SACW | 4 Jul 2004

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire    |  4 July,  2004
via:  www.sacw.net

[1]  Bangladesh: Women have rights, even in sports (edit., New Age)
+ Women's wrestling amid tight  security (news report)
[2]  Wagah-Attari Memorial Petition & India Pakistan Peace Day websites ()
[3]  Turkey's headscarf decision vindicated (Ishtiaq Ahmed)
[4]   India and Pakistan: Good Fences Make Good Neighbors (Amy Waldman )
[5]  Anti War Assembly planned by Citizens Against War and Occupation
[6]   How many chipayanas ? - Sewer As Death Traps !! (Subhash Gatade )


--------------

[1]

New Age [Bangladesh]
July 4, 2004
Editorial

WOMEN HAVE RIGHTS, EVEN IN SPORTS

The frenzy with which some extremist religious 
bodies have been going after the proposed women's 
wrestling event in the capital brings up once 
more the spectre of what we are up against. It is 
important that the threat which has been held out 
against the organisers of the event by elements 
seeking to portray women's sports as against the 
tenets of faith be tackled head-on, if only to 
prevent such people or people like them from 
coming in the way of sports in future. The fact 
that one of the men behind the ruckus has 
threatened to sacrifice his life in his zeal to 
put a stop to women's wrestling should be 
dismissed with the contempt it deserves, for the 
simple reason that such men do not speak for this 
country. And the country, in case we need to 
remind ourselves, is one that has been shaped on 
the basis of rich cultural traditions going back 
hundreds of years. If, therefore, today a rabid 
group of individuals arrogating to themselves the 
right to interpret the principles of religion 
take it upon themselves to interpret what is good 
and holy for us, it is the responsibility of the 
government as well as the broad structure of 
society to resist them. It is highly improper 
that such men should come in the way of sports 
and indeed in the way of everything of an 
aesthetic nature in the country.
    The Bangladesh Wrestling Federation needs the 
support and cooperation of all sections of the 
population in its endeavour to advance the cause 
of women's sports in the country. One of the 
important signs of a nation breaking out of 
insularity and moving on to meet the rest of the 
world is through the media of sports. When women 
all over the world, and that includes many of our 
neighbouring countries (with the exception of 
Pakistan), have been proving their mettle in 
various sporting events, it becomes our overall, 
collective national responsibility to ensure that 
our women be imparted training in the various 
categories of sports. Essentially, the history of 
sports in this country has been one of women 
making their very remarkable contributions in 
such areas as athletics, judo, karate, chess, 
shooting, et al. It is therefore easily to be 
understood that women's sports in this country 
have long been an established truth. The very 
fact that a particular sports complex has been 
given over to women in the nation's capital is 
proof of how much value we as a people attach to 
the idea of women's sports in our country. 
Bangladesh may not have made much of a 
contribution to sports in global terms, but it 
certainly goes without saying that with our men 
and women both focusing in a more concentrated 
manner on sporting events we surely can look 
forward to some steady progress in the times 
ahead.
    It is time for all of us to undertake resolute 
measures against any effort toward pushing this 
nation into medievalism of any kind. If today we 
capitulate before the extreme rightwing fringe on 
the issue of sports, tomorrow we just may have to 
face new demands from them that women be banned 
from working outside the home, that indeed 
Bangladesh mutate into a land where women's 
rights become conspicuous by their absence. It is 
something which will militate against our very 
national ethos. For such reasons alone, we 
condemn the regressive attempt made by a few 
self-proclaimed guardians of religion to have 
women's wrestling banned. We expect the wrestling 
federation not to give in. If it does, it will be 
making a mistake for which we will have to pay a 
high price in future.

