[sacw] [ACT] sacw dispatch (24 Jan 00)

Harsh Kapoor act@egroups.com
Mon, 24 Jan 2000 20:53:03 +0100


South Asia Citizens Web Dispatch
24 January 2000
_________________
#1. India: The Hindu Right govt in Gujarat
#2. Pakistan: Schools for "holy" warriors may face lesson of their own
#3. India: VHP opposes organising assertive landless peasants in Gujarat
#4. Bangladesh: "Other Women" Year 2000 calender produced by 'Drik'
#5. World Youth Festival 2000
________________

#1.
The Times of India
24 January 2000
Editorial

IN BAD FAITH

Gujarat could be an independent Republic, judging by the ease and
regularity with which those administering it are able to announce and
implement projects that have been avowedly renounced by their
counterparts ruling at the Centre. The BJP government in the state has
done its determined best to undo every single claim of the BJP bosses
about having adapted themselves to the needs of a modern and
forward-looking nation of the new millennium. Indeed, the BJP in Delhi
has merely to talk about its commitment not to bring back its divisive
agenda for Mr Keshubhai Patel in Gujarat to rush up with a declaration
that confirms the opposite. The latest in the series is the proposed
move to identify government employees who may have converted to a
different religion. This is disturbing, to say the least. The freedom to
adopt, practise and preach a religion is a fundamental right guaranteed
by our Constitution. From this it follows that religion is not the
business of the state. What God a person worships is between him and his
maker; no one, certainly not the government, has a right to intrude in
this sacred and intensely personal communion. As Thomas Paine said in
The Age of Reason , "My own mind is my own church". The political
necessity of separating the state and the church is based on the premise
that without this divide the ruling order of the day will assume a
divine right to justify whatever it seeks to impose on the people. This
is, in essence, a monarchical principle opposed to the very spirit of
democracy and republicanism.

Were a public spirited citizen to take the Gujarat government to court,
the verdict without doubt will be `guilty', for what Mr Patel is
contemplating goes against the letter and spirit of the Constitution.
Yet, even that is unlikely to worry the chief minister. For him and
those in his government, religion has for sometime now been a matter for
the sangh parivar to decide. In the past two years, Gujarat has seldom
been out of the headlines -- not for any advances it has made in the
sphere of public service but for allowing sectarian activities to have
free play on its soil. What began in a small way as a campaign against
artists, beauty pageants and MNCs has since taken the shape of a
full-fledged hate agenda against the Christian community; the violence
in the Dangs would seem to be only the most visible manifestation of
what has by now become a pattern. Other states might have gone into
celebratory mode at the end of the millennium, but tensions wracked
Gujarat with the VHP choosing Christmas day for performing the shilanyas
of a temple in a Christian majority locality. Mercifully, a postponement
was worked out which averted a full-blown crisis. That hasn't changed
things for the better though, as is evident from the state government's
decision to allow its employees to enrol in the RSS. Mr Patel himself
turned up at a subsequent RSS function in full khaki gear. Worse, Union
home minister L K Advani was in attendance. Mr Advani cannot talk of
sidelining Hindutva and at the same hobnob in public with the RSS. Mr Ad
vani and others must realise that the business of Gujarat is business,
not religion. They must do this for Gujarat's sake -- a state that once
produced the best business brains.
___________

#2.
South China Morning Post
Monday, January 24, 2000
SOUTH ASIA TODAY

SCHOOLS FOR HOLY WARRIORS MAY FACE LESSON OF THEIR OWN
by ZAHID HUSSAIN in Islamabad

Darul-Uloom-Haqqania is one of the biggest Islamic religious schools in
Pakistan's North West Frontier Province.
Run by Maulana Samiul Haq, a former senator, the school - or madrassa as
such institutions are known - has for the past few years been a main centre
for recruitment of holy warriors fighting in Afghanistan and Kashmir.
A large number of Afghan Taleban fighters belong to the Darul-Uloom-Haqqani=
a.
About 1,500km away in Karachi, there is another leading madrassa known as
Darul Uloom Islamia.
Housed in a huge red mosque in the centre of the city, the school draws
students from Afghanistan, Central Asia, Malaysia and Chechnya.
"Half of the 40 members of the committee which rules the
Taleban-administered Afghanistan have studied here," said the school
administrator.
Many of those who are fighting in Chechnya against the Russian forces are
graduates of the madrassa. It is also a stronghold of a Sunni sectarian
militant organisation, Sipah-e-Sahaba.
These two are not only the premier seats of religious learning in
Pakistan, but also the centres of radical international Islamic movements.
For more than 10 years, Pakistan has remained plagued by the rise of
sectarian violence and religiously motivated terrorism and the madrassas,
which mushroomed in the 1980s during the war in Afghanistan, are largely
blamed.
The spillover of Islamic militancy to other countries has caused serious
international concern and Islamabad faces growing pressure from the the
West to curb the centres, which are allegedly involved in training
extremist groups.
It is estimated there are more than 10,000 madrassas in Pakistan, with a
total of more than one million students.
"A large number of these institutions are believed to be centres for
training of militants and promoting terrorism," the Newsline magazine said.
Political expediency and fear of a backlash have prevented successive
Pakistani governments from clamping down on such institutions. But under
growing pressure from the US, the present military administration has
promised to check the activities of the madrassas.
The National Security Council, the country's supreme administrative body,
last week set up a committee to investigate allegations of terrorism made
against the religious schools and recommend steps to rein the schools in.
"The Government, however, maintains that only a handful of madrassas are
involved in terrorism," a senior official said.

