[sacw] sacw dispatch #1 (6 Nov.99)

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Web Dispatch #1
6 November 1999
http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex
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#1. Press Note - Narmada Bachao Andolan
#2. Orissa Cylone Relief Info: Websites
#3. On NGO's & civil society in India
#4. Press Release - National Peace Council of Sri Lanka
#4. PAKISTAN: Most Jailed Women Face Long Waits For Trial
_________________
#1.
Nov.5, 1999

Narmada Bachao Andolan
B-13, Shivam Flats, Ellora Park, Baroda ( Guj)-390007
Mumbai contact : Perveen Jehangir -Ph.2184779, Mahendra-5574895/ 4150529

Press Note / 4.11.1999

PROPOSED KAR SEVA AGAINST THE FARMERS, ADIVASIS AND MARGINALISED PEOPLE NBA
CHALLENGES JOSHI, GOVT. FOR OPEN DEBATE ON SSP BENEFITS & REHABILITATION

The recent announcement by Mr. Sharad Joshi Shetkari Sangathana ( Peasants'
Movement) in Maharashtra defending the controversial Sardar Sarovar Project
(SSP) in the Narmada valley is based on the wrong information and half
truths and is against the interests of the peasants. This is an attempt to
divide and humiliate the displaced adivasis and farmers at the behest of
the Gujarat government and. We call upon such advocates of the dam and the
Gujarat government for a open public debate about the cost and benefits,
'public purpose' of the project. We also challenge both of them to prove
their baseless charges they have been making against the Andolan.

Mr. Joshi has been misled to believe that the SSP is the panacea of the
drought affected regions of Gujarat. Instead of examining the tall claims
regarding the benefits and resettlement by the bureaucrats and politicians
in Gujarat, they are making debased allegations against the people's
movements like Narmada Bachao Andolan. Mr. Joshi himself has stooped low in
his article in his mouthpiece 'Shetkari Sangathak' ( Oct.6. 1999), alleging
that the NBA has been giving Rs. 500,000 per oustee for refusing
resettlement and for remaining with Andolan. He also has alleged that the
NBA has been encouraging the cutting of the teak forests by the oustees.
Another invention is that the NBA has been 'cutting the limbs' of the
officials in the villages. And there is the pet allegation of the 'foreign
funds'. All these are grave and defamatory charges, and we challenge Mr.
Joshi to prove it in public. It is a pity that he has to stoop so low
against a movement of farmers and adivasis at the behest of the bureaucrats
and politicians of Gujarat. It is an affront to all the people's movement
throughout India, particularly those of marginalised farmers, landless and
depressed classes and also to the individuals advocating the equality,
democracy and sustainable development.

Mr. Joshi has been advocating the controversial dam as a panacea for the
drought-affected regions of Gujarat, that is Kutch and Saurashtra. We again
point out that, though the water scarcity in these regions is a reality,
SSP is not an answer to that. Even if the dam were to be built, the problem
of these regions will remain as it has been all these years. The SSP canals
may reach to the 1.8 per cent of the total cultivable land of Kutch and
9.24 per cent area in Saurashtra only after 2020-2025 A.D. as per
government estimates. Even this miniscule amount of water would not reach
to these areas as the water would be claimed by upcoming sugarcane
cultivations for proposed sugar factories, and by the industries and
metropolitan cities in the earlier reaches of the canal. There are other
factors like the decrease in the water availability from 28 MAF to 22 MAF ,
the non-existent Narmada Sagar. siltation etc. It would have been better
for Joshi and others to go beyond the publicity material dished out by the
bureaucrats and vested interests.

Incidentally, the 'Kutch Jal Sankat Nivaran Samiti' has filed a petition in
the Gujarat High Court blaming the project in present form as unjust for
the people of Kutch. The farmers' organisations from Saurashtra have been
exploring the more sustainable and decentralised means of the water
harvesting which seems to be the lasting solution for the water problem of
this area. In fact, the present Narmada Minister of Gujarat, Mr. J.N. Vyas
too has asked for the decentralised water management of the available
rainwater as the sure solution, in his speeches in the Gujarat Assembly in
not to distant past, when he was an opposition member.

