SACW | 15 Oct. 2005
sacw
aiindex at mnet.fr
Fri Oct 14 21:54:32 CDT 2005
South Asia Citizens Wire | 15 October, 2005
[1] Pakistan: No Burial For Balakot (Pervez Hoodbhoy)
[2] Quaking ourselves out of apathy (Praful Bidwai)
[3] Appeal for support - relief and
rehabilitation for victims of earthquake in Jammu
and Kashmir (Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for
Peace and Democracy)
[4] India and the Nagas: Nations within nation States (Sanjib Baruah)
[5] India: 2nd National Convention on the Right to Food and Work
______
[1]
NO BURIAL FOR BALAKOT
by
Pervez Hoodbhoy
From under the rubble of collapsed buildings, a
gut-wrenching smell of decaying corpses now fills
the town. The rats have it good; the one I
accidentally stepped upon was already fat. If
there is indeed a plan to clear the concrete
rubble in and around the town, nobody seems to
have any clue. But the Balakotis are taking it in
their stride - nose masks are everywhere.
From this destroyed mountainous tourist base
town, situated on the banks of the Kunhar river,
a relief group from my university returned today
(Thursday, Oct 13, 2005). We were just one of the
dozens of groups of ordinary citizens that were
spontaneously galvanized into action after the
enormity of last Saturday's earthquake became
apparent.
There is good news. The Mansehra to Balakot road
stretch, finally forced open by huge army
bulldozers and earth moving machinery, is now
open to relief trucks and goods donated across
the country are piled to the roofs. If there ever
was a time when the people of Pakistan moved
together, this is it. Even the armed bandits who
waylay relief supplies - to guard against whom
soldiers with automatic weapons stand at alert
every few hundred yards - cannot destroy the
euphoria of having this solitary moment of
unspoiled national unity.
Aid from across the world is making its way, and
the United States is here too. Double bladed
Chinook helicopters, diverted from fighting
Al-Qaida in Afghanistan, weave their way through
the mountains. They fly over the heartland of
jihad and the militant training camps in Mansehra
to drop food and tents a few miles beyond.
Temporarily birds of peace instead of war, they
do immensely more to soothe the highly Islamic,
highly conservative, bearded mountain people than
the reams of silly propaganda on glossy paper put
out by the US information services in Pakistan.
Their visibility makes relief choppers terrific
propaganda, for good or for worse. This is
undoubtedly why the Pakistani government refused
an Indian offer to send in helicopters for relief
work in and around Muzzafarabad, the flattened
capital of Pakistani administered Kashmir. In
spite of a much celebrated peace process,
Pakistan has also not issued visas to Indian
peace groups and activists that seek
participation in the relief effort.
Islamic groups from across the country have also
arrived. Some bring relief supplies, others
simply harangue poor goat herders and simple
tillers of the soil to tell them that their
misdeeds brought about this catastrophe. None
seem to have an explanation for why God's wrath
was especially directed to mosques, madrassas,
and schools - all of which have collapsed in huge
numbers. And none say why thousands of the
faithful have been buried alive in this sacred
month of fasting.
Now for the bad news: the aid is still too
little, often of the wrong kind, and is not
getting to those most affected. Hundreds of
destroyed communities lie scattered deep in the
mountains. We saw helicopters attempt aerial
drops; landing is impossible in most places. But
people told us that they often miss and the
supplies land up thousands of feet below or in
deep forests.
Distribution is haphazard and uncoordinated, done
with little thought. In Balakot we saw relief
workers simply throw packets of food and clothes
from the top of trucks, and a subsequent riot.
Hustlers thrive, the weak watch passively. Tons
of clothes, lovingly donated and packed by
citizens around Pakistan, but mostly useless
because of specific cultural and climatic
conditions, are mixed and scattered with garbage
and rubble throughout the town.
For me personally, there was a sense of dejavu.
