SACW | 15 Jul 2004

Harsh Kapoor aiindex at mnet.fr
Wed Jul 14 19:06:37 CDT 2004


South Asia Citizens Wire    |  15 July,  2004
via:  www.sacw.net

[1]  Islamisation in Pakistan: Regulated Prayer in North-West Frontier Province
[2]  UK: Get off your knees  . . .   an 
embarrassed silence on religion. (Polly Toynbee)
[3]  India: Of democracy in danger  (J Sri Raman)
[4]  India: Amartya Sen flays BJP's 'communal agenda' (Nirmalya Banerjee)
[5]  The Dangers of Religious Environmentalism in India (Meera Nanda)
[6]  India: H[igh] C[court] to decide if haldi-kunku is a religious fest
[7]  India: Public release of Report of the 
People's Tribunal on POTA and Other Security 
Legislations  (Delhi / Mumbai July 15, 2004)
[8] India: City Sewers or Deathtraps ? - Public 
Meeting [on]  Safai Karmacharis ? (New Delhi, 16 
July, 2004)
[9] India: National Workshop on Electricity Act 
2003 for NGOs (Pune, July 26th - July 28th 2004)

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

[1]

BBC News
12 July, 2004, 15:54 GMT 16:54 UK

PAKISTAN PRAYER TIME INITIATIVE

Lawmakers in NWFP say sharia law will protect decency

The government of Pakistan's North-West Frontier 
Province has unveiled a plan to shut public and 
private businesses during prayer times.
The plan replicates the Saudi Arabian model, 
enabling shops and businesses to close for a 
20-minute prayer break.
Last week, the NWFP government was criticised by 
human rights groups for trying to introduce new 
Islamic laws.
So far no date has been given for the new 
initiative to take effect, but officials stress 
it will be voluntary.

Education not coercion

The plan - which is certain to trigger heated 
political debate - has been put forward by the 
six religious parties of the Muttahida Majlis 
Amal (MMA) alliance.
It was unveiled on Monday, and Chief Minister 
Akram Khan Durrani said it was part of a plan to 
enforce a truly Islamic system in the province.

Islamic hardliners have a strong presence in NWFP

He said the new system would facilitate 
businessmen and customers by giving them the 
chance to offer prayers at the same time.
A similar system is already in force in Saudi Arabia.
No date for the Pakistani version has been 
announced, but the chief minister said religious 
scholars and government officials would decide on 
the timetable.
Mr Durrani made it clear that no commercial or 
official building without a mosque would be 
allowed to participate in the scheme.

'Talebanised society'
Officials said the new plan would be enforced 
through motivation, education and self-example 
rather then coercion.
The BBC's Haroon Rashid in Peshawar says that the 
new announcement was welcomed by businessmen, but 
they called on the government to ensure that only 
one prayer time was implemented by Sunni and Shia 
mosques.
Earlier this month, human rights activists in the 
province strongly criticised a proposal put 
forward by the MMA to establish an Ombudsman's 
office which would ensure that Islamic law was 
being implemented.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said it 
amounted to an effort to enforce "Mullah's 
martial law" and "Talebanise" society.

Anti-Western sentiment is running high in the province

The provincial government also announced this 
month that its employees were banned from 
attending music and dance functions in which 
"Islamic moral values were not regarded."
Our correspondent says that the latest proposal 
may be problematic not just because of the 
different timings for Sunni and Shia prayers, but 
because there is also considerable variance 
within the Sunni community itself as to when 
prayers are held.
The head of the NWFP Traders' Association, Haji 
Mohammad Halim Jan, told the BBC that shutting 
shops should not be compulsory.
He said business and financial transactions 
should cease during prayer timings - but to close 
them down and then re-open them five times a day 
would be impractical.

_____


[2]


The Guardian
June 11, 2004

GET OFF YOUR KNEES

Afraid of being labelled Islamophobic, the left 
has fallen into an embarrassed silence on 
religion. We must speak up

Polly Toynbee

Not long ago it was a mildly eccentric archaism 
to belong to the National Secular Society. As a 
liberal cause, it ranked in quaintness alongside 
the promotion of Esperanto and George Bernard 
Shaw's rational spelling system for the English 
language.

Campaigning for disestablishment of the Church of 
England was for constitutional anoraks only. 
Diehards sniping at the fragile remnants of 
Christian faith in Britain were seen as a little 
cruel, poking at a harmless near-corpse. For 
Britain is the most heathen of countries, deeply 
and profoundly irreligious. A recent Home Office 
study finds religion means little to 80% of the 
people.