o o o

New Age  [Bangladesh]
July 4, 2004

Women's wrestling amid tight
security today
AZAD MAJUMDER and ALPHA ARZU

The government has put in place an elaborate 
security measure for a women's wrestling 
competition, scheduled to be held at the 
Dhanmondi Women's Sports Complex today, amid 
threat from some Islamic groups.
    Plainclothesmen were deployed Saturday evening 
in and around the complex where some 50 
contestants from different districts and 
organisations had assembled for the event.
    The government has assured the Bangladesh 
Wrestling Federation and the Women's Sports 
Association of adequate security arrangement for 
the daylong competition.
    Meanwhile, several women's rights activists 
have condemned the Islamic groups for issuing 
threats against the wrestling competition which 
is "absolutely wrong".
    Jamiatul Ulama Islami Bangladesh has vowed to 
foil the competition saying it 'is contrary to 
the tenets of Islam' and 'unacceptable to the 
majority of the Muslims'. The Islamic 
Constitution Movement and Islamic Oikya Andolan 
have also joined in the Jamiatul demand for 
cancellation of the competition.
    Mohiuddin of the little-known Jamiatul Ulama 
claimed many 'compatriot groups' volunteered to 
join the protest, without disclosing what his 
group planned to do to 'thwart' the competition.
    He merely said, "We will sit with like-minded 
organisations tonight and map out a plan of 
action."
    The threat from the mullahs has had little 
effect on the morale of the competitors. They 
said it was a privilege for them to participate 
in the competition, first of its kind in 
Bangladesh.
    "We have come here not to do any indecorous or 
indecent act," said Shefali, a competitor from 
Khulna. "The organisers have instructed us to 
maintain decency during the competition."
    Shefali brushed aside the threat from the 
Islamic groups. "I don't believe they have the 
power to foil the competition and I am not 
worried about that. My only concern is to beat my 
opponent in the competition."
    Dalia of Bangladesh Ansars was critical of the 
Islamic groups for their irrational and 
obscurantist responses to such a 'simple and 
decent' sporting event.
    "They never recognise our right to live and 
must understand that we have to do something to 
survive. They will not feed me if I don't work. 
At the moment wrestling is my work as I am 
getting money from my team."
    "Women are used to fighting against such 
unjustified and unethical aberrations," Farida 
Akhtar, executive director of UBINIG, told New 
Age.
    "I do not know of any barrier that Islam 
imposes on women's right to self-defence. Every 
man or woman has the right to participate in any 
sport."
    The women's affairs secretary of the main 
opposition Awami League, Ivy Rahman, said, "Sport 
is sport; I do not understand why they should 
drag religion into sport."
    Women and Children Affairs Minister Khurshid 
Zahan Haque said since the competition was 
exclusively for women, there should not be any 
religious or other problems.
    "Women have progressed in every sphere life," 
said Khurshid Zahan, also convenor of the 
Jatiyatabadi Mahila Dal, women's front of the 
ruling BNP. "Why should they lag behind in 
sports?"
    Tasmima Hossain, editor of the weekly Ananya, 
said the Islamic groups should launch movement 
against indecency in movies, posters and 
advertisements rather than demonstrating against 
the wrestling competition.

_____

[2]

Sent: Saturday, July 03, 2004 1:21 AM
Subject: [IndiaPakistanPeaceDay] Wagah-Attari 
Memorial Petition & India Pakistan Peace Day 
websites

Association for Communal Harmony in Asia (ACHA)
4410 Verda Lane NE, Keizer, OR 97303, USA
<http://www.asiapeace.org>www.asiapeace.org
503.393.6944
Executive Director: Pritam K. Rohila, Ph.D., 
<mailto:pritamr at open.org>pritamr at open.org

Friends:

Thanks to Dr. Ingrid Shafer, ACHA's Director of 
Communication Systems, our Wagah-Attari Memorial 
Petition is now ready for online signatures at 
the following site.
<http://www.ipetitions.com/campaigns/India_Pakistan_Peace_Memorial>http://www.ipetitions.com/campaigns/India_Pakistan_Peace_Memorial

You have the first opportunity to sign, before we release it to the public.


The site also has links to our new website 
<http://www.indiapakistanpeace.org/>http://www.indiapakistanpeace.org 
which is dedicated to India Pakistan Peace Day 
campaign.

Besides it has a link to ACHA website 
<http://www.asiapeace.org>www.asiapeace.org

Best wishes,

Pritam

_____


[3]

The Daily Times [Pakistan]
July 4, 2004
Op-Ed.