Nearly 31 years ago, on 25th December 1974, a
powerful earthquake had flattened towns along the
Karakorum Highway killing nearly 10,000 people. I
had traveled with a university team into the same
mountains for similar relief work. Prime Minister
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto had made a passionate appeal
for funds around the world, taken a token
helicopter trip to the destroyed town of Besham,
and made fantastic promises for rehabilitation.
But then hundreds of millions of dollars in
relief funds received from abroad mysteriously
disappeared. Some well-informed people believe
that those funds were used to kick off Pakistan's
secret nuclear program.
Shall the present government do better? This will
only be if citizens, and international donors,
demand transparency and accounts are available
for public audit.
The clock is ticking. In barely two months from
now, the mountains will get their first snowfall
and temperatures will plummet below zero. There
are simply not enough tents, blankets, and warm
clothes to go around. Hundreds of tent clusters
have come up, but thousands of families remain
out under the skies, facing rain and hail, and
with dread in their hearts. These families have
lost everything but the tattered clothes on their
backs. Some even lost the land they had lived
upon for generations - the top soil simply slid
away, leaving behind hard rock and rubble. Those
without shelter will die. From a special
university fund we have pledged a dozen families
to rebuild their houses but ten thousand or more
will be needed in the Mansehra-Balakot-Kaghan
area alone, not to speak of adjoining Kashmir.
Relief groups and donors around the world must
make reconstruction of homes their primary goal.
The author is a professor at Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad
______
[2]
The News International
October 15, 2005
QUAKING OURSELVES OUT OF APATHY
Praful Bidwai
The colossal destruction and heart-rending human
misery wrought by the Muzaffarabad earthquake has
suddenly focused a beam of bright white light on
a stark, simple truth, which many South Asians
have suppressed, trivialised or forgotten:
namely, the India-Pakistan border is basically
political. In sharp contrast to the rifts and
divisions the border represents stands the lived
experience of flesh-and-blood people affected by
the disaster, itself rooted in their common
humanity and shared grief. Even the geological
processes that led to the earthquake cut across
borders.
You don't need a map of the subcontinent to
realise that the Line of Control is an
obstruction, a profound irrationality. The
easiest access to some parts of Pakistani Kashmir
lies through Indian terrain across the LoC. If
rescuing people and providing relief has any
meaning -- and what else matters at this point of
time? -- the border has none.
It's a sad irony that Indian soldiers crossed the
LoC not to provide desperately needed relief to
civilians, but to reconstruct a Pakistani
military bunker!
We citizens, therefore, have every right to be
infuriated at the cussedness and bloody
mindedness of our rulers, who still cannot rise
above the pettiest considerations of prestige,
protocol and precedent, nor spontaneously assert
a simple urge to relieve human suffering.
Pakistan has refused India's offer to conduct
joint relief operations. It won't welcome Indian
workers' teams crossing the border. It has only
accepted 25 tonnes of material and even spurned
the offer of light helicopters, which it badly
needs. What else is this but a move to block
direct human contact between the two peoples at a
time when it can make a life-or-death difference?
It's ludicrous to imagine that accepting
substantial relief from India, in particular
through joint disaster management efforts, would
be a sign of "weakness". But that's the sole,
perverse, rationale of the "sensitivities" that
President Pervez Musharraf cited while saying
"thanks, but no thanks" to Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh. At work here is a fraudulent
notion of national security and power projection.
India, in turn, has refused to share seismic data
with Pakistan because it fears it might be used
to pinpoint the location of any future nuclear
experiments (full-fledged blasts or hydronuclear
tests) it might conduct. This fear is compounded
by India's opposition to the Comprehensive Test
Ban Treaty, under which seismic verification has
been agreed. Thus India hasn't joined the Global
Seismographic Network maintained by the
Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology
(IRIS), Washington, a consortium created by
universities which accurately monitors
earthquakes at 128 stations worldwide.