But the relics of faith still embedded in the 
state are returning to haunt us. Now that 
religion is dangerously hot and divisive again, 
with new power to excite enmity and exclusion, 
the separation between church and state is no 
longer a dry academic question.

This week's report from Muslim academics and 
educationalists launched by Baroness Uddin in the 
House of Lords called for more Muslim schools and 
equal treatment. They found the present system 
"institutionally racist" and they are right. One 
third of British state schools are faith schools, 
and almost all 7,000 of them Christian. Only five 
are Islamic. The report calls for Islamic schools 
to be fast-tracked into the state system and the 
government has trouble thinking of any non-racist 
reasons why not. If so much Jesus, then why not 
more Mohammed?

The small Muslim population - under 3% nationwide 
- now has more regular mosque attenders than 
there are CofE church-goers. With 26 CofE bishops 
passing laws in the House of Lords and so many 
Christian state schools, the injustice of it is 
no longer sustainable. We expect Muslims to 
integrate, and yet offer them a model of society 
that deliberately excludes them. The answer, as 
secularists always said, is for the state to 
abolish all faith schools. It would take no more 
than an act of parliament. The faiths contribute 
a tiny proportion of the cost in exchange for 
governing them and running their own selection 
systems.

Abolishing them just because Muslims now want 
some of their own would add to their sense of 
affront. But that has to be answered honestly. 
Muslims want to keep their children separate, 
while most parents who choose Christian faith 
schools do it to help their children get ahead. 
In heathen Britain, anachronistic church schools 
thrive because they are a fraud. By definition, 
most (of course not all) parents choosing them 
are not religious. Often church schools are a 
semi-conscious device for screening out 
troublesome children, ensuring a calmer 
environment and better results. Surveys show that 
faith school on average take fewer children on 
free school meals or with special needs. Those 
with deprived intakes sink to the bottom of the 
league tables along with the rest: no magic 
there. It's about results, not sectarianism.

Except, that is, in Northern Ireland where 
religion stamps cultural identity. That is what 
separate Muslim schools risk replicating by 
keeping children apart in cultural isolation. 
Lord Ouseley, reporting on the Bradford riots, 
castigated the de facto segregation that happens 
even without making it official policy. Trevor 
Phillips, current head of the Commission for 
Racial Equality, doesn't think Muslim state 
schools are the answer. But he says there are 
real problems for Muslims in state schools. Too 
often they fail Bangladeshi and Pakistani pupils, 
often with all white teachers and little 
understanding.

But it doesn't have to be that way. Talk to 
Bushra Nasir, the Muslim headteacher of Plashet 
girls' school in East Ham. With many faiths, 70% 
Muslim and 10% Christian, the school is deeply 
sensitive to all religions and cultures. Nasir 
spends time persuading parents against sending 
their children to all-Muslim schools. (One has 
just opened up nearby.) "I tell them their girls 
will do far better here and it is far better for 
a cohesive society." Mostly she succeeds, but she 
just lost a potential A* science student to a 
Muslim girls' school where she fears she will do 
less well. Nor does she think Christian schools 
add the value they claim: "They interview parents 
to select: any headteacher can tell if parents 
are going to be supportive."

Nasir has done brilliantly with an almost 
entirely deprived ethnic minority intake, raising 
the number with five good GCSEs from 28% to 63%. 
It is not the religion that counts, but a good 
school and sensitive cultural approaches.

Standing against religious apartheid, atheists 
come into their own here. Those who are as 
anti-Christian as they are anti-Islamic can 
oppose state promotion of any religion without 
discrimination. Equally repelled by Christianity 
and its atrocities, they can challenge Islamic 
beliefs with an unembarrassed even-handedness.

But the rise of the concept of Islamophobia has 
struck too many dumb. They no longer express 
anti-religious views for fear of being 
Islamophobic. So, apart from protests by the 
doughty scions of the National Secular Society 
and their British Humanist Association allies, 
the left has fallen into an embarrassed silence 
on the subject of religion, just as it needs to 
speak up.

The BNP has been allowed to make the weather by 
abusing Islam as a proxy for race in their vile 
literature. They have done it so successfully 
that criticising Islam seems to ignore the 
attacks on Muslims that have increased by nearly 
50%. Robert Kilroy-Silk's mindless anti-Arab 
tirade only made matters worse, as his attacks on 
Sharia law blended nastily into racist smears. He 
made it harder for others to challenge some of 
the savage passages in the Koran, which 
apologists are eager to smooth over.