Regarding the displacement and resettlement too, we are surprised how Joshi
and others could taken for a ride by the Gujarat officials by selective
visits of some 'model' resettlement sites. How come the critiques of the
bureaucracy and the state could unquestionably believe the claims of the
government? A few hundred families from Gujarat villages have abandoned the
resettlement sites due to the abysmal living conditions and no means of
livelihood. The adivasis, who also are farmers, have been left without
land, or were given uncultivable, waterlogged or less and fragmented lands,
without the basic amenities of water, fodder etc. And what about the
oustees of colony, canals, sanctuary, catchment areas, affiliated projects,
secondary displacement who have not been considered as Project Afected
persons till date and the, downstream impacts?

At the same time, any organisation acting in the name of the farmers must
take up the issue of displaced farmers and its effect on farming. In the
Narmada valley, apart from the self sustained farming of the adivasis in
Satpuda-Vindhya ranges, the farmers in the fertile Nimad region would be
severely affected by the displacement due to the project. The adivasi and
non-adivasi farmers in the entire Nimad and other areas in Narmada valley
are furious with the stand of Mr. Joshi and his cohorts and they consider
it as a ploy to divide the farmers. Joshi and his colleagues are not only
humiliating the Narmada farmers, but millions of peasants, marginal farmers
and landless labourers who have been made destitute in the name of
development.

We reassert that the displacement is a basic issue that the farmers'
organisations must take up. The farmers and farming community have been
facing the threat of displacement and destitution from the vested interest,
national and international capitalist powers with the collusion of the
state power. What Mr. Joshi, in the name of Peasants Organisation is doing
is to strengthen the hands of these capitalist forces, now encouraged by
the globalisation, liberalisation etc. of which Joshi seems to be an
overenthusiastic supporter.

Another Kar Seva

As far as the, plan to have 'kar seva' planned at the proposed rally near
the dam site, we have nothing to say. Only thing is that, if the water can
be brought into the canals of SSP even from the height of 88 meters, the
kar sevaks and their leaders must see that the water goes first and
foremost to the drought affected region of Kutch , for which they seem to
be worried and not to the sugarcane growing areas, which forms the class
base of Joshi and their colleagues. In recent histoy, unfortunately though,
Kar Seva has become an infamous word in Indian polity. The proposed Kar
Seva of these elements on 4th December this year, has unmistakably close
analogy to the ghastly demolition of Babri Masjid on 6th December, 1992. It
is the same contempt for the rights of the depressed classes with the same
majoritarian arrogance. Entire nation must keep watch on this another Kar
Seva in the name of the peasants, against the farmers, adivasis and
marginalised struggling people.

Medha Patkar
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#2.
Do Your Bit for the Cylone Relief in Orissa, India:
Websites with all the current news reports & information on the cyclone in
Orissa:
http://www.cabm.rutgers.edu/~kalyan/orissa_cyclone/
http://www.orissaindia.com/news/

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#3.
The Telegraph
5 November 1999
Op-Ed.

WHOSE WELFARE IS IT, ANYWAY
by Andre Beteille

There has been growing talk in recent years about civil society and what it
can contribute towards making individual and collective life more effective
and more fruitful. In earlier decades, one did not hear much talk of civil
society, except among Marxists and, even here, mainly those Marxists who
drew their inspiration from Antonio Gramsci rather than V.I. Lenin. Today
many more persons, of diverse political persuasions, talk about civil
society, although that does not mean that they are all talking about the
same thing.

=46ifty years ago, enlightened Indians gave much more attention to the state
and the public sector than to civil society. When intellectuals thought of
society, they usually thought of it as something backward that needed to be
changed through bold and responsible state action. There was a kind of
consensus then that the state should take the lead in moving society
forward by taking charge of the commanding heights of the economy.

Today the state has lost its shine to such an extent that it is difficult
to imagine how much was expected of it by even the most balanced and
judicious public intellectuals at the time of independence.