So the shadow of the mushroom cloud looms over
India's decision not to cooperate with Pakistan
even through IRIS. This is as self-defeating for
India as Islamabad's refusal of relief teams is
for Pakistan. Joining IRIS would give India
real-time access to seismic data and help
substantially cut the response-time to
earthquakes. This could save lives.
Our wretchedly callous governments won't
willingly shed their profound antipathy to their
own people or their Neanderthal-like militaristic
instincts. Not anytime soon. But that doesn't
mean that civil society organisations (CSOs)
should be passive and not push them. They must do
their utmost to establish people-to-people
contacts across the border using all available
means.
It's the CSOs' duty to reach out -- not only
because government-level efforts have proved
unacceptably inadequate. The Kashmiris, in whose
name we all speak, have themselves called for
such initiatives. Hurriyat chairman Umar Farooq
has said so explicitly while decrying the
relative inactivity of major NGOs in the present
case -- in contrast to the 2001 Bhuj earthquake
or last December's tsunami.
India's CSOs have a much longer and richer
experience of dealing with disaster relief thanks
to the Uttarkashi and Chamoli earthquakes in the
Himalayas (1991 and 1999), the Latur tremblor in
Maharashtra's plains (1993), besides Bhuj. They
have invaluable insights into what's needed --
not just in terms of food, water and materials,
but the way their distribution should be
organised involving local communities. They have
worked for years on building temporary shelters
as well as permanent structures which can resist
earthquakes.
The mountainous areas affected in Pakistan,
especially Azad Kashmir, are very similar to
those in India's Himalayan hill districts in
topography, access, quality and structure of
housing. Disasters in the hills pose different
problems from those in the plains. Here too, the
Indian CSOs' expertise could prove useful -- in
restoring ruptured communication links, or in
quickly erecting temporary shelters to protect
people from the cold and the rain.
I have been talking to many CSOs, earthquake
engineers, architects and other experts in Delhi,
Dehra Dun and Mumbai. They draw the following
lessons from their experience.
* The success of relief efforts depends not just
on the timely provision of materials, but on
involving local people, so they "own" and
participate in the process. Or else, they see it
as someone else's problem and won't contribute to
improving the process to suit local conditions.
* Women have a critical role to play because they
are far more acutely aware than men of domestic
needs, the space and attention required by
children and old people, and cooking and cleaning
facilities, etc. "Natural" disasters unite people
and temporarily obfuscate gender-role
hierarchies, allowing women to play a more
proactive public role than would be normally
allowed.
* In the best shelter programmes, people are
taught to build sheds or barracks with simple
implements and local materials such as tin
sheets, which they can adapt to suit their needs.
It's pointless to throw Western equipment at
them, or dump blankets and tents.
* As important as material aid are community and
social ties, communication networks, and
governance structures like village panchayats or
local bodies. Efficient communication is vital in
rescuing people. A panchayat run democratically
and transparently will provide relief more
effectively than bureaucratic structures, even
when led by well-meaning babus.
* Public-spirited doctors should be involved in
medical, including psychiatric, relief programmes
from the start. It's possible to procure
essential medicines at subsidised prices. That's
a secondary problem. Familiarity with community
and social medicine is more important than
sophisticated techniques in medical relief.
This may sound easy. In practice, it isn't.
Nothing can facilitate it as much as ground-level
cooperation, where people rub shoulders with one
another.