"Islamophobia" blurs racism and anti-religion 
dangerously. It's interesting to see how 
Christian activists are now keen to make common 
cause with Muslims, drawing on their heat and 
passion. (The far left is doing the same, even 
less convincingly.) Far from a Clash of 
Civilisations between Islam and Christianity, in 
Britain they join together over religious 
broadcasting, schools and other rights. 
Officialdom is easily frightened of Islam, with 
good reason, treading carefully in a minefield. 
There is an essentially craven tendency to give 
in to the notion that religious belief deserves 
some special treatment by the state. Labour has 
opened 60 new faith state schools - including a 
Seventh Day Adventist one.

Nowhere more than in schools should that be 
resisted. It is the state's duty to give every 
child an open-minded, free-thinking education, 
opening windows away from the cultural narrowness 
of each child's family background. So where is 
the vigorous campaign against religious schools? 
Parents want good schools, and might prefer not 
to have to get on their knees in their local 
church to get into them. It is extraordinary that 
secular Britain is rushing to re-invent religion 
and give state aid to promote superstitions of 
every hue.

_____


[3]


The Daily Times
July 15, 2004

OF DEMOCRACY IN DANGER
J Sri Raman

BJP's demand for the sacking of what it calls 
"tainted" ministers violates political morality. 
In the name of saving democracy, it seeks to deny 
the people their political mandate. It is an 
attempt to win a political game by violating the 
ground rules agreed upon

Who says that the fascists of India always say 
the opposite of what they mean? True, when they 
raise the Hinduism-in-danger cry, it is generally 
the country's minorities that are in danger. It 
is different, however, when the Bharatiya Janata 
Party and its parivar shrill their 
democracy-in-danger slogan. Indian democracy is 
then indeed in danger. They pose the danger.

There can be no better illustration of this than 
the latest in their long series of save-democracy 
campaigns. They have picked the campaign issues 
carefully. These are addressed to their special 
constituency, and that of classical fascism. It 
is the constituency of classes (as well as 
castes, in this case) that seek to protect 
democracy from the people.
The first thing they did, immediately after 
losing the general election in May, was to flaunt 
their disdain for democracy. With a virulent 
intensification of their voter-rejected 
'anti-foreigner' campaign, they showed their 
contempt for the people's mandate as well as for 
conventions of India's parliamentary polity. By 
denying the prime minister's office to the 
elected leader of the party heading the coalition 
having a clear majority in the new Lok Sabha, the 
defeated party dictated post-election terms. 
They, however, talked then, not of saving 
democracy, but only of saving the country from 
"dynastic" rule.

Lal Kishen Advani, former Deputy Prime Minister, 
chosen by the BJP to lead it back to power, has 
listed three major issues for its campaign over 
the coming period. One of these - the 
post-election dismissal of four State Governors 
appointed by the previous government, all of them 
from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the 
patriarch of the 'parivar' - is not related to 
democracy, really. The Governors, who are 
unelected political appointees, cannot protest 
their replacement, even in a democracy of the 
BJP's definition.

The issue is being agitated only because it gives 
the party yet anther opportunity to return to its 
"roots" by reasserting its loyalty to the RSS. 
The BJP's post-election decision to try the 
back-to-the-roots tactics is an open secret by 
now.
It is the other two issues that illustrate the 
ironical character of the campaign. The first of 
these targets ministers of Prime Minister 
Manmohan Singh's government whom the party calls 
"tainted". The "taint", which a morally indignant 
BJP cannot tolerate, is the result of "criminal 
charges" against these ministers that the police 
are investigating and courts at different levels 
considering. The party's demand for the sacking 
of these ministers is, in fact, what violates all 
political morality.
It is political immorality, above all, because, 
in the name of saving democracy, it seeks to deny 
the people their political mandate. It is an 
attempt to win a political game by violating the 
ground rules agreed upon. The Prime Minister, who 
has the privilege of choosing his council of 
ministers, is being ordered, in effect, to 
consult the opposition on this count.

He is being asked, in particular, to deny 
representation to the second party in the 
coalition, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) of 
Bihar's Lalu Prasad Yadav. The leader of the 
backward State and a backward caste might have 
won hearts in Pakistan, but he has only earned 
the hatred of articulate sections ever since he 
as a chief minister arrested Advani and his 
Ayodhya march in 1990. A bete noir of the media 
and the middle class since then, he was their 
darling before that, as newspaper archives will 
attest. Of that, some other time.

