Sir — ‘Narcissists, Machiavellians, psychopaths and neurotics not welcome’ — this might well be on the board that Airbnb hosts put up on the gates of their homes. Airbnb is now using artificial intelligence to scour the social media profiles of guests to fit them into the aforementioned categories and to deny accommodation on the basis of the results. This is not just a blatant violation of privacy but also discrimination based on both mental illness and ordinary character traits. But one can hardly expect better of private businesses given that governments, too, are guilty of similar crimes.
Rashmika Shroff,
Calcutta
Wide gap
Sir — Oxfam, a confederation of 19 independent charitable organizations focusing on the alleviation of global poverty, released some shocking information regarding inequalities. Apparently, the richest one per cent in the world has more than double the wealth of 6.9 billion people. It is no surprise that civil uprisings and unrest have gone up around the world.
This is clearly a result of capitalism and of large-scale corruption. Since women and girls have been found to put in 12.5 billion hours of unpaid work every day, the sexist nature of society as well as the State is undeniable. Given how bad the situation is, it is obvious that neither the left-wing, nor centrist or right-wing politics has succeeded in alleviating poverty or running the economy.
In India, the government is more interested in encouraging the politics of division — tacitly supporting lynchings, religious fanaticism, crimes against women, lawlessness — than in fixing the economy.
Asim Boral,
Calcutta
Sir — Recently, a study conducted by Oxfam revealed that one per cent of the richest people in India holds more than fourfold the wealth of the poorest 70 per cent of the population. In the Global Hunger Index, India ranked a middling 55th in 2014. In 2019, the country ranked 102nd. Yet, India is supposed to be a socialist country. It is thus crucial for lawmakers to ensure that basic resources, such as food, reach the marginalized sections of India. The government must strive to uplift the poorest of the poor to a level of self-sufficiency where no person is deprived of the most fundamental requisites, that is food, clean water, clothes and shelter.
Shivanshu K. Srivastava,
Lucknow
Final word
Sir — In a welcome development, the Supreme Court has said that the “finality” of a death sentence is extremely important. Indirectly referring to the continuous and separate litigations by the convicts of the 2012 December gang rape case to delay execution, the apex court observed: “Many are under the impression that concurrently awarded death penalty (by trial court, high court and the SC) is open-ended and can be argued against as and when one wishes.” The court’s remarks assume significance as the Central government recently responded to public resentment over the delay in execution by moving the Supreme Court to fix a seven-day deadline for hanging condemned prisoners. There is no guarantee that the death penalty can check heinous crimes like rape and murder, but since it is the law, a quick delivery of justice is desirable.
Khokan Das,
Calcutta
Sir — Reform is an integral aspect of the criminal justice system. But the death penalty functions on the principle of reforming potential criminals by making examples of convicted criminals, while snatching away the scope of reforming the latter. Death penalty itself is a violation of human rights. Worse, since the wheels of justice turn slowly in this country, the several avenues of seeking mercy available to the sentenced convicts are stretched out over a long period of time. During this period, the constant oscillation between the hope of mercy and the denial of this hope is an even more grave violation of rights. The best solution to this is to do away with the death penalty. A lifetime in prison — not the usual 14 years — is better.
Rima Roy,
Calcutta
