are hundreds of night cleaners like them living in London.There are no official statistics for the total number of people cleaning London's offices at night.According to a 2014 report published by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), a quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisation in the UK that advocates and enforces equality and non-discrimination laws, the non-domestic cleaning sector as a whole contributes more than $10bn (PDF) to the economy each year and comprises "a largely invisible workforce of around half-a-million people" predominantly made up of women and ethnic minorities.ShutterstockLikewise, there are no hard numbers on the extent of the abuse specific to the night cleaning industry, but social justice advocates interviewed for this article say they have no doubt that it is rampant. According to the EHRC report, abuses include workers being harassed and treated as "the lowest of the low", being underpaid, unfair dismissal as a result of pregnancy, and the lack of facilities to take breaks. The Office for National Statistics states that the minimum wage for workers above the age of 21 is 6.50 pounds (about $8) an hour. Almost all nine cleaners interviewed for this article were paid this bare minimum.Carolina Gottardo, director of the Latin American Women Rights Service (LAWRS) based in central-east London, told Al Jazeera that anecdotal evidence points to a large percentage of night cleaners being Latin American."Just go to any office in the evening, and you'll see," she says.According to No Longer Invisible, a report jointly published by Queen Mary, University of London, LAWRS and the Trust for London, an independent funder focused on poverty and inequality in the city, the first wave of Latin Americans arrived in the UK in the early 1970s.They quickly filled up work permit quotas for the hospitality and cleaning industries. These migrants were frequently from countries facing political and economic turmoil, including Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. After the work permit scheme for unskilled workers was tightened in 1979, the migration pattern for Latin American workers to the UK changed significantly. A sizable number of asylum seekers, notably those from Colombia and Ecuador, were given permanent residence in the UK under the Family Indefinite Leave to Remain scheme in 2003, a one-off attempt by the British government to grant residency to 15,000 asylum-seeking families.Since 2000, with stricter enforcement of immigration policy, secondary migration from EU countries has driven the growth of the Latin American community in the UK.It is also quite common for Latin American migrants to first apply for a Spanish passport or citizenship due to the shared language, and work in Madrid for a few years before moving to the UK, some illegally. Most settle in the boroughs of Southwark and Lambeth, the neighbourhoods with the highest concentration of Latin American workers in London according to the No Longer Invisible report. Of more than 1,000 respondents almost 40 percent has experienced workplace abuses, such as not receiving pay, and 11 percent earn less than the minimum wage."They think employment prospects here are better, and they [can] easily find jobs in cleaning and hospitality. But in truth, exploitation is endemic, and women are the most vulnerable of all," Gottardo says. She adds that "female night cleaners are a target for sexual harassment because there are no witnesses to the crime".Gottardo, who is from Colombia, is determined to change the status quo and explains that LAWRS uses a holistic approach to target these issues. Aside from offering English classes, housing and immigration advice, counselling and therapy, LAWRS is also engaged in advocacy and high-level policy work to push for increased regulation of the cleaning industry in London.She stresses that the aim of LAWRS is not to empower Latin American women in blue-collar jobs.REUTERS / Jae C. Hong / Pool"We just provide them with the tools to empower themselves," she tells Al Jazeera.A range of other government-affiliated sources is available to cleaners seeking support, including the Citizens Advice resource and the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS), a public body that arbitrates disputes within organisations with the aim of facilitating more robust employment relations practice. Workers can also file a complaint directly to HM Revenue and Customs about their employers.<h2>In 2016, a cleaners' union </h2>This message of empowerment is gaining traction with London's cleaning community.Alberto Durango is the National Organiser with the Cleaners and Allied Independent Workers Union (CAIWU), formed to collectively target problems faced by contracted cleaners and other workers across the service sector. Durango was a cleaner for more than a decade after he arrived from Colombia.He says he has been blacklisted by most cleaning companies due to his political activities organising support for workers who have been discriminated against, so he has decided to spend time on negotiation and advocacy work for CAIWU instead. "They treat us like machines," Durango says. "Jobs used to be eight pounds [$10] per hour, but now most cleaning companies try to get away with the national living wage [an informal benchmark] of 7.20 pounds [$9], which is obviously not enough if you're living in London. There are so many tactics they can employ to trick cleaners of their wages. For example, they say that you [the cleaner] have to finish cleaning a certain number of rooms or floors within two hours, and deliberately pack so many tasks in that it's impossible."If you don't finish, you just don't get paid. One company even makes cleaners pay 60 pounds [$75] out of their own pocket for training."Night cleaners, Durango says, have it even worse.REUTERS / Stefan WermuthAccording to him, they are more susceptible to depression due to their work hours, and the manual labour is often left to them, meaning that they can develop an array of physical ailments, including spine problems and back pain.CAIWU was officially registered as a trade union in March 2016. It already has 700 members and is steadily growing in strength. Durango believes that the main draw of the union is the fact that it is egalitarian and has no elected leaders.They have already staged several walkouts and protests, and Durango says that the most notorious offenders among the cleaning companies are beginning to take notice and show a grudging willingness to comply with their demands.Speaking to Al Jazeera in November last year, he was in the middle of negotiations to reinstate employment for Gabriel*, a Nigerian cleaner who had been working in different cleaning jobs since 1971, including night shifts.Gabriel said that he had been unfairly dismissed because he protested against racial discrimination to his bosses while contracted to clean by an external firm at one of the biggest insurance companies in the city. He claims his Ecuadorian supervisor consistently showed favourable treatment to fellow Latin American cleaners and blatantly ostracised him at work."I'm Latin American, and I think that's wrong," Durango says. "So I will do everything within my power to make sure that Gabriel can go back to work."