The point is not that the RJD and its Bihar 
government are paragons of pro-people virtues. 
Far from that. The point is that political 
meanness, and no morality, is what motivates the 
campaign. And it is a meanness that poses a major 
threat to democracy. The other immorality of the 
campaign makes this amply clear.

The campaign is immoral also because the BJP-led 
National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime had 
more than its share of more truly tainted 
ministers and the former Prime Minister Atal 
Behari Vajpyee had determinedly resisted all 
demands for their dropping. The most prominent of 
these NDA ministers - ironies will never case - 
was Advani himself. The others included the No. 3 
in the Vajpayee Cabinet Murli Manohar Joshi.

The BJP's apologists are indignant at any such 
comparison. How dare anyone, they demand to know, 
equate the "political offences" of Advani and, by 
implication, Gujarat's Narendra Modi, with the 
"criminal; offences" like murders and rapes, with 
which the "tainted" ministers of today are 
charged? The media sees much force in the 
argument. Are they all really unaware that the 
riots followng Advani's Ayodhya 'rath yatra' 
(chariot ride) and the Gujarat carnage carried 
out under Modi's auspices included murders, 
mutilations and rapes of the most savage kind?

The second issue that the Advani army is going to 
raise is about the Prevention of Terrorism Act 
(POTA), put on the statute book by his 
government. Abolition of the Act was part of the 
election manifestos of the Congress and its 
allies, and they have promised action on the 
pledge. The BJP sees in the move to scrap the 
draconian law a sinister threat to democracy.
Two clear conclusions can be drawn from the 
country's experience with POTA over the last two 
years. The first is that the Centre has striven 
to use the law as a weapon against only what the 
'parivar' sees as minority 'extremism'. The way 
bit has been wielded in Gujarat and Assam leaves 
little doubt on this score. The second 
conclusion, which even the BJP cannot contest, is 
that the law has been misused by rulers in major 
States like Tamilnadu and Uttar Pradesh against 
political adversaries.
The BJP's choice of POTA is an issue of democracy 
is yet another challenge to all Indians who are 
proud of the polity of the country's adoption and 
have a diametrically opposite perception of it.
The writer is a journalist and peace activist based in Chennai, India


_____


[4]

The Times of India
July 14, 2004

AMARTYA SEN FLAYS BJP'S 'COMMUNAL AGENDA'
Nirmalya Banerjee

KOLKATA: In an indictment of the former BJP-led 
government at the Centre, Nobel laureate Amartya 
Sen on Wednesday said that with its defeat "the 
communal agenda had received some setback".

Arguing that secret ballot alone would not have 
been enough to unseat the BJP-led alliance had it 
not been combined with public discussion and 
public reasoning, he said that the tradition of 
public discussion must be encouraged so that the 
danger of communalism did not return.

"Silence is a powerful enemy of social justice," he said.

Professor Sen was delivering a lecture on 
"Democracy and the future of India," delivered at 
Nandan, Kolkata.

Dissecting the reasons for the defeat of the 
BJP-led alliance, he said that two reasons were 
important: neglect of the interest of the poor 
and violation of the human rights of the 
minorities, particularly the Muslims. The latter 
he described as "barbarism inflicted in Gujarat."

Wondering how the minority could influence the 
majority vote, when people were supposed to work 
in their "narrow self-interest," he pointed out 
that the minorities were only 135 million in 
number while 81 per cent of the country's 
population were Hindus.

His answer was that a substantial portion of the 
population was offended by the "brutal treatment" 
of minorities. In this, public reasoning and 
public discussion played an important role in 
decision-making.

"Insensitive slogans like India Shining" when the 
rural poor were being neglected made things worse 
for the outgoing government, he said.

"Any human being can be responsive to others' 
predicament and survival. That's what we call 
society," he said. The result of the election 
showed political voice could be used to demand 
more economic equality.

Sen lauded the idea of globalisation, saying 
India had to learn from China in this. China was 
a leading economic player as it had "stopped 
grumbling about globalisation" and decided to 
come to terms with a globalised world.

"Globalisation has good features too," he observed.

He was critical, however, of slow growth in life 
expectancy in China since the economic reforms of 
1979, when free public health care was 
discontinued. In the absence of a multi-party 
democracy, there was no resistance to the move.

Professor Sen criticised the condition of 
hospitals in West Bengal, referring to newspaper 
reports about them.