So, Pakistani CSOs and well-meaning citizens
should do something simple: get in touch with
their Indian counterparts. Equally, Indian CSOs,
especially in Uri and Tangdher, should ask
Pakistani physicians and CSOs for help. At this
point, let me do something Columnists don't
usually do. Here's a short list of Indian CSOs,
with addresses:
1. Swayam Shikshan Prayog, (Prema Gopalan), Tel:
(0)982141326, premagab at vsnl.com, Dongri at gmail.com
2. Anandi, Rajkot, (Jahnvi Andharia/Sumitra
Thakker), Tel: 0265-2352976, 0281-2581944,
2586091, 09825536120
3. Disaster Mitigation Institute, Ahmedabad,
(Mihir Bhatt), dmi at southasiadisasters.net
4. Dasholi Gram Swarajya Mandal, Gopeshwar,
(Chandi Prasad Bhatt), Tel: 01372-52183
5. Centre for Development Initiatives,
Rudraprayag, (Pooran Barthwal), Tel:
01364-233561, 0135-2643424
6. People's Science Institute, Dehra Doon, (Ravi
Chopra/Rajesh Kumar), Tel: 0135-2763649, 2773849,
3094956; psiddoon at sancharnet.in,
cdmr_psi at yahoomail.co.in
The subcontinent has been shaken. Unless its
people, CSOs and NGOs seize the initiative, the
victims of this tragedy won't get relief, leave
alone rehabilitation.
Finally, to quote someone from Islamabad cited in
any number of emails doing the India-Pakistan
rounds: "The rescue efforts are pathetic --
people trying to get into the collapsed mountain
of concrete using picks and shovels. It shows how
unprepared the society is for any ...disaster.
And yet the fools talk of surviving nuclear war".
Will we learn? We must. And we must not give in.
The writer, a former newspaper editor, is a
researcher and peace and human-rights activist
based in Delhi
______
[3]
October 13, 2005
To,
All Members of Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy
Sub: Appeal for support - relief and
rehabilitation for victims of earthquake in Jammu
and Kashmir
Dear colleagues and friends,
You are aware of the severe earth quake that
caused devastation in Uri and Baramullah in J&K
and in Muzzafarabad, Punch, Rawalkot, Gilgit,
Baltistan and other parts of the North West
Frontier Province (NWFP) in Pakistan. On the
Indian side of the LoC, as per reports, nearly
fifty thousand people have become homeless. As
per official reports more than a 1000 persons
have lost their lives. According to local people,
the death toll is much higher. Dr. Syeda Hameed
and Tapan Bose visited Baramullah and parts of
Uri, immediately after this devastating
earthquake. The team was able to go upto
Salamabad, about 8 kms from the Aman Setu on the
LoC. They found that the earthquake has destroyed
almost all buildings on the road side, as well as
on the hills along both sides of the Jhelum
river. In many places the road has been
severely damaged by landslides. The road has also
developed cracks and parts of it has fallen into
the riverbed far below. Several vehicles were
crushed by heavy boulders still lying on the
road. As the homes were built with local stones
and mud, the earthquake has shattered these
structures. Even those which have not fallen are
completely unsafe as they have developed cracks
with the mud falling off the stones leaving these
unsupported. These damaged houses will have to be
demolished and reconstructed. School buildings,
health centers, government offices, army
barracks, bazaars, everything seems to have been
destroyed.
During the visit the team also saw thousands of
people; young children, women, old and the middle
aged - all camping in the open on the road side.
The weather has already turned cold, night
temperatures going down to almost 3-4 degree
Celsius. These people have no shelter. The
children and others have very little protective
clothing. While the army, BSF and local NGOs
were distributing food and blankets, it was
evident that the need was much more than what was
available. It seems that the government of the
State of J&K has not yet got its emergency relief
machinery together. The Commissioner of
Baramullah confirmed this impression. He has
communicated to Tapan Bose that there is urgent
need for about forty thousand tarpaulins, heavy
plastic/PVC sheets and about 2,50,000 blankets.
In addition, the people also need warm clothing
like sweaters and shawls. These items are
urgently needed as people have no shelter and the
weather has already turned bitter. Those who have
survived the earthquake might succumb to the
severe winter of Kashmir.
In addition there is also urgent need for medial
supplies as well as doctors. The medial supplies
required are:
1) Paracetamol 2) Dispirin
3) Different types of antibiotics
4) Anti dysentery drugs 5) Pain killers
6) Dextrose and Saline drips
PIPFPD has taken up the relief and rehabilitation
work on both sides of the border. While Pakistan
National Chapter is mobilizing resources and
volunteers for relief in Muzzaffarabad and other
places, the Indian chapter has the responsibility
of doing similar work on the Indian side of the
LoC. We request all of you to kindly respond
generously to this appeal immediately.