Part of the reason for the disenchantment lay in the very high expectations
about the transformative powers of the state. Its actual performance was at
best indifferent, and the Emergency and its aftermath showed it to be
oppressive and ineffectual. The poor performance of the state and people=92s
low expectations of it began to reinforce each other.

The disenchantment spread from the state and its organs =97 the legislature,
the bureaucracy and the judiciary =97 to other public institutions. Today al=
l
political parties are viewed with mistrust if not contempt, sometimes even
by their own members. It is in this light that we have to view the appeal
of civil society and the divergent ideas that have emerged about what it is
or what it ought to be.

What is civil society? Clearly, it cannot be the same thing as state, or
religion, or family. It may overlap with these to a certain extent, but it
has, by common consent, a distinctive identity of its own.

Beyond this, there is disagreement about the defining features of civil
society. I assign central importance to a plurality of open and secular
institutions, each enjoying a measure of autonomy. But a more common
practice seems to be to treat voluntary action and voluntary associations =
=97
what in India are called non-governmental organizations or NGOs =97 as the
defining features of civil society.

The value of individual initiative and voluntary action for the growth and
success of democracy cannot be too strongly emphasized. Excessive reliance
on the state in the early decades of independence dampened voluntary action
and individual initiative. But the state only reinforced, and did not
create, habits of mind already present in a cast-and kin based hierarchical
society.

Alexis de Tocqueville was the first important political theorist to dwell
on the significance of voluntary action and voluntary associations for the
democratic way of life. He was greatly struck by the voluntary associations
he saw in the United States where they were more numerous, more diverse and
more vigorous than anywhere in Europe. In his oft quoted words, =93Wherever
at the head of some new undertaking you see the government in France, or a
man of rank in England, in the United States you will be sure to find an
association.=94 He believed that the Americans had a special knack for
creating and sustaining associations which the French lacked, and that was
one reason why democracy was more successful in the US than in France.

Do we in India have a special aptitude for creating and sustaining
voluntary associations? Going by the enormous proliferation of NGOs in the
last two decades, one might say that we do. But in such matters we cannot
go by numbers alone. We must know a little more about how they are started,
organized and supported, and the mechanisms by which they seek to ensure
their continuity.

It is difficult to be categorical on these questions because NGOs differ
greatly amongst themselves, and the material we have on them is fragmentary
and ambiguous. The component of voluntary action is not equally strong in
all NGOs: not all of them are supported fully or even mainly by resources
raised by their own members from among themselves. Funding is often
provided by external agencies that have at best only a sympathetic
interest, but no direct involvement, in the work of the NGOs concerned. The
donors include foreign agencies and even ministries of the Union and state
governments. I was told by a perceptive young sociologist in Chandigarh
that there were very few NGOs in Punjab since it had the unfortunate
reputation of being a prosperous state.

When an NGO and a department of the government work in the same field,
there is sometimes a healthy rivalry which, if kept under control, might
act to the general advantage. An interesting development in India, which
would perhaps have puzzled de Tocqueville, is the tendency among senior
functionaries of the state to start their own NGOs after retirement. They
are able to attract funds and also to provide valuable financial, legal and
administrative expertise. It is no wonder that some NGOs are very well run
and show the kind of flexibility one cannot expect from a Byzantine
government bureaucracy.

A well run association providing useful services to the public does not
become an institution unless it is able to ensure its continuity over time.
The lifespan of an institution is expected to extend beyond the lives of
its individual members. It is too early to say as yet how successfully the
NGOs that have proliferated in recent years will outlive the persons by
whom they were set up.

The problem of succession is a very crucial one in institutions. The civil
service has the advantage of continuously recruiting new members and
promoting or retiring old ones through impersonal rules. Our political
parties have been less successful in ensuring succession through impersonal
rules, and tend to fall back on the family for replacing deceased leaders
with new ones.

The natural tendency in India is for family and kinship to become
implicated in the organization of voluntary action. In an increasing number
of cases, the wife, the son or the daughter-in-law takes over the running
of an NGO set up by a person of energy and vision. This is very different
from the way in which open and secular institutions are expected to conduct
their affairs.