Though he lauded the state for its panchayat 
system, he warned that decentralisation was not 
always the better alternative. For, it often 
generated local prejudices and parochialism.


______


[5]

DHARMIC ECOLOGY AND THE NEO-PAGAN INTERNATIONAL: 
THE DANGERS OF RELIGIOUS ENVIRONMENTALISM IN INDIA

by Meera Nanda

[Paper Presented at Panel No. 15 at the 18th 
European Conference on Modern South Asian 
Studies, 6-9 July 2004
Panel Title: From Landscapes to Genomes: 
Authoritative Knowledge in Contested Domains 8 
July, Lund, Sweden ]

Paper Abstract:

The Context: Politics in India is undergoing a 
process of sacralization, or religionization. The 
founding principles of India's secular democracy 
are being reformulated in the concepts, symbols 
and rituals derived from the elements of orthodox 
and neo-Hinduism. In keeping with the fabled 
"inclusivism' of Hinduism, Hindu nationalists are 
trying to co-opt the key modern ideals of 
liberalism, secularism and humanism as being 
always-already present in the eternal truths of 
the Vedas. Hindutva is "modern" in rhetoric, for, 
unlike the paleo-religious fundamentalists like 
the Taliban, it is not turning its back to the 
modern world. But Hindutva is deeply anti-modern 
in reality, for, like all "respectable" religious 
fundamentalist parties (e.g., Moral Majority in 
the US, or the Mullahs in Iran), it seeks to 
co-opt modern ideals and deny any contradiction, 
any break and any secularization of the Hindu 
understanding of nature and society.

The problematic: The rhetoric of "Vedic 
spirituality-as-science"/ "spiritual science" is 
playing a key role in the erosion of secular 
public discourse in India. There is a concerted, 
state-sponsored effort by Hindu ideologues to 
reinterpret modern science as a mere footnote to 
Hindu spiritual traditions which see the 
phenomenal world of nature as an expression of 
the Spirit or Brahman. Hindu nationalists and 
their intellectual allies including numerous 
gurus and swamis, inside and outside the 
government, all claim that the most advance 
research in physics, neurosciences, biology, 
ecology and mathematics all confirm the holistic 
worldview of the Vedas and/or are already 
presaged in the Vedas. Conversely, they justify 
esoteric, paranormal and pseudo-sciences like 
astrology, vastu, faith-healing, telepathy, and 
reincarnation memories etc. as legitimate 
sciences within the holistic, non-dualistic 
worldview of Vedic Hinduism. The introduction of 
astrology is one prominent example of such 
thinking, as is the state-sponsored "research" 
and propagation of Vastu shastra, cow-urine, 
scientific benefits of yagnas and "Vedic" 
mathematics. The question this panel asks is: how 
and where "authoritative knowledge is created 
about such imponderables as genes - or atoms. Who 
is the God of the really small things?"
My paper will offer one possible answer to this 
question: authoritative interpreters of knowledge 
of material things, big and small, are none other 
than the "Intellectual kshatriyas" of the Sangh 
Parivar.

URL FOR FULL TEXT : 
www.sacw.net/DC/CommunalismCollection/ArticlesArchive/072004_D_Ecology_MeeraNanda.pdf

______


[6]

Indian Express | Mumbai Newsline
July 14, 2004

HC TO DECIDE IF HALDI-KUNKU IS A RELIGIOUS FEST
Express News Service
Mumbai, July 13:	THE Bombay High Court 
will now deliberate on whether 'haldi-kunku', a 
traditional Maharashtrian custom, is a religious 
function.

This seemingly innocent question is the subject 
matter of an election petition filed against 
former deputy mayor Arun Deo. Deo may have to 
explain why he organised a haldi-kunku ceremony 
at a Hanuman temple at Shastrinagar just before 
the municipal corporation elections in February 
2002.

Petitioner Chandrashekhar Kochare claims that Deo 
followed the ceremony with a free distribution of 
lamps and tilgul to some 300-odd women gathered. 
The petition has demanded that Deo's election to 
the municipal corporation be set aside.


_____


[7]

People's Tribunal on the Prevention of Terrorist Act (POTA)
and other Security Legislations

				PRESS RELEASE
							July 13, 2004

'TERROR OF POTA AND OTHER SECURITY LEGISLATIONS'

The EXTENSIVE, all-India report of the People's Tribunal on POTA and Other
Security Legislations will be released in Delhi and Mumbai on July 15, 2004
at the Mumbai Marathi Patrakar Sangh at 4.15 p.m.