All contributions should be sent to either
'Pakistan-India Peoples Forum for Peace and
Democracy' or to 'Kashmir Earthquake Relief and
Rehabilitation Fund', to the following address:
A-1/125 (first floor)
Safdarjung Enclave
New Delhi 110 029
Tel: 91-11-51652451/51652452
If you are sending your contributions to the
general account, please mention clearly that this
is a contribution for relief for earthquake
victims in J&K. If any of you would like that
part of your contribution be sent or used by
Pakistan chapter, please mention so. We will make
part of your contribution available to the
Pakistan National Chapter of PIPFPD.
Contributions in kind are also welcome (if those
can be reached to us before the 25th of October).
If you are able to collect medicine, blankets,
woolen cloth and tarpaulin, please immediately
inform us by telephone or e-mail, we will arrange
to get these collected and transported. We will
also need skilled volunteers, who can go to
Kashmir on their own and help in the relief and
rehabilitation work. Please note people with
experience in earthquake relief particularly in
hill areas and medical practitioners are needed.
PIPFPD is in the process of setting up an
information center in Delhi as well as
information and logistic support center in
Srinagar. All information collected from J&K as
well as from Pakistan will be collated at these
two places. Anyone who can contribute information
and technical knowledge about reconstruction of
houses in earthquake prone areas should send
their information to PIPFPD on the-mail address:
pipfpd at pipfpd.org
We request you once again to respond to this
appeal immediately. Men, women and children
severely traumatized by this natural disaster are
spending their days and nights in the open under
most severe weather conditions. They need your
help, now.
Looking forward to your immediate response.
Yours sincerely,
Tapan K. Bose
General Secretary
N.B: *Contributions made to PIPFPD are exempted under 80-G of the IT Act
______
[4]
Hindustan Times,
October 13, 2005
<http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1518306,00120002.htm>
NATIONS WITHIN NATION STATES
by Sanjib Baruah
When a delegation of Nagas told Gandhi in June
1947 that the government had warned that there
would be military sanctions against Nagas if they
declared independence, Gandhi said « the
government is wrong... No army will deprive you
of your freedom... Those days are gone... I
believe you all belong to one, to India. But if
you say you won't, no one can force you. » When
asked if the new government would not f orce the
Nagas to join India, Gandhi replied, « No, not if
I am alive. I will go to Naga Hills and say that
you will shoot me before you shoot a single Naga.
»
In the real world of politics, Gandhi’s support
for the Nagas did not amount to much. On the eve
of Independence he was already outside the
mainstream of the party coming to power. Had he
lived for a few more years and had he followed up
on his promise of opposing Indian military
action, the Naga conflict might have taken a very
different course. Nearly six decades later, the
armed conflicts in Northeast India and the force
used by successive governments to counter them
make the Gandhian credo of non-violence seem like
a fairy tale.
Gandhi’s methods — even if 'utopian' in this case
— were based on deep convictions about politics
and society. The exchange was in line with his
ideas in Hind Swaraj, where he distinguished
between 'a genuine nation formed as community
(praja) and a nation of individuals merely held
together by state power (rashtra)'.’ His project
was to build a different kind of polity.
It is possible to respond more creatively to the
Naga proposal for a special federal relationship
with India. Such an arrangement, Naga leader
Thuingaleng Muivah says, can come « as close as
possible » to the constitutional framework, even
though he rules out a settlement entirely within
the existing framework.
But the reaction to this is tepid. Policy-makers
and public opinion are ambivalent about
asymmetrical federalism — a federation where some
units have different institutions and powers, and
greater autonomy than others. A leading example
of asymmetrical federalism is Canada, where
Quebec enjoys more powers on certain subjects
than the predominantly Anglophone provinces.