The civil service, for all its shortcomings, has at least managed to ensure
recruitment, promotion and retirement without bringing family and kinship
into the picture. The Congress has provided an object lesson to the country
by its complete failure to ensure institutional succession at the top
without recourse to the genealogical principle. Which one of these models
will the NGOs follow? An NGO that becomes a new kind of family business
cannot contribute very much to the building of a healthy civil society.
The author is professor of sociology, Delhi School of Economics
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#4.
National Peace Council of Sri Lanka
291/36A Havelock Gardens
Colombo 6
Tel: 075 349696
Tel/Fax: 502522
E Mail: peace2@s...

4.11.99

PRESS RELEASE

How many more disasters?
The overrunning of the Oddusuddan and Nedunkerni army camps with an
estimated one thousand or more casualties is another appalling cost of a
war that is not wanted by a vast majority of people. The LTTE attack
followed a series of army offensives elsewhere into LTTE-held territory.

With Presidential Elections due in six weeks, these heavy losses give
convincing evidence that wars cannot be fought to political timetables, nor
be any part of a democratic agenda.

In the past the National Peace Council has expressed its deep concern that
the policy framework of the state has been unresponsive to catastrophic
events. This is not the first occasion in which one or two thousands of
combatants have perished in a couple of days of fighting. Such human costs
are unprecedented in modern civil wars. They cannot be borne with
equanimity bordering on callousness especially in a small country like Sri
Lanka with its dense interpersonal relationships, when thousands of
families have to cope with the sudden loss of their loved ones.

The forthcoming Presidential Election provides an invaluable Opportunity
for those contestants who wish to govern the country to demonstrate their
readiness and ability to change the state's policy framework with regard to
the resolution of the ethnic conflict. In particular, we call on the
Presidential candidates to 1) present their proposals for a peaceful
settlement of the ongoing war, and 2) demonstrate their sincerity with
concrete actions prior to the Presidential Election.

At present, the two main candidates belonging to the PA and UNP have Made
the issues of constitutional reform and negotiations with the LTTE a Part
of their election campaigns. There is a need for civil society to ensure
that the rival presidential candidates put forward their proposals relating
to the resolution of the ethnic conflict in concrete terms. The National
Peace Council will be joining in common initiatives with other civic
organisations to ensure that the presidential candidates and their
respective political parties are responsive to the most serious national
crisis that the country faces.

Media Director
______________
#6.
UN WIRE
=46riday, 05 November, 1999

PAKISTAN: MOST JAILED WOMEN FACE LONG WAITS FOR TRIAL

Women awaiting criminal trial in Pakistani prisons outnumber those
convicted of a crime by a ratio of 9-1, "indicating that women bear the
brunt of discrimination even when it comes to prisoners," the Human Rights
Commission of Pakistan said. =20
In its report, "Profiles of Vulnerability: Female Under-Trial Prisoners in
Punjab," the commission mentions figures collected in 1998 at 20 jails. Of
nearly 1,000 women who were incarcerated, almost 90% were awaiting trial.
These women had more than 150 children living with them in jail. In
addition, the agency says, more than one-third of the women undergoing
trials did not have a lawyer to defend them (Omar Quraishi, Karachi Dawn,
31 Oct). Because many female inmates do not have access to legal help,
they "languish for months" in jail "in a state of legal limbo," according
to a Karachi Dawn editorial. "In Pakistan," the paper argues, "women are
generally unaware of their legal rights." It is therefore "imperative"
that in addition to having legal aid provided for these women, the
government, human rights bodies and media enlighten women about their
legal rights, the paper concludes. "Educating them on this score will also
bring out the elements of unfairness and wrongs in some of the laws=8A and
equip women to fight against these discriminatory laws" (1 Nov).

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SOUTH ASIA CITIZENS WEB DISPATCH is an informal, independent &
non-profit citizens wire service run by South Asia Citizens Web
(http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex) since1996.