Turkey's headscarf decision vindicated

by Ishtiaq Ahmed

The European Human Rights Court at Strasbourg has 
given a ruling that state-run Turkish schools 
that ban Muslim headscarves do not violate the 
freedom of religion. It also found that it was a 
legitimate way to counter Islamic fundamentalism. 
The decision came on an appeal by a Turkish 
student who was barred from attending Istanbul 
University's medical school because her headscarf 
violated the official dress code.
In their unanimous judgment, the seven judges 
said headscarf bans were appropriate when issued 
to protect the secular nature of the state, 
especially against extremist demands. It stated: 
"The court has not overlooked the fact that there 
are extremist political movements in Turkey that 
are trying to impose on the entire society their 
religious symbols and their idea of a society 
based on religious rules. ... The principle of 
secularism was surely one of the founding 
principles of the Turkish state... Safeguarding 
this principle can be considered necessary for 
the protection of the democratic system in 
Turkey." It said further that the bans issued in 
the name of the separation of church and state 
could be considered "necessary in a democratic 
society... Measures taken in universities to 
prevent certain fundamentalist religious 
movements from pressuring students who do not 
practise the religion in question or those 
belonging to another religion can be justified."
In a superficial sense, the ban on headscarves is 
a violation of the human rights of the 
individual, but the question before us is: To 
what extent do Muslim women make independent 
decisions to choose their mode of dress? There is 
abundant evidence from the contemporary Muslim 
world that women are the most oppressed members 
of Muslim societies. In Pakistan, the wearing of 
the burqa (a head-to-foot topcoat) started 
becoming unpopular with the spread of education 
as many women entered the public sphere as 
teachers, doctors, nurses, and miscellaneous 
state employees. However, during General 
Zia-ul-Haq's rule (1977-88) the direction of 
social change was reversed. He ordered women 
newscasters and state employees to wear the 
chaddar (a variant of the headscarf). The most 
reactionary clerics were brought on the 
television to preach the expulsion of women from 
the public sphere.
In Saudi Arabia women got an opportunity to drive 
cars while the first Iraq war was on. Soon 
afterwards, the women were rounded up and made to 
pay heavy fines. The Taliban regime literally 
turned women into a private commodity whose 
proper place was behind the four walls of the 
house. I prefer to call it the 'harem culture'. 
The Ottomans who are foolishly admired by the 
fundamentalists of today were notorious for 
keeping the choicest women from their subject 
peoples in the harem and indeed the Thousand and 
One Nights tell us that the preceding Abbasid 
caliphs were no lesser patrons of harem 
escapades. Keeping this background in mind, 
wearing headscarves no longer remains an 
innocuous act of freedom of belief but a 
perpetuation of the patriarchal 
cultural-structural system that historically 
evolved in Muslim societies. Just as Western 
extremism is typified by racism in different 
garbs, Muslim extremism consistently oppresses 
women in different forms.
Therefore, the political context in which the ban 
on headscarves has been upheld needs to be kept 
in mind. Insofar as Western Europe is concerned, 
headscarves were worn and tolerated for quite a 
long time. Then, from the 1980s onwards, 
fundamentalist influence began to percolate into 
the Muslim immigrant communities. Most typically 
the fundamentalists focused their attention on 
the alleged deviation of Muslim women from 
Islamic morals and behaviour codes. Parents were 
intimidated at the local mosque to stop their 
daughters from going to school dressed up in 
Western clothes.
The decisions of the European Court of Human 
Rights take precedence over national court 
rulings and will have implications for similar 
cases elsewhere in Europe. The French government 
already has on its hands a big problem with 
headscarves. It imposed a ban on headscarves in 
state high schools against which many cases are 
expected to be filed before the courts. In the 
United Kingdom a Luton schoolgirl, Sabina Begum, 
recently lost her High Court battle to wear an 
Islamic dress to school. Since September 2002 
Sabina has refused to attend school in a dispute 
over her wish to wear an ankle-length jilbab gown.
Recently, two Somali girls came to a college 
(called Gymnasium) completely covered from head 
to foot. The teachers objected because it was 
impossible for them to know who was behind that 
strange dress. The Swedish government has chosen 
a middle path. It has been decided that if the 
headmaster of a school feels that a form of dress 
is obstructing normal educational activities and 
procedures he can ban it. In Germany, Muslim 
teachers have appealed against laws in several 
federal states which bar Muslim women covering 
their heads. In all such cases, hopefully, the 
respective members of the Council of Europe will 
establish clear policy barring headscarves.
Just as a West-centred globalisation is being 
studied fervently, we need to study and analyse 
the phenomenon of alternative globalisation. 
Unless this is done seriously we can be sure that 
racial and religious conflicts will explode with 
great venom all over the world. The situation for 
Muslims has already deteriorated after 9/11 and 
things can become much worse if the dangers of a 
fundamentalist upsurge are not properly grasped. 
There is no need to feel sorry for Muslims or to 
hold them in contempt. They are battling with the 
multifarious challenges of modernity, and we know 
that no society ever reaches a state of final 
bliss. Those struggling for democratic, humane 
and rationalist values in the Muslim world 
deserve solidarity. The champions of headscarves 
certainly do not belong to that category.
The author is an associate professor of Political 
Science at Stockholm University. He is the author 
of two books. His email address is 
Ishtiaq.Ahmed at statsvet.su.se


_____



[4]

The New York Times
July 4, 2004

India and Pakistan: Good Fences Make Good Neighbors
By AMY WALDMAN

UROOSA, Jammu and Kashmir - From his front porch 
in this village at the edge of Indian-held 
Kashmir, Muhammad Sharif looks out, as he always 
has, on the steep and lovely hills of 
Pakistan-held Kashmir.