Spain provides another example where ‘historical
communities’ such as Catalonia, Basque Country
and Galicia have more powers than other
autonomous communities.
The Article 370 on Jammu and Kashmir gave the
Indian system a significant element of
asymmetrical federalism. But gradually all
elements of this special autonomy were taken away
and Kashmir became like any other state. Nagaland
and a few other Northeastern states enjoy limited
asymmetrical autonomy under Article 371. This has
survived not because of active public support for
such a dispensation but because of a lack of
interest in what goes on in the region.
A special federal relationship can be built on
the foundation of the asymmetrical federalism
that already exists in Nagaland. It might even
permit the settlement of the vexed issue of the
integration of Naga-inhabited areas. There can be
a second legislative chamber to represent Nagas
living outside Nagaland. Such a chamber, elected
by non-territorial constituencies, can recognise
the trans-state nature of Naga identity. At the
same time, this need not jeopardise the
territorial integrity of Manipur, Arunachal
Pradesh and Assam.
Canadian debates on Quebec provide an example of
constitutional law dealing effectively with a
demand for secession. After the narrow defeat of
the 'yes' side in the 1995 Quebec referendum, the
Supreme Court ruled in 1998 that a province has
no right to secede unilaterally, but it did not
try to close the secessionist option as illegal.
Instead it set in motion a process by which the
Constitution can respond to demands for
secession. In 2000, the Canadian Parliament
passed the Clarity Act, which gave it the right
to determine if the language of a referendum for
secession is unambiguous or if a clear majority
favours secession.
When Gandhi met the Naga leaders in 1947, India
was about to embark on the road to build a modern
nation State. In today's world absolutist notions
of the sovereignty of nation States have given
way to notions of relative sovereignty and of
sharing. The present generation Naga leaders
have shown remarkable statesmanship in getting
their supporters to think of sovereignty outside
the paradigm of independence.
A demand for independence need not be a matter of
life and death for a nation. Options do exist,
other than the use of raw power. Gandhi wanted
India to be a model for a new type of polity and
not simply another conventional nation State with
an army, a flag, a national anthem and a national
airline. It may be time to pick up his unfinished
project and make the fiction of the consent of
the governed a more active principle in our
democratic federal polity.
The author is visiting professor, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi
______
[5]
Dear friends,
We would like to invite you to the 2nd National
Convention on the Right to Food and Work, to be
held in Kolkata on 18-20 November 2005.
Organisations committed to the right to food and
work are expected to join from all over the
country. The main purpose of this convention is
to share experiences of grassroots action for the
right to food and work, and to plan future
activities.
Among the main issues to be discussed at the
convention are: Public Distribution System;
Children's Right to Food; the National Rural
Employment Guarantee Act; the Right to
Information Act; Protection of Existing
Livelihoods; Land Rights; Gender Aspects of the
Right to Food; Legal Action for the Right to
Food; Organisational Aspects of the Right to Food
Campaign. This will be an action-oriented event,
structured around a series of parallel workshops,
plenary sessions, cultural activities, and more.
A tentative schedule is enclosed, along with
details of the venue, local contacts etc.
Please consider organising meetings, workshops
and conventions at the district/state level on
these issues in advance of the national
convention. This would facilitate better
involvement of local groups and grassroots
organisations at the national convention.
Participating organisations are also invited to
bring their campaign material (e.g. reports,
posters, exhibitions, etc.) for circulation or
display at the Kolkata convention
This event is a follow-up of the first National
Convention on the Right to Food and Work, held in
Bhopal on 11-13 June 2004, and also of the
convention on "Employment Guarantee and Right to
Work" held in Ranchi on 17-19 June 2005 as part
of the Rozgar Adhikar Yatra.
The tentative budget of the convention is about
Rs. 2,25,000/-. This cost will be met through
voluntary donations and registration fees (Rs 100
per participant for three days, including food
and accommodation). All participants are
expected to make their own travel arrangements.
