NAPM extends solidarity to Anna Hazare's campaign against corruption

NAPM extends solidarity to Anna Hazare and others fasting, rooting out corporate corruption and demands nationwide consultation on important legislations
Shri Anna Hazare's indefinite fast and thousands others fasting across the country with a demand for enactment of an independent and stronger Jan Lokpal and Jan Lokayukta enters third day today. NAPM has extended its support to the demand since beginning of the movement and from 5th April
organised rallies, morchas, solidarity fasts, public meetings and other such programmes in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Lucknow, Unao, Itawah, Muzaffarnagar, Delhi and many other places across the country. NAPM reiterate its support, and even as the movement gains steam, pledges to intensify our agitation.

The wages of protest

The wages of protest
Arundhati Dhuru & Dr Sandeep Pandey

[Published in THE HINDU, 5 April 2009]

While the RTI Act and the audit provisions of NREGA enable ordinary people to demand accountability from governments, it doesn’t always work like that on the ground. There have been several cases recently in U.P., where the demand for rights by workers has been met with violence…

The political ruling class has decided to deal with the demands being raised by workers for their legal rights strongly.

The advent of the Right to Information (RTI) Act and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) were a breakthrough in Indian democracy. They provided the openings in a system which was opaque, insensitive and impersonal to the common citizens of this country. The ruling elite which was not prepared to be answerable to people at all had to relent. They realised that, after all, they are functioning in a democracy which is created in the name of the people. People began asking questions under the RTI Act and started conducting social audits under NREGA, which were revolutionary ideas given the kind of system we have inherited from the British and given the mindset bureaucracy develops when it is entrenched in this system. People did achieve success using the RTI and the social audit provision and a definite empowerment was taking place.

However, it looks as if it’s been decided that enough is enough. People could be allowed the luxury of only so much transparency and accountability. They could not transgress the limit beyond which the unquestioned supremacy of the ruling elites stood to be challenged. The initial fear in their minds towards these pro-people laws has vanished and now they are dealing with people demanding their basic rights under these Acts with vengeance. They have decided to quell every voice which raises questions about their highhandedness with utmost contempt and violence if necessary. The administrative machinery, which is supposed to be responsible for implementing these laws, is being used by the people’s representatives with impunity.

Plenty of discrepancies

In the Dumri Village Panchayat of Kasya Block of Kushinagar district of U.P., what started as an investigation into the discrepancies in Below Poverty Line survey, on a complaint made by some villagers, turned into a full fledged investigation into bungling in development funds which came through the Panchayat. Discrepancies were observed by an Assistant Commissioner in the Rural Development Department in the housing schemes for poor as well as NREGA. Advocate Udaybhan Yadav, who was instrumental in getting this investigation done, was threatened by the Gram Pradhan Dinesh Verma and his men. On February 28, 2009, when the men of Gram Pradhan were beating a dalit labourer Parasuram, who was vocal in questioning the fake muster roll in which wages were withdrawn in his name whereas he had not even worked under NREGA, Udaybhan intervened. He was also beaten up. A dalit, Kapil Dev, receiving patronage from the Pradhan, registered a FIR against Udaybhan and a case under (Prevention of) Atrocities against S.C./S.T. Act was filed. Under political pressure, Udaybhan and his father Hari Yadav were arrested on March 9. Parasuram’s brother Ram Bharat and father Jaikaran were also arrested but released later.

Fight for wages

In the village Panchayat Aira Kake Mau of Bharawan Block of Hardoi District, workers had assembled on January 14, 2009, at the door of the Gram Pradhan as previously agreed, to seek their unpaid wages. The husband of the Gram Pradhan, Ghanshyam, who runs the show here on behalf of his wife, first tried to threaten the labourers. The police arrived when the situation became tense. When the workers wanted to file complaints against the Gram Pradhan for violation of their rights under the NREGA, Ghanshyam ordered his men to rain lathis on the labourers and social activists present there in support of the workers in the presence of the Station House Officer and the police of Atrauli Police Station. One dalit labourer, Medai, and a social activist, Ram Bharose, sustained injuries on the head. Although a case was filed against Ghanshyam, in spite of repeated applications to various authorities by dalit labourers who were present at the site of incident, (Prevention of) Atrocities against S.C./S.T. Act has not been used against Ghanshyam and no action has thus far been taken against him.