___________

#3.
The Week
Jan.30 2000

IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE:
=46ORTY LAKH LANDLESS PEASANTS IN GUJARAT ARE AT THE MERCY OF THE UPPER
CASTES. THEY ARE NOW WAKING UP TO THEIR RIGHTS
by Anosh Malekar (Surendranagar and Baroda)

A poor man's wife is everyone's bhabi (sister-in-law)," says Keharbapa
Rohit before driving a nail into a sandal that an upper caste Darbar woman
has brought for free repair. Born a Chamar (cobbler) at Bhensjal village in
Gujarat, Keharbapa, 60, gave up cobbling and became a farm hand long ago.
But he will have to mend the shoes of the Darbars even if he is in the
middle of a meal. Refusal would mean harassment and denial of work in the
fields.

All work and no pay: A Dalit woman works on the farm with her child nearby;
(below right) Kashiben Parmar, who was socially boycotted for raising her
voice against low wages.

Keharbapa gets Rs 20 after toiling in the fields for 12 hours from 7 a.m.,
that is less than Rs 2 an hour and far below the state stipulated minimum
wages of Rs 34 for eight hours. His plight isn't unique. According to a
survey by Ahmedabad-based NGO Disha, only 3.62 per cent of farm workers in
Gujarat get minimum wages. The government may increase minimum wages to Rs
53, and Minister of State for Labour Bhupendrabhai Lakhawala is willing to
look into specific complaints about denial of minimum wages.

"No Dalit would dare complain to the government," says Keharbapa's wife,
Jadiben. "They will rather forget about the money. The government allotted
us a piece of land several years ago. The Darbars do not allow us to
cultivate the land. They harass us in every possible way."

=46orty lakh landless peasants in Gujarat are at the mercy of the upper
castes. Though the government allotted many of them surplus land the upper
castes have prevented them from taking possession. Thus, most of them are
forced to work for upper caste farmers and a few toil as sharecroppers. It
is stark poverty, with very few families liberating themselves from the
cycle of debt and bondage.

A 1996 survey of 250 villages in Surendranagar district by Ahmedabad-based
NGO Navsarjan found that in most villages, Dalits who had title deeds were
not in possession of the land. Some Dalits even refused to accept land
given to them for fear of an upper-caste backlash. Jivabhai Makwana's
family was attacked four times. All because the government had allotted him
6.3 acres of surplus land, acquired under the Land Ceiling Act, in the
predominantly upper-caste Madadh village in 1989.

Jivabhai angered the upper castes by farming the land, and then by building
a house there. About a year ago, hired goons set upon his son and brother
and nearly killed them. Another Dalit farmer, Ganeshbhai Nanjibhai of
Modhwana, gave up cultivation after the Darbars burnt a tractor he had
hired.

The police refuse to register cases against the upper castes, says Martin
Macwan of Navsarjan. Instead, they often abet harassment of Dalits.
Navsarjan has floated a Jamin Hakk Rakshan Samiti to protect the rights of
Dalit landholders.

In the highly industrialised south Gujarat belt, known as the golden
corridor, Dalits cannot even dream of holding land. Chhitabhai Makwana, 55,
lives 30 km from Baroda in Amala village. His parents died when he was very
young. Chhitabhai grew up as a Chakar (bonded labourer), serving a Patel
household for more than 40 years.