He sees, like a reflection, the faint outline of 
Rehmand, the village opposite, where he presumes 
people speak the same language, practice the same 
religion, eat the same foods, although, never 
having met them, he cannot say for sure.
Advertisement

But these days, Mr. Sharif, a 50-year-old farmer 
and father of six, sees something else as well. 
Up the hillside on the Indian side of the 1972 
cease-fire line - a 460-mile narrow swath of 
territory known as the Line of Control, which 
divides the two Kashmirs - there snakes a new 
manifestation of that division. It is a fence, 
meant to keep at bay infiltrators from Pakistan 
who are seeking to separate India's portion of 
Kashmir from India.

India has been building the fence for about a 
year, and it is largely completed. It follows the 
construction of a less politically delicate fence 
along the India-Pakistan border. It has the 
symbolic potential, in some eyes, to make the 
cease-fire line more like an international 
border, as India desires.

The cease-fire line took its present format the 
end of the last of three wars between India and 
Pakistan. The conflict dates to the partitioning 
of India and Pakistan in 1947 into predominantly 
Hindu and Muslim states. At the time, Kashmir's 
maharaja, a Hindu, joined the fortunes of his 
Muslim-majority state to India. Pakistan invaded 
in 1947 and took part of Kashmir and has 
contended ever since that all of Kashmir has a 
right to self-determination.

After Pakistan failed to take all of Kashmir in 
war, it began backing an insurgency in 1989 that 
at first relied mostly on indigenous Kashmiri 
militants, then on Pakistanis, Afghans and others 
crossing the cease-fire line to take up the 
fight. Kashmiris from the Indian side crossed the 
other way, for training, then returned.

The line runs along beautiful but rugged 
territory over three mountain ranges that rise to 
17,000 feet with deep gorges in between. Passes 
through the peaks and folds of the mountains have 
enabled thousands of hardy militants to cross 
back and forth across the line. Now, crossing - 
in or out - is that much harder.

The fence is similar to the barrier being built 
by the Israelis to control the infiltration of 
militant Palestinians. But the Indian fence has 
received far less international scrutiny than the 
Israeli barrier and surprisingly muted opposition 
from the Pakistanis. Last November, a cease-fire 
was negotiated between the Indian and Pakistani 
armies, which regularly shelled each other and 
civilians living in between. That cease-fire has 
greatly expedited the fence's construction, and 
Pakistani officials say that Pakistan's 
president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, knew that it 
would when he agreed to the cease-fire.

In January, Pakistan agreed not to allow its soil 
to be used for terrorist attacks against India. 
One theory for Pakistan's low-key response is 
that the fence will make it easier for the 
country to better control militant groups.

Constructed on almost vertical mountainsides - 
here at an 80 degree angle - the fence is an 
engineering feat. Until the cease-fire, much of 
the construction was done at night to avoid the 
shelling.

The fence, which breaks only in deference to 
unconquerable terrain, stands about 12 feet high 
and is about 12 feet wide. Coils of concertina 
wire are layered between rows of pickets. 
Sharp-edged metal tape and, in places, 
electrification make crossing even harder. So do 
the soldiers standing guard.

"No obstacle in history, whether the China wall 
or the Maginot line in France, can prevent 
movement unless there is surveillance," said the 
governor of the Indian state of Jammu and 
Kashmir, S. K. Sinha, a former army vice chief of 
staff.

The fence is part of a larger effort by India to 
buttress its defenses and uses equipment acquired 
from Israel, France and the United States, 
including motion sensors, thermal imaging devices 
and night-vision equipment. It also has allowed 
the parceling of the cease-fire zone into a grid 
system so that officers can be held accountable 
for movement in designated areas.

In places, the fence has created divisions within 
a division. Some farmers have been separated from 
their grazing lands, and a few houses and hamlets 
that have been in Indian-held Kashmir since 1947 
are now outside it because the fence could not be 
built around them without crossing into Pakistani 
territory.

There are gates for cattle and people, with 
proper identification, to cross back into India.

Senior Indian military officials say that they 
already see what they called a new 
"tentativeness" among militants, and that the 
fence has allowed the army to foil at least four 
crossing attempts. Militants in Pakistan say that 
the fence has made crossing the cease-fire line 
riskier but assert that they have enough men and 
ammunition already inside Kashmir to sustain the 
insurgency for years.

Indian officials agree with that assertion, 
saying that despite a major decline in 
infiltrations by insurgents compared with last 
year, there has not been a corresponding drop in 
violence. [On Saturday, four people died and 52 
were wounded in bomb attacks in two Kashmiri 
cities. Indian officials also said they had 
killed five Pakistani militants trying to cross 
the Line of Control in a new operation to curb 
infiltration.]

Some question the fence's long-term effectiveness 
in deterring motivated militants. "People who 
want to come and are determined to come, they 
will come," said Umar Farooq, a political leader 
in Indian-help Kashmir who opposes Indian rule. 
"They have routes and maps, and they will use 
them."