Kindly book your tickets well in advance due to
festival season. Please let us how many are
planning to participate in this convention so
that we can plan for logistics.
For further information, please send a line to
<mailto:righttofood at gmail.com>righttofood at gmail.com,
check the campaign website
(<http://www.righttofoodindia.org/>www.righttofoodindia.org)
or contact the secretariat at 011-2351 0042 or
9350530150.
In solidarity,
Navjyoti and Rosamma
(secretariat, right to food campaign)
Venue of the Convention:
Badu Collective,
c/o JSK Training Centre (Nutan Ashram),
1, Shibtola Road, Village Maheswarpur,
P.O. Badu, Kolkata - 700128
(Please note that Badu is about 1 ½ hrs from the
centre of Kolkata. To reach Badu, take a bus
from Hawrah station (bus no. L 238) or from
Sildah station upto Madhamgram and from
Madhamgram take another bus or auto for Badu,
after to reach Badu can ask about Nutan Ashram. )
Tentative Programme of the Convention
Day 1 (18th November)
Morning Session
Inauguration
11 to 1
Welcome
- Introducing the Convention
- Achievements post-Bhopal
- Key issues and future action
Plenary
1 - 2.30
Break
Afternoon Session
2.30 to 6.30
Public distribution system
Parallel workshop
Children's right to food
Parallel workshop
Protection of existing livelihoods
Parallel workshop
Land rights
Parallel workshop
Other issues (if applicable)
Day 2 (19th November)
Morning Session
9 to 10.45
Employment Guarantee and Right to Work
Parallel workshops
10.45 to 11
Tea break
11 to 1
Use of the Right to Information Act
Parallel workshops
1 to 2.30
Break
Afternoon session
2.30 to 6.30
Legal action for the right to food and work
???
5.30 to 6
Tea break
6 to 7 p.m
Lecture on WTO
Plenary
Day 3 (20th November)
Morning session
9 to 12
Organizational issues
12 to 1
Workshops and conclusion
12 to 1
Resolution
The programme of the convention is based on two
preparatory meetings held in Delhi on 29 August
and 24 September 2005. The following
organisations were represented at these
preparatory meetings: Human Rights Law Network
(HRLN), Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (JSA), Mobile
Creches, National Alliance of People's Movements
(NAPM), National Alliance for the Fundamental
Right to Education (NAFRE), National Campaign
Committee for Rural Workers (NCCRW), National
Campaign Committee for Unorganised Sector Workers
(NCC-USW), National Campaign for the People's
Right to Information (NCPRI), National Centre for
Advocacy Studies (NCAS), National Federation of
Indian Women (NFIW), Paschim Banga Khet Mazdoor
Samity (PBKMS), People's Action for Employment
Guarantee (PAEG), People's Union for Civil
Liberties (PUCL), Progressive Students Union
(PSU), Sajha Manch, Satark Nagarik Sangathan,
Social Development Foundation, the office of the
Commissioners of the Supreme Court, and the
secretariat of the Right to Food Campaign.
Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti (BGVS), National
Campaign for Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR) and
National Conference of Dalit Organisations
(NACDOR) were unable to attend the meetings but
confirmed their participation in the convention.
Kolkata Contacts:
Anuradha Talwar: <jsk at cal2.vsnl.net.in>.
Ph: 033-25382064, 033-25380386, Mob: 9433002064,
Sutapa Chakraborty (HRLN): Ph: 033-30967154 , 9830172462 (M)
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Buzz on the perils of fundamentalist politics, on
matters of peace and democratisation in South
Asia. SACW is an independent & non-profit
citizens wire service run since 1998 by South
Asia Citizens Web: www.sacw.net/
SACW archive is available at: bridget.jatol.com/pipermail/sacw_insaf.net/
Sister initiatives :
South Asia Counter Information Project : snipurl.com/sacip
South Asians Against Nukes: www.s-asians-against-nukes.org
Communalism Watch: communalism.blogspot.com/
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