<h2>'Modern-day slavery'</h2>Maria Gonzalez-Merello, 43, is an employment lawyer who is also working assiduously to empower night cleaners in London and to ensure that they know their rights.REUTERS / Stefan WermuthEvery Thursday between 10am and 2pm, she holds free legal counselling sessions at St George's Cathedral in south London for Spanish-speaking migrants. A large number of those who attend are night cleaners."What is happening to cleaners in this country today is essentially modern-day slavery," she says.Laura*, a 51-year-old cleaner from the Dominican Republic who has returned to Gonzalez-Merello's legal session for a follow-up consultation, works only night shifts which begin at 8pm and end at 8am.She had just emerged victorious from an acrimonious attempt to secure over 500 pounds (about $627) worth of unlawfully withheld wages, thanks to Gonzalez-Merello's help."They pretended that they couldn't communicate with me because my English isn't good," Laura says as Gonzalez-Merello translates. "And when Maria got in touch with them on my behalf to claim my wages, they said I never contacted them at all. I had to show them screenshots of my phone records to prove that I had called them numerous times."Laura says that she is owed more than $2,500 by the same company for cleaning various sites, but is too exhausted to continue the legal battle and would rather focus on finding a new job. She is grateful to Gonzalez-Merello for her assistance, but the ordeal has left her feeling resentful."When I worked in Spain," she says, "the pay was lower. But at least I felt respected. I felt like a real human being."But there has been some hope for workers' rights.In 2014, Gonzalez-Merello was involved on a pro bono basis in a widely-publicised case involving 35 unpaid workers contracted by an external company to clean at the advertising company Saatchi &amp; Saatchi. Although Saatchi &amp; Saatchi itself was not legally responsible, it eventually paid each cleaner 30 percent of what they were owed until the cleaners' contracts were properly taken over by the new cleaning company. The company that violated the workers' rights is now insolvent.<h2>Hanging on to hope</h2>It's a cold, gloomy Saturday afternoon in November, but not even the overcast weather can affect Ramona's good mood, as she sits in her home in Camberwell, a neighbourhood in south-east London.REUTERS / Kieran Doherty"Mi casa es su casa (my home is your home)," she greets me cheerily. She shares the apartment with her husband Basilio, who is also a night cleaner like her, and three other migrant workers from Jamaica. The couple pays a total of $880 for their room, which is crammed with a lifetime's worth of belongings.Ramona thinks that the rent is exorbitant, but is happy that she is finally seeing peaceful days. Before they moved here, she and Basilio shared an apartment with a mutual friend. One day while she was at work, Basilio called her in a panic. Two men claiming to be the police had entered their home, damaged their bedroom door and rummaged through all their clothes and belongings."Don't come home," Basilio had implored her. "It's not safe."Ramona remembers breaking down at work. They still have video footage of the mess that the men left behind. To this day, neither of them have dared to report the incident to the police since they don't know if the intruders were just anti-immigrant troublemakers. Ramona and other migrant workers remain reticent about contacting the police for help, fearful of not being able to articulate themselves fully in English and of being laughed at. Ramona enjoys inviting people over and cooking for them, making hearty Bolivian fare including sancocho (chicken soup) and cerdo al horno (a roast pork dish). Mealtimes are accompanied by catchy, upbeat Latin American music, and when she gets homesick, she plays Andean tunes. Over the last 10 years, Ramona has become more confident with her English language skills and is good friends with the receptionists at one of the offices she cleans. Even with the uncertainty surrounding, among many things, the future of migrant workers in the UK with the country's plan to leave the EU, Ramona remains hopeful. "I am tired of cleaning," she says over lunch. "If you had told me 10 years ago that I could do anything else but cleaning, I wouldn't have believed you. But now, I am ready. I think it is possible… First, a receptionist job, maybe, then better things."*Pseudonyms have been used at the request of the subjects who wish to protect their identity. <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/marines-corps-machine-gun-wielding-robot-controlled-by-tablet-2017-4">The Marine Corps is testing a machine gun-wielding robot controlled with just a tablet and a joystick</a></h3> Please enable Javascript to watch this video

You Searched For "maratha pro quota protests" and got 10 results

Arson, roadblocks rock Maha on third day of Maratha pro-quota protests

IANS

Amid violence, Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina leaves country in Army helicopter: Local media reports

ANI

Maratha Organisations hit the streets to protest against job reservation

PTI

Pro-Kannada outfits to stage Karnataka bandh opposing Maratha board move on December 5 despite government warning

PTI

Trump's executive order on policing is pro-police and doesn't call for major changes

John Haltiwanger,Eliza Relman

Bangladesh SCBA President urges India to arrest and return Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana

ANI

China says it's running on a new version of democracy that doesn't rely on elections. Experts say it's just another mind game.

Matthew Loh

Disney filmed parts of 'Mulan' in China's Xinjiang, where millions of Muslims are being spied on and locked up

Bill Bostock

'Modern-day slavery': Meet the migrants that clean London by night

Business Insider

Rahul Gandhi's first interview: Full text

Times Of India

Popular Keywords

Buying Guides