Justice Hosbet Suresh, noted civil libertarian and retired High Court Judge,
Mahesh Bhatt, noted film personality and PA Sebastian, noted  human rights
lawyer will be present on the occasion.  Please depute a representative of
your esteemed publication to attend.

This 600 page report is the result of a two day People's Tribunal on POTA
and Other Security Legislations held at the Indian Social Institute New
Delhi on March 13-14,2004. Human Rights Groups from all over the country
participated.

The JURY consisted of Shri Ram Jethmalani, noted criminal lawyer, Arundhati
Roy, writer and rights activist, Syeda Hamid and Mohini Giri, former
Chairpersons, National Commission for Women, Justices Hosbet Suresh and DK
Basu. Victims of abuse through POTA and other security legislations had
testified before this eminent tribunal.

Time:  4.15 p.m.
Venue: Mumbai Marathi Patrakar Sangh [BOMBAY]
Date:  Thursday, July 15, 2004

Mihir Desai					Teesta Setalvad
Co-Convenor					Co-Convenor
Tribunal Secretariat: ; 65, Masjid Road, Jungpura, New Delhi 14


o o o  o


[Date: Wed, 14 Jul 2004]

The TERROR of POTA
and Other Security Legislation


Release of the Report of the People's Tribunal on the
Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) and Other Security Legislation

On 13 - 14 March 2004, a People's Tribunal was 
organized in New Delhi to document cases of gross 
misuse of POTA and other security legislation. 
Victims and family members spoke of the 
victimisation of juveniles, minorities, dalits, 
adivasis and industrial workers. They recounted 
stories of illegal custody, solitary confinement, 
torture, forced confessions, sexual and religious 
humiliation, encounter killings and 
disappearances. The dire predictions as to how 
this statute was likely to be misused have in 
fact been proven true.

Will the UPA Government keep its promise?

"The UPA has been concerned with the manner in 
which POTA has been grossly misused in the past 
two years. There will be no compromise in the 
fight against terrorism. But given the abuse of 
POTA that has taken place, the UPA government 
will repeal it, while existing laws are enforced 
strictly."

- National Common Minimum Programme Of The Government Of India, May 2004

Recommendations

¡        Repeal - POTA and TADA before that have 
not deterred terrorist activity. Instead, the 
weakest sections of our society have borne the 
brunt of state brutality sanctioned by security 
legislation.

¡        Accountability - POTA, the Armed Forces 
(Special Powers) Act, 1958 and similar 
legislation have given the police and 
paramilitary forces the impression that they are 
above the law. They must be systematically 
disabused of this impression. They must be made 
accountable for their actions.

¡        Juveniles - Should only be subject to 
the Juvenile Justice Act, never to any security / 
terrorist legislation.

¡        Freedom of Speech and expression – No 
statute should have a chilling effect on the 
exercise of the right to freedom of speech and 
expression. POTA and kindred laws have had just 
that effect.

¡        Political Vendetta - The draconian 
provisions of the Act lend themselves to use 
against political opponents as evidenced in Tamil 
Nadu.

¡        Compensation and Reparation - While 
repealing these laws, the state must acknowledge 
its mistakes and at a minimum pay the victims 
compensation.

¡        Initiate Peace Talks - Conflicts arising 
from peoples’ legitimate aspirations must be 
resolved politically and not be treated as a law 
and order situation to be repressed through the 
use of security legislation.

Panel:            Ram Jethmalani, Mohini Giri, Syeda Hameed, Arundhati Roy

Venue:               Indian Women's Press Corps, 
5 Windsor Place, New Delhi 110 001
Date:  Thursday, 15th July 2004
Time:   4:00 p.m.



Panel: Mahesh Bhat, P.A. Sabastian, Teesta Setalvad and Mihir Desai

Venue: Mumbai Marathi Patrakar Sangh [Bombay]
Date: 15 July 2004
Time: 4:15 p.m


For more information contact: Preeti Verma
65, Masjid Road, Jungpura, New Delhi 110 014   Tel: 24324501  / 98104 12411



For more information contact: Deepa & Rashmi
CVOD Jain School, 4th Floor, 84, Samuel Street, 
Dongri, Mumbai - 400 009   Tel: 23439651 / 
23436692

______


[8]

CITY SEWERS OR DEATHTRAPS ?
How long will this playing with the lives of the Safai Karmacharis go on ?