"It's a waste of money,'' he said, adding that it 
was better to pursue a political settlement.

With the fence, he said, the Indians are "trying 
to sort of legitimize their claim day by day" to 
Kashmir.

To come close to the cease-fire line - something 
that is possible only with an Indian Army escort 
- is to understand the judolike dynamics of the 
conflict between these nuclear-armed neighbors. 
The hill in the foreground is Indian-held, and 
the one in the background is under Pakistani 
control. The depression between them is the 
cease-fire line.

This is some of the most tenaciously contested 
territory in the world, as proved by the 
pockmarks made by artillery shells in this 
village and the Pakistani bunkers visible on 
hilltops. Mr. Sharif and his sons described 
school days lost to shelling, farm days lost, 
peace of mind lost, until last November's 
cease-fire.

Mr. Sharif, who readily concedes that his village 
is economically dependent on the Indian Army, 
favors the fence. But he also supports a plan to 
start a bus service on the road that runs below 
the village and between Srinagar, the summer 
capital of Indian-held Kashmir, and Muzaffarabad, 
the capital of Pakistan-held Kashmir. The bus 
service is meant to be a confidence-building 
measure that would also allow divided families to 
reconnect. But the construction of the fence has 
proceeded far more rapidly than the reopening of 
the road. No agreement has been reached on the 
thorny issue of which travel documents will be 
required for crossing. India favors passports, 
something the Pakistanis and those in Indian-held 
Kashmir who are opposed to Indian rule are 
resisting because it would convey the status of a 
border.

"If we agree to use a passport then we have 
accepted the division of Kashmir," said Maulvi 
Abbas Ansari, a separatist leader in Srinagar.

After meetings earlier this week between the 
foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan, 
officials said the bus service was still on 
track, but meetings to resolve outstanding issues 
have not been scheduled.

Either way, the road is impassable. Some work is 
being done on the portion that leads to 
Wheatbridge, the military post just below this 
village. But the final two or three miles of the 
road to Pakistan's territory are so damaged by 
avalanches and shelling that vehicles cannot use 
it.

Military officials estimate that repairs will 
take six to eight months. The work has not begun. 
Instead, the road becomes a dead end at a 
barricade that is reinforced by sharp razor wire, 
just like the fence that scales the hill above.

Arif Jamal contributed reporting from Pakistan for this article.

______



[5]

Citizens Against War and Occupation

Friends,

As you know the situation in Iraq, which today is 
the crucible of world politics, is dire. The US 
and its allies are carrying out the most brutal 
forms of repression including massive aerial 
bombing of ordinary Iraqis because the resistance 
to occupation is growing and spreading. The Iraqi 
people today need the widest possible solidarity 
from progressive people throughout the world. 
Indeed, such are the stakes that the US is 
playing for, that it knows a defeat in Iraq and a 
military-political withdrawal from the country 
will signal a decisive defeat of its 
empire-building project in the region. The heroic 
struggle of the Palestinian people will then 
receive a tremendous boost just as Israel and a 
host of US-dependent Arab regimes will be shaken 
to their roots. All the more reason, therefore, 
why the US's imperial designs must be opposed and 
thwarted.

Furthermore, the Indian government and its 
dominant elites are being called upon by 
Washington to lend their practical and 
moral-political support to the US efforts to 
maintain control over Iraq. Even after the 
installation of the United Progressive Alliance 
(UPA) government in New Delhi there will be 
pressure on it to recognise the puppet "interim 
regime" that will be formed in Iraq after June 
30th and to which sovereignty is supposedly being 
handed over. The US and UK are aiming to secure a 
UN endorsement of this farce which, if 
successful, will in turn make it easier for the 
Indian and other governments to follow suit. 
These efforts at disguising the reality of 
American domination and ambitions must also be 
opposed. Indeed, it should be clear that the US 
military-political presence in South Asia (which 
is growing steadily) will itself create obstacles 
to promoting genuine peace between India and 
Pakistan as the US seeks to manipulate the elites 
and governments of both countries. It has already 
been doing this with some considerable success.

The need for a national level 'Anti-War Assembly' 
to bring about a massive show of resistance to US 
designs in Iraq and West Asia and also in South 
Asia has never been greater. Anti-War Assemblies 
have already been set up in other countries and 
regions and have been a vital part of the 
collective effort at globalising resistance to US 
imperial behaviour in Iraq and elsewhere. Under 
the umbrella of the Citizens Against War and 
Occupation, representatives of over 30 
organisations met in New Delhi on June 5 and 6 in 
the first National Consultation meeting with the 
aim of setting up later this year a major public 
event - the Anti-War Assembly. This would be a 
crucial part of the broader process of 
institutionalizing, invigorating and 
strengthening the Indian wing of what is now a 
globally developing and expanding Anti-War and 
Anti-Imperialist platform and movement. It is 
only through such global forms of resistance that 
our enemies, themselves operating on the global 
level, can be defeated. This was the lesson of 
the great international Anti-Vietnam War Movement 
of the past. The same lesson holds true today!