"I have remained a slave to this day. Last year, I borrowed Rs 4,000 from
Patel to repair my hut. Now I must toil on his farm for another four years
to repay the debt," says Chhitabhai, who earns Rs 20 a day. Since Patel
gives him work only during the rainy season, he spends eight months at
brick kilns near cities like Surat and Mumbai. His wife, Chanchalben, is
ill. "She is withering away," says Makwana, wondering whether to continue
her treatment or use the money for food. Their son, married with two
children, works in a Baroda factory and earns Rs 2,000 a month. The
daughter, Hansaben, is associated with Parivartan, an NGO fighting for the
rights of landless labourers. "I wanted them to lead a better life. I had
no money to educate them beyond SSC," says Chhitabhai.

Dalit dwellings: A poor locality in Amala village; (below left) Chhitabhai
Makwana, who earns Rs 20 a day, wonders whether to buy food with it or
treat his ailing wife.

Work starts at a very young age for the children of labourers. Hansaben's
colleague, Vinubhai Rohit, 33, recalls: "I was five when I accompanied my
parents to the kilns. Later, I also had to take care of four siblings when
my parents worked."

The migrant families at the kiln live in hovels of bricks and tin sheets.
The contractor expects a family of five to turn out 1,100 bricks a day
working in two shifts from 2 a.m. to 8 p.m. They are paid Rs 30 per head.
Sometimes, half their earnings go to the contractor because the family has
been paid an advance, anything from Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000, at the start of
the season. The interest depends on the whims of the contractor.

Vinubhai's father, brother and wife work in kilns; so do his children
during vacations. "My salary is not enough to take care of all their
needs," he says. "So they have to slave."

The 'needs' of a Dalit household are bare minimum. Even these were denied
to Kashiben Parmar, 62, of Mahuwad village a few years ago because she had
participated in a Parivartan rally for better wages in Padra, Karjan and
Shinor in Baroda where the Patels were paying a paltry Rs 12 till 1997. It
was Kashiben who first raised her voice, and they stopped selling grocery
to her. Though they doubled the wages, the social boycott continues.

Kashiben walks more than 5 km to find work in other villages. Her husband,
Ambalal, 65, has been incapacitated after an industrial accident four years
ago, and their son, who studied up to SSC, refuses to do menial jobs.

Another victim of social boycott is a 60-year-old widow, Bhikhiben Harijan,
of neighbouring Khandha village. During the four-month boycott Bhikhiben
had to sell her utensils to feed her two sons, one of whom is disabled.
Luckily, the other son got a municipal scavenger's job, which fetches him
Rs 60 a day.

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has run down Parivartan's work as "part of
a Christian conspiracy to convert the entire south Gujarat tribal belt,
thus reducing Hindus to a minority." In February last year, Dalit women
attending a tailoring class at the Parivartan office were attacked,
allegedly by VHP activists. After the incident nobody in Padra would rent
out space to the NGO. Welfare schemes for the poor hardly reach landless
labourers. A Navsarjan survey of 50,000 families in 1997 revealed that only
40 per cent of the eligible get the benefits of Integrated Rural
Development Programme (IRDP) and Jawahar Rozgar Yojana. 'The schemes remain
on paper because of lack of funds," says Martin. "In the current year's
budget, the government has shown Rs 1,815 crore as revenue and capital
expenditure on various schemes for agricultural labourers. But only Rs
133.45 crore has been provided," says Madhusudan Mistry of Disha. Ration
cards, widow and old age pensions, scholarships for school children, and
housing subsidies are rarely granted to Dalits in Padra.

Rural Labour Commissioner Mookesh Megha, however, says farm workers have
grown assertive and are dictating terms to landowners. He denies that they
are underpaid. "They come with empty hands in search of work. It is the
landed class that provides them with advances, a pair of clothes and daily
supply of food, tea and bidis. These are like perks which are computed
during payment." He asserts that "there are no bonded labourers in the
state since 1986".

Megha claims that the district and taluk labour officers conduct regular
checks of the daily wage receipts and annual payments registers maintained
by the landowners.
[...] .
___________

#4.

"OTHER WOMEN" YEAR 2000 CALENDER PRODUCED BY 'DRIK' at
http://www.drik.net/calendar2k/

A central social dividing line is between women who are 'good' and those
who are 'bad'. Good women are those who are sexually chaste and monogamous
( their sexuality is expressed and celebrated within the confines of
marriage) as are, their child-bearing capacities. Good women are those who
fulfill their proper domestic roles, and these are intensely moral. The
site of permissible sexuality is the conjugal bed, and middle-class morals
promote discretion and reticence in sexual practices.