Public Meeting:
2-30 p.m.Friday 16 July 2004 ,
Deputy Chairman Hall, Constitution Club, Rafi Marg,
New Delhi

Friends,

On 12th June 2004 two workers-Ala and Umesh- 
while cleaning the sewer at Samaypur Badli in 
North Delhi died due to exposure to  Poisonous 
gases. In May last two employees of the MCD 
similarly succumbed to death in the Wazirpur 
Industrial Area. The bottomless pit at Alipur 
swallowed one worker-Ajay two months earlier.

According to some estimates at Delhi alone around 
a hundred workers are sacrificed at the altar of 
Sewer every year. The number of those who suffer 
from prolonged illness on account of constant 
exposure is countless. It is disturbing to note 
that in spite of all these tragedies the 
powers-that-be in the capital do not appear to be 
unduly disturbed. The media always on the prowl 
for sensational news perhaps do not think that 
such deaths do not count for much.

In most cases it has been found that the Safai 
Karmacharis do not have even elementary 
instruments like rope, box, oxygen cylinder, mask 
etc. at the time of descending down to the 
underworld. The government have their own 
rigorous requirements needed while handling such 
a sensitive job. The NHRC has also issued clear 
instructions from time to time. But all these 
help to adorn the statute books rather than the 
mouth of the sewers/

The workers who meet their deaths in sewers are 
mostly contract labour. Even if clearing of sewer 
is a job fraught with danger and requires special 
skills there is no on-job training. The contract 
labour hardly receives the barest of wages .At 
one end there is the municipal corporation 
equipped with a battery of workers for the 
cleaning job while the thankless job is done by 
these contract labourers but nobody pays any 
attention to their woes.

It is noteworthy that even today this safaai work 
is being done mostly by the Dalits belonging to 
Balmiki or equivalent castes in the varna 
hierarchy. Despite the important role of this 
work in the healthy functioning of the society 
one notices that they are subjected to caste 
discrimination of the worst kind. However it is 
also a fact that slowly and silently a lot of 
churning is taking place in these communities and 
voices are being raised calling upon the members 
to‘Throw the broom, wield the Pen’.

Under the contract labour provisions the 
responsibility of compensating the worker who 
comes to grief during the work lies squarely with 
the main employer which in this case is the 
municipal corporation or the Delhi Jal board as 
the case may be. The bitter truth, however is 
that hardly any family receives any compensation. 
Why can’t the corporation that spends crores of 
rupees annually for the beautification of the 
metro does not provide safety instruments to the 
workers ? Why can it not ensure that the 
contractors to whom it dishes out the work 
provide them to the labour ? In this connection 
number of  questions are being raised :

·    Why does the worker who is injured or dies 
during the Operation Sewer normally not paid 
adequate compensation?
·    Why is it that in the FIRs recorded by the 
police the failure is registered under infructus 
provisions so that the contractors/corporation 
get off lightly?
·    Are the economic policies of the country not 
responsible for these tragedies ? The 
unemployment is so acute that youth in the metro 
is forced to undertake such hazardous work 
knowing full well the dangers inherent in it.
·    Is not our bigoted brahmanical psychology 
placing at the lowest rung of the ladder those 
who keep the society clean and habitable 
responsible for the ominous silence in the wake 
of such unfortunate deaths?
·    We wish to communicate with all those who 
are concerned with the death of workers in 
sewer-related incidents.  We assert that such 
incidents cannot be put down to just as 
accidents. These are ell-‘planned murders’  of 
sewer workers for which the metro prefers to 
observe an ominous silence
·    Is it not our duty as responsible members of 
a civilized society to tell these powers-that-be 
emphatically that we do not approve of these 
‘murders’. Should we not bring pressure on 
government to provide the sewers with the safety 
instruments and give adequate compensation to the 
families in case of their deaths? We firmly 
believe that you will attend and participate in 
the meeting planned for the purpose on 16th July 
afternoon.