------------

This first National Consultation meeting agreed 
to the following parameters for the forthcoming 
Anti War Assembly.
1. As befitting the process of developing a 
worldwide solidarity campaign aimed at weakening 
the imperial onslaught it was agreed that the 
principal focus of the Anti War Assembly would be 
fighting US-led imperialism at its weakest point 
which is also the point at which the most unified 
international public pressure is operating and 
can be most effectively strengthened - namely 
opposing the illegal occupation of Iraq in favour 
of its full independence and defeating the 
imperial machinations in West Asia in which the 
Israel-Palestine issue occupies the central 
place, i.e. ending the illegal Israeli occupation 
of Palestine and supporting a settlement 
fulfilling the just aspirations of the 
Palestinian people. In addition, as befitting the 
consolidation of a national and regional (South 
Asia) Anti-War and Anti Imperialist movement the 
proposed Anti-War Assembly would necessarily 
highlight the importance of moving towards the 
establishment of an enduring and just peace 
between India and Pakistan with steady 
demilitarization, and to do so independent of the 
manipulative diplomacy of the US and in the 
context of opposing its military presence and 
imperial policies in the region.
2. It was further agreed that the format of the 
proposed Anti War Assembly would reflect this 
thrust and thus incorporate a mixture of 
plenaries, workshops/seminars, cultural 
events/activities, displays, demonstrations, etc. 
which in one way or the other reflected the 
various significant dimensions of these agreed 
themes while also preserving the priority 
attached to building a practically oriented, 
coordinated and focused international and 
national peace movement.
3. The Anti War Assembly should be a major public 
event involving mass participation in the 
thousands and its establishment be mandated and 
promoted by the widest possible range of mass 
organisations, movements, activist groups, 
individuals, etc., united by their common basic 
agreement with the principal democratic political 
positions enunciated at the first National 
Consultation meeting (June 5/6, 2004) - namely 
opposition to imperialist occupation of Iraq, 
justice for the Palestinians, the struggle to 
promote genuine peace between India and Pakistan 
in the context of a South Asia free of imperial 
control and influence.
4. That concerned citizens and representatives of 
all those bodies agreeing with the above laid 
parameters be invited to participate in the 
second National Consultation meeting which will 
be a Strategy Meeting over the two days of July 
24 and 25 in New Delhi from 10.00 am to 5.30 pm 
on both days. It will be held (unless otherwise 
informed) in V.P. Bhavan (Constitution Club), 
Rafi Marg, New Delhi 110001. This meeting will be 
overwhelmingly concerned with carrying out the 
necessary processes of public mobilisation and 
with fulfilling the 
organizational/infrastructural requirements to 
make the Anti-War Assembly a success. This 
meeting will therefore a) finalise the exact 
dates, city and venue of the proposed Anti-War 
Assembly; b) the number of days of the event; c) 
the setting up of procedures for sanctioning and 
structuring plenaries, workshops, cultural 
activities, etc.; d) setting up the committees 
and structures to ensure proper hosting and 
administration of this major event; e) 
publicizing and mobilizing activities; f) raising 
necessary finances; f) other relevant matters.

Please circulate this invitation as widely as 
possible. Let us come together to forge a 
powerful and long lasting platform against 
imperial behaviour, against war, for peace and 
justice.

CITIZENS AGAINST WAR AND OCCUPATION
[June7, 2004, New Delhi]

N.B. For further information contact Qamar Agha, 
A-124/6 Katwaria Sarai, New Delhi 110016; Email: 
cndp_india at rediffmail.com Phone:  91-11- 
26968121, 26858940. Mobile: 09810150736.

List of endorsing organisations

All India Democratic Women's Association, All 
India Kisan Sabha, All India Youth Federation, 
Lok Raj Sangathan, Development Research & Action, 
Indian Social Institute, Focus on the Global 
South, All India Peace & Solidarity Organisation, 
Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament & Peace, Indian 
Social Action Forum, Third World Studies Centre, 
All India Trade Union Congress, National 
Federation of Indian Women, Delhi Science Forun, 
Nirantar, Henrich Boll Foundation, Popular 
Education & Action Centre, People's Union for 
Civil Liberties, SAMA (Resource Centre for Women 
& Health), COVA, VISION, SEEDS, All India 
Federation for Trade Union, SEWA, Muslim Youth of 
India, Yuva Bharat, Students Federation of India, 
Democratic Youth Federation Of India, Centre of 
Indian Trade Union.


