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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