Safai Karmchari Jeevan Suraksha Abhiyaan
( Campaign for the Safety of Safai Karmachari's)
Dalit Mukti Sangthan,/ Progressive Students’ 
Union/ Stree Adhikar Sangthan/ Pragatishil Yuwa 
Sangthan
     Contact: 011-27872835/31401679/9891448511/0184-2233322

______




[9]


NATIONAL WORKSHOP ON ELECTRICITY ACT 2003 FOR NGOS
Pune, July 26th to July 28th 2004

Organized By
Prayas (Energy Group), Pune, Center for Public 
Policy, IIM-B and Utility Regulation Research 
Centre, Xavier Institute of Management 
(Bhubneshwar)



To

Dear Sir, Madam, and Friends,

The new Electricity Act 2003 added another twist 
to the controversy over electricity sector reform 
and restructuring. Recently, the new government 
has also announced a review of the Act. The 
changes in the electricity sector certainly have 
serious and long-term implications for interests 
of the consumers, disadvantaged sections, and the 
public interest in general. However, the civil 
society organizations have largely remained out 
of the thick of the debate on the new Act.

In this context, Prayas in collaboration with 
Center for Public Policy, IIM Bangalore and 
Utility Regulation Research Centre, Xavier 
Institute of Management (Bhubaneshwar) is 
planning to hold a three-day workshop for civil 
society organizations, voluntary organizations, 
and non-government organizations working for 
interests of the consumers, disadvantaged 
sections, as well as for the public interest in 
general.

We are herewith sending you, along with the 
registration form, a note providing information 
on the objectives, tentative program, venue and 
other logistical details. If you feel interested, 
please send in your registration form at your 
earliest by e-mail, fax, or mail. We also request 
you to pass this information to other activists 
and researchers who might be interested in this 
workshop.

Thanking you,

Prayas (Energy Group)

----- Note our new address -----
Prayas c/o Amrita Clinic, Athwle Corner, Near Sambhaji Bridge,
Karve Road, Deccan Gymkhana, Pune - 411004. INDIA

Web-site: www.prayaspune.org

o o o

The Times of India
JULY 13, 2004
URL: timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=776537

KNOW YOUR POWER WITH PRAYAS
Manjiri Madhav Damle

PUNE: Have you ever wondered what a grid collapse 
is and why it takes hours to restore power supply 
after such collapse? or what is load shedding, or 
power factor, or why do consumers need to know 
their onions when it comes to the power sector?

A citizens' primer on the electricity sector 
titled Know your power published by Pune based 
Prayas energy group has answered all such queries 
in simple language with the help of common day 
occurrences. The 138-page book is not only useful 
for common citizens but it also fulfilled a 
pressing need for training equipment that will 
create vigilant pressure groups to keep on eye on 
the fast changing power sector.

Speaking to TNN here on Tuesday, Girish Sant, one 
of the lead authors of the book said that they 
have conveyed the alphabet and grammar of the 
Indian power sector from the broad public 
interest standpoint and raised issues. "It is 
best that using the alphabet and grammar people 
build on this and write the script for action 
themselves", he remarked.

The book covers basic technical and economic 
concepts of the power sector, explains necessary 
jargon in a simple non-technical language, tariff 
issues, power system planning, working of a power 
system, production and distribution of 
electricity and the changing scenario in Indian 
power sector. In short the book has demystified 
the highly technical sector.

"There is a need to enhance the influence of 
informed analytical actors in the Indian power 
sector", said Sant adding "Such collective effort 
alone can produce a balanced critique of the 
reform process and exert a healthy pressure on 
the policy process". He pointed out that ensuring 
public control on the sector was all the more 
important in the current changing times. The 
burden of directing the sector was increasingly 
coming on the shoulders of a vigilant civil 
society, he felt.

Sant stated that it was essential that civil 
society institutions pool their strengths to 
raise the right questions at the right places and 
suggest alternatives to further the public 
interest agenda. "Vigilant groups also need to 
check the logic behind approving large power 
projects to try and avoid disasters like Enron", 
he remarked.

Prayas feels that citizens needed to ensure that 
revenue of the power sector worth lakhs of crores 
of rupees was used to further public interest and 
not unfairly used to further some private 
interests. "The total revenue of all electricity 
distribution utilities in the year 2001-02 was 
nearly Rs 93,000 crore. The revenue receipt in 
the union budget for the same period was Rs 2, 
03, 000 crore", he revealed.

Besides explaining everything about the power 
sector in simple language, the book also gives 
various useful tables like the one giving 
consumption patters of various gadgets and 
abbreviations frequently used. An entire chapter 
is devoted to the emerging trends in the Indian 
power sector - that covers integrated utility 
model, single buyer model, bulk competition 
model, retail competition model and status of 
power reforms across the world.

The book is available at Prayas, telephone 
numbers 25420720/56205726 for Rs 150 (for 
individuals and NGOs) and Rs 500 for government, 
corporate and institutions. Details are available 
at info at prayaspune.org




_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

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