In Kopaganj Block of Mau district, labourers from the villages Devkali, Bishunpur, Purana Kopa and Jairamgarh, mostly women and dalit, had assembled at the office of the Block Officer, merely eight km from the district headquarters, to demand wages due for the last six months. One of the labourers was called inside the office for dialogue and beaten up by those inside. The labourers were furious. The Block Development Officer, Ram Dular and an employee, Sanjiv Singh, had to bear the brunt of the anger. Some women also got hurt in this scuffle. Full wages have still not been paid and nobody involved in beating the worker has been punished.

In the village Panchayat Rura of Kasmanda Block of District Sitapur, a pond deepening work was in progress on February 28, 2009. Some women labourers wandered off to drink water from a hand pump. The hand pump belonged to a powerful person from the locality, Madan Dixit, popularly know as Madan Muni in this area. The women had to face obscene comments. When the male members of the families wanted to register their protest against these obscene remarks, they were beaten up. When the workers reached the police station to file a case against their tormentors, Madan Muni was already there. The workers wanted to register a case under the (Prevention of) atrocities against the S.C./S.T. Act. The police asked them to come next morning in an attempt to arrive at a compromise. When the workers were unmoved from their demand the next day, two men and two women labourers were beaten by the police inside the police station. premises. With the help of social organisations of the area a case was finally registered against Madan Muni under the (Prevention of) atrocities against the S.C./S.T. Act but no action has been taken against the police personnel who were involved in beating the workers.

Underpaid

In the Cholapur Block of District Varanasi, about 200 workers belonging to Dhaurahra, Saryan and Munari were not paid their wages for about a month for deepening a pond in Saryan G.P. The Junior Engineer had measured the work and calculated payment of wages at the rate of Rs. 39.80 per day. The workers were not satisfied as for similar work in Dhaurahra G.P. workers were paid the minimum wages of Rs. 100 per day. On February 26, 2009, the Village Development Officer gave in writing that all workers would be paid at the rate of Rs. 100 per day on March 3, 2009. When the workers assembled on March 5, at the Block Office, the BDO was absent. On the advice of a Block employee they decided to block the Varanasi-Azamgarh Highway. The SHO of Cholapur P.S. arrived and the workers were lathi-charged quite mercilessly. About 50 people including approximately 10 women were badly hurt. Heerawati, who was pregnant, was also hurt. The SHO took 20 people and 50 bicycles with him to the police station and the workers were released on personal bonds. When asked as to what action he would take against the VDO for violating the legal rights of workers under NREGA by not paying the wages, the SHO said he was merely following the orders from the higher ups. He refused to reveal the name of the officer who had ordered lathi charge. The next day, wages at the rate of Rs. 42 per day were transferred into the accounts of the labourers.

The repression of workers is now emerging as a trend. The political ruling class has decided to deal with the demands being raised by workers for their legal rights strongly. The workers will be punished. The ruling elites realise that these demands ultimately will lead to a clamour for a more equitable society and wider and deeper participation of workers in the decision making process in our democracy. They do not want to give away this power easily. The above-mentioned incidents also indicate that the workers are now getting better organised than before. NREGA has at least helped achieve that. We hope that the problems of workers will be resolved within the constitutional framework peacefully and will lead to further democratisation of society and government.