Anti War Assembly
II Preparatory Meeing

          Date:     July 24 and 25 (Saturday & Sunday)
Time:	10.00 am to 5.30 pm (Both days)
Venue:	V.P. House (Constitution Club)
          Rafi Marg,
          New Delhi 110001.

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[6]

How many chipayanas ?
Sewer As Death Traps !!
by Subhash Gatade

Tragedy befell the family of Phoolchand Valmiki ( 
Village Chipayana, District Gaziabad) two years 
back on 5 th May 2002 when five of his sons aged 
between 20 to 35 years died when they inhaled the 
poisonous gases emanating from the sewer tank 
belonging to 'Sheela Foam Company' , Gaziabad 
Industrial Area which they were cleaning together 
as a team. The company where this mishap occured 
has shifted to NOIDA without a small percentage 
of the compensation which it had promised to 
Phoolchand's family.
-Malookchand Beniwal, Abhimooknayak, May 2003-
...Two safai kamdars asphyxiated in sewer at Bapunagar
Ahmedabad, 28 May '04: On Thursday night, two 
safai kamdars — Praveen Parmar (29) and 
Laxmanbhai (35) — who went into a sewer at 
Bapunagar to break a portion of it suffocated to 
death. Earlier this month, two safai kamdars were 
taken out of a sewer near Lal Darwaja in a 
critical condition. Two similar incidents were 
reported at Naroda and Bapunagar in April while 
another such incident was reported at Vatva in 
March.  Express News Service