The presence of 'other' women ( prostitutes ) helps to demarcate the
boundaries of respectability. Prostitution connotes sexuality for sale;
wifehood implies home, domesticity, morals. But just as prostitution is the
'other' of all that is respectable, the very existence of prostitutes
serves to haunt middle-class morals, to question its identity. One of
ennobling self-restraint and sexual purity. Language and ideas constitute
reality, they define social conduct and forms of behaviour. In social
usage, they are not neutral, they organise and structure our feelings.
"Khanki", "magi", "bessha", "sex-worker" =F3 these words are imbued with
middle-class conceptions which deny female prostitutes any existence
besides sexuality: it is assumed that their life revolves around the sexual
act. The words 'bessha', 'sex-worker', etc., deny the realities of raising
children responsibly as mothers. The words deny the realities of remitting
money to elderly parents in the village as daughters. They deny the
realities of a never-ending struggle. Most of all, they deny the possession
of intellectual faculties.

In this calendar, Drik brings together the work of three photographers who
have attempted to break these stultifying images. Images which are actively
created to maintain masculine sexual control and regulation. The
photographers have tried to question complex social relationships, they
have tried to document instances of state repression. They have worked
among brothel prostitutes, and among street-prostitutes. What is absent in
their work are images of 'illicit' sexual pleasures sought and practised by
the Bangladeshi male elite and of women who work as prostitutes in upper
social circles. The respectable are more successful at concealment.

There is festivity in the air as the new millennium approaches. Images
which are pleasing to the eye would undoubtedly have soothed the minds and
hearts of the privileged. But it is necessary to maintain a safe distance
from celebratory moods which ignore the existence of social inequalities.
Through focusing on 'other' women ( prostitutes working in the streets and
in brothels ) Drik carries on its work of using the medium of photography
to raise questions about social realities, and their representations, into
the next millennium.
___________

#5.
Grow Without Tobacco theme
WORLD YOUTH FESTIVAL 2000
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
to mark World No-Tobacco Day May 31, 2000
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
Organized by
INTERNATIONAL NON-GOVERNMENTAL COALITION AGAINST TOBACCO (INGCAT)
=46RANCE
Central Co-ordination Office: INTERNATIONAL COALITION AGAINST TOBACCO
(ICAT)
c/o INDIAN SOCIETY AGAINST SMOKING (ISAS)
C-2211, C-Block Crossing, Indira Nagar, Lucknow-226016. UP. India.
Phone : +091-0522-358230 *** FAX : +091-0522-380610 *** e_mail :
ramakant@g...
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
The Festival is essentially de-centralized, and has a single mission :
TO HAVE AS MUCH PARTICIPATION FROM CHILDREN AND YOUTH as much is
possible.
There is no need to necessarily go anywhere. No need to exclusively
find time to participate. Whenever you feel free in the coming months
till May 1, 2000, and wherever you are, YOU CAN PARTICIPATE AND MAKE OUR
CAMPAIGN STRONG.
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D
NECESSARY INSTRUCTIONS:
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D
* Please send your name, age, educational status, FULL correspondence
address, and phone no./fax/e_mail(if any).
* THERE IS NO LANGUAGE BAR. You may send your entries in any language,
accompanied by an ENGLISH Covering letter indicating the name of the
language.
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
EVENTS ( All events on 'Grow Without Tobacco theme' )
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
1. ESSAYS
2. SHORT STORIES
3. POETRY
4. DRAWING or POSTER
Organizing Chairman : Shri Krishna Narayan Kackar
5. CARTOON
6. SLOGAN-MAKING
7. THEATRE
Organizing Chairperson : Dr.Nishi Pandey
Advisors : Shri Krishna Kumar, Shri A.K.Sonkar.
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
Guidelines for Participants:
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
LAST DATE FOR RECEIPT OF ENTRIES is May 1, 2000.
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
ESSAYS - within 1000 words, no language bar
SHORT STORIES (like confessions) within 1500 words, no language bar
POETRY Original, within 800 words
DRAWING/POSTER no size bar, should be consistent with the above theme
CARTOON no size bar
SLOGAN MAKING within 12 words, no language bar
THEATRE
Maximum time limit : 20 minutes
- Short Skits, dance drama, musical plays, or theatre.
- participants have to submit a VHS video cassette of their 20 minutes
play.
- If the play is non-english, then give English sub-titles OR send
English script along.
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
Submit your entries to
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
BOBBY RAMAKANT
Convenor
Grow Without Tobacco theme WORLD YOUTH FESTIVAL 2000
C-2211, C-Block Crossing, Indira Nagar, Lucknow-16. India
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
Essays/ Short Stories/ Poetry/ Slogan, can also be sent by
* e_mail : ramakant@g... ( pl. Give "WORLD YOUTH FESTIVAL
ENTRY" in the subject)
* Fax no : +091-0522-380610 for QUERRIES, contact either by e_mail or phone
: +91-0522-358230

______________________________________________________
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.
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