Arundhati Dhuru & Dr Sandeep Pandey

[Arundhati Dhuru is a national convener of National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM), and an Adviser to Supreme Court Commissioner on Right to Food. She is noted for her frontline leadership of the anti-dam movement (Narmada Bachao Andolan) and has extensive experience of working on people's issues across India. Email: arundhatidhuru@yahoo.co.uk]

[Dr Sandeep Pandey is a Ramon Magsaysay Awardee (2002) for emergent leadership, member of National Presidium, People's Politics Front (PPF), heads the National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM) and did his PhD from University of California, Berkeley in control theory which is applicable in missile technology. He taught at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur before devoting his life to strengthening people's movements in early 1990s. He can be contacted at: ashaashram@yahoo.com. Website: www.citizen-news.org]

[Published in THE HINDU, 5 April 2009]

High Court stays workers' right of unemployment allowance

High Court stays workers' right of unemployment allowance

The affirmative and bold step taken by the Department of Rural Development in Uttar Pradesh to pay unemployment allowance to laborers of district Sitapur under the NREGA Act was challenged by the BDOs in the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court.

The Hon High Court has reaffirmed and upheld the jurisdiction and authority of the Commissioner Rural Development and has directed the Commissioner to give a hearing to the petitioners and ensure that payment is made to deserving persons only.

The Dept of Rural Development had indeed taken a very commendable step by upholding the Constitutional right of workers for unemployment allowance which is a right guaranteed to them if they do not get employment within the stipulated time period. (Schedule III Para 7 of the Act)

The amount has to be paid from the state treasury and not from the wages made available by central funds.

Incidentally, under the NREGA no laborer is prevented from working elsewhere. The state is bound to provide 100 days of labour failing which it has to give unemployment allowance if demanded.

The committee which was constituted at the district level to look into the whole issue of unemployment allowance in Sitapur was chaired by an SDM rank officer along with two more government officers along with representatives of the organization which raised the issue. The beneficiaries were part of the committee as NREGA itself gives power of social audit to the workers whose participation is in keeping with the basic spirit of the act.

I would like to underline that NREGA completes three years on February 2. However, in UP it has made commendable progress only during the last one year. The present administration has sensitively implemented the Act in its true spirit. This has been in terms of developing effective grievance redressal mechanism and introducing worker and gender friendly Schedule of Rate (SOR) to measure the workers’ output.

NREGA however, is not in the pink of health in the state. There are issues which still need to be addressed such as checking corruption and pilferage, increasing coverage and ensuring work to the needy and facilitating smooth payment.

It needs to be seen if the state government manages to check incidents like the one which recently occurred in Hardoi. Here an influential pradhan under patronage of a ruling party minister physically manhandled workers demanding their right to work. The acid test for the state government lies in rising above political pressure to ensure the right of workers as guaranteed under the Act.

Arundhati Dhuru
Advisor to the Supreme Court Commissioners in the Right to Food case
Phone: 94150 22772

Published in: The Times of India

A UNIQUE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE

A UNIQUE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE

 Arundhati Dhuru

Tikamgarh is a rare inland district in India, located centrally in the Bundelkhand region of the Hindi heartland in Madhya Pradesh, with a large fisherfolk community. There are total of 1395 ponds in all in this district as per government records, with 612 ponds being under fishery and 100 being irrigation ponds. They are also famous for its Chandel period architecture. Once they met the irrigation and water needs of villages. Thousands of fisherfolks were also dependent on them. But today most of them exist only in village panchayat records. Most of them are now turned into wastelands, or used partially for irrigation needs by dominant interests in the villages. Due to siltation and total neglect once the pride of villages is now turned into dumping grounds. And fisherfolk community is the one, which is worst affected by ponds dying all over the area. Fisherfolk community have fishing rights over ponds through registered co-operative societies for which government issues a license on the recommendation of village panchayats. But most of these societies are controlled by vested interests. The powerful lobbies of villages act in the name of fishermen and most of the fishermen work as labourers earning pittance. They are dependent on these vested interests for loans, fishing nets, seedlings and during lean periods and as they do not have access to markets they end up getting much less than due to them.