It was 11 th June ('04) morning when Ala and one 
of his other friend had gone to clean the sewer 
as part of
      their contract based job with a new 
contractor in Samaypur Badli, Delhi. The 
contractor had not only promised them a bottle of 
booze but had also told that if they can clean / 
repair more manholes they would get more 
money.Little did they realise that it was going 
to be the last morning of their young lives and 
the sewer which they were cleaning would be 
metamorphosing into a death trap for them within 
a shortwhile.As it happens in all such cases the 
contractor was arrested and within a few hours 
was released on bail. The police registered the 
case in its file and within no time one could see 
work got resumed on the contractors job.Life 
might have ended for Ala and his comrade from a 
distant village in U.P but for the contractor, 
the Delhi Jal Board people and the police it was 
life as usual where such 'accidental deaths' can 
at best be called part of  occupational hazard.
Reports of such a nature have become such a 
routine thing in the life of any city where one 
sees sewer lines  turning into graveyards of 
hapless unorganised workers invariably belonging 
to a particular dalit caste that even the 
mediapeople and the rest of the enlightened 
citizenry have lost interest. Neither one sees 
any sincere attempt on the part of the articulate 
sections of the society or socio-political 
formations so that in the 21 st century at least 
one can save lives of our own people from such 
utterly inhuman and barbaric but 'planned death 
traps.' In a rough estimate one of the editorials 
of the a hindi daily had calculated that there 
have been more than 500 deaths during last five 
years in Delhi alone.In another study on 
'Untouchables' by the National Geographic people 
last year it was communicated to them that on an 
average there are around hundred deaths in 
Ahmedabad and adjoining areas per year because of 
such incidents.Even a conservative estimate of 
deaths in sewer would reveal that every year 
there are thousands of such deaths all over the 
coutry, unsung, unmourned deaths with the powers 
that be lording over such 'capital punishment' 
with their silence and connivance and callousness.
Even a cursory perusal of all such cases would 
reveal that such deaths could be avoided with 
simple precautions on the part of the agency/ 
machinery/ officials who engage people to 
clear/clean the sewers.In most of the cases if 
the victim would have been wearing masks or used 
a safety belt which could be used by others to 
lift the man who has gone inside in emergency 
situation the fatality rate in such cases would 
have been marginal. It is also noteworthy that 
with the growing casualisation of the labour 
force employed one finds that most such cases of 
cleaning the sewer are handled by the casual 
labour only. The permanent labour force is 
normally not employed to deal with such cases the 
reason being  the agency is bound to pay a hefty 
compensation in case of any casuality whereas 
their is no binding if the worker comes from a 
casual category. And the most significant as well 
as shocking aspect of the deaths is that one 
finds that there is nearly 100 percent 
'reservation' for the dalits/Valmikis in this 
work.You can hardly  find a non-dalit or an 
uppercaste person opting for this work.
When the National Geographic reporter while doing 
a story on Dalits in India last year sought 
details from one of those workers who had just 
come out of the sewer with dirt and mud sticking 
around his body he plainly told that he consumes 
liquor before going inside the sewer. "It is 
impossible to tolerate the stink without booze." 
Interaction with another activist revealed 
another gory aspect of the lifespan of these 
workers.The average lifespan of an ordinary safai 
karmachari who is mainly engaged in cleaning 
sewers is much below the national average which 
showed that even the 'living' are not saved from 
the hazards of the poisonour gases which they are 
exposed to.
To get a glimpse of the dangers of working inside 
the sewer one can glance at a news item which 
appeared around four years ago.(indiainfo_news) 
According to the report titled 'Sewage brings 
disease: 22 die in Maharashtra' ;'At least 22 
persons have died and 40 are lying in a critical 
condition in various hospitals of Mumbai and 
Thane due to suspected leptospirosis, a disease 
that spreads from flooding of sewer water. “Rat’s 
urine is one source of the organism called 
leptospira. It floats on water and can enter the 
body through cuts in the skin,” media reports 
quoted doctors as saying.'
As already told looking at the magnitude of the 
problem which exists in all cities which have 
done away with open gutters and have laid sewer 
systems the response from the civil society can 
at best be said to be symbolic. One comes across 
activists belonging to the oppressed community or 
a few other enlightened citizens taking up 
isolated cases for compensation. It is a sad 
commentary on the workings of the big 
social-political formations that they have not 
deemed it necessary to at least raise their voice 
over such an issue.  Way back in 1996 B'bay High 
Court after hearing a public interest litigation 
had directed the state goverment to grant masks 
and other safety instruments to the worker. The 
National Human Rights Commission also instructed 
various states in 2000 to focus on the safety of 
the sewer workers. But it need be underlined that 
all these recommendations by and large remained 
on paper only.
The various municipal corporations instead of 
taking concrete steps to guarantee the safety of 
the workers rather decided to byepass the 
recommedations in ingenious ways. They started 
involving private contractors  for cleaning 
sewers in a big way. So every year one finds 
these corporations taking out tenders for 
cleaning these sewers and granting them to 
persons with the lowest bid. In the capital city 
Delhi one is witness to the bizarre manner in 
which the municipal corporations 'wake up' to the 
possibility of logging and choking of sewers in 
the month of June only when the monsoons are 
near. This is the same period during which there 
are more deaths while cleaing the sewers. One 
does not know why the  persons handling these 
tasks can't plan this work in advance so that 
sewers are cleaned in time and the sewer workers 
as well as the rest of the city people are saved 
from lot of incovenience.
There is no doubt that the whole problem of 
deaths in sewer should be properly situated in 
the overall context  in which the whole 
profession of 'safai' (scavenging) is looked at 
by the rest of the society. A marker of the 
societal mindset and the ethos in which various 
governments discharge their duties vis-a-vis the 
'safai karmcharis' can be had from the fact that 
despite 57 years of independence the 'largest 
democracy in the world' has yet to do away with 
the practice of manual scavenging. According to 
govt reports only there are still more than seven 
lakh people ( out of which 95 per cent are women) 
who are engaged in this profession despite the 
number of committees formed to suggest ways and 
means to do away with this inhuman practice or 
despite the pronouncements of the Raos and the 
Vajpayees from the ramparts of the Red Fort on 
independence days umpteen times. A few months 
back only 'Tehelka' had done a story on the 
existence of these dry latrines in the 
constituency of the then primeminister Mr 
Vajpayee.
This is tenth year of the formation of the 'Safai 
Karmchari Commission' formed supposedly to look 
into the problems of people engaged in this 
profession. One does not know what has been 
achieved through this much tommed-tommed step. 
While the other 'commissions' are at least heard 
in the media on various occasions of their 
concern, one has yet to come across even a mild 
comment on the phenomenon of 'sewers as death 
traps' from this august body. Rather one gathers 
that the commission has become a place to 
'adjust' politicians owing allegiance to the 
ruling combine and a dumping ground for 
bureaucrats who themselves have not been 
sensitised on this issue.
One still remebers the faces of the parents of 
Ajay, a nineteen year old youth who died in a 
similar manner on 27 th February at Alipur, Delhi 
whom we met recently at their house in MCDcolony 
Samaypur Badli. They could not hide their tears 
when we made enquiries about the circumstances in 
which their son died. Neither they have got any 
compensation nor the job promised to their 
younger son ( which was basically an eyewash so 
that they do not create any hurdles before the 
cremation.) But the poor fellows are still 
waiting for the promise to be fulfilled. They 
showed us a torn paper cutting which had reported 
their son's death and also a letter purportedly 
written by the junior engineer promising their 
younger son a job.
Chipayana, Alipur, Ahmedabad, Samaypur Badli 
....The list goes on ! But till when ?
(Mainstream, 3 July 2004)

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