An effort was made in Prithvipur and Jatara blocks of Tikamgarh district to get them organized to improve their livelihood opportunities and to get them better bargaining position in today’s capital intensive, highly globalised competitive market economy. The community organized themselves in loose network of committees. They started collective buying of fish seedlings and selling fish. Saving groups were started which played the role of informal credit societies thus reducing the dependence on creditors. This gave ample leverage to community who started reclaiming the ponds by organizing as political pressure groups. Through organized protests they were successful in getting few favorable policy changes at state and district level.

Women from the community played an important role in this experiment. Traditionally they perform the functions of cleaning and selling fish in the local markets (marketing to towns and trading is done by men). Women started their separate savings groups and excelled in them due to their inherent capacity to focus within family and community. They became owners of ponds totally controlled by women committees and thus became shareholders in the network. The community has saved more than Rs. 25 lakhs and are now in the process of forming federation to gain better access and control over markets, to get better livelihood opportunities.

The fisherfolk community felt that they have informal property right over ponds, which is a resource they are loosing and their livelihood and life depends on it. It was this justified sense of rightness which was the rallying point. The homogeneity and bonding of community along with women’s capacity to focus and nurture the family and community helped to strengthen the organization. The organization based on this arena of social assets was successful in providing viable option of livelihood. On about 100 ponds the fisherfolk are now politically organized in the name of ‘Achrumata Machuwara Sangathan’ to determine their own destiny. On 56 ponds the co-operatives elected to manage the ponds are controlled by the organization. This was of course not very easy. The elected members of the co-operative committees had to shielded from the powerful vested interests, which included Uma Bharati’s brother, so that they were not influenced by either fear or enticement before they elected their office bearers.

               They are buying their seedlings from as far away as Howrah and selling their produce at far away markets in Gorakhpur. During the last 4-5 years the income levels of fisherfolk families have gone up in the range of Rs. 4,000-Rs. 20,000 per family. The turnover in 2001 was Rs. 77 lakhs and on an average it is Rs. 30-35 lakhs per year. Earlier the land which used to be freed up because of drying up of ponds   was used by upper caste or powerful people for cultivation. Now, after getting organized, the fisherfolk have established their right over this land too and get an additional income from farming. Last year, for some families, the income from agriculture was more than from fishing. 

               The fisherfolk like to call this struggle of claiming their due rights over ponds and being in control of their own business as a struggle for independence. 58 years after the country became independent, some communities are getting a taste of what it means to be independent. And most of the communities around the country have yet to go through this process. They are still awaiting
 their chance of getting a taste of their independence. 

What is unique about this struggle at Tikamgarh is that it is taking place without the help of any established political party or any well known social or political activist leading it. It is the common fisherfolk, with a literacy rate of 2% in their community, who have achieved the miracle all by themselves.

There is a management committee of eleven people, with only two of them from outside as supporters in advisory role, which looks after the affairs of the organization. There is an organizational meeting on first day of every month with 1-2 members from cooperative committees for each of the pond attending it. Sub committees have been formed to take care of fishing net, sales, women’s issues, accounts, organizational matters and office-administration. The amount of maturity that the organization has acquired can be gauged from the fact that when UNICEF offered money for installing hand pumps in the area, the committees decided that they would rather take the money from UNICEF and build more ponds for themselves, which will provide water as well as create more opportunities for fishing. They made seven new ponds from this money.

Along with strengthening the organization, efforts for obtaining more rights from the administration are still going on. Recently there was a march through the area covering many ponds to raise awareness on a number of issues. The march ended in a rally of 3000 people in Tikamgarh on 21^st September, 2005 and a public meeting. The fisherfolk are demanding more rights over their ponds. They don’t want people to be pumping out water from their ponds. They want the money for the maintenance of these ponds to be directly transferred to their co-operatives. Presently, there is a lot of embezzlement of these funds. They want the middlemen to stop siphoning off resources meant for them. The fisherfolk are demanding rights over other resources from the pond. They also want educational opportunities for their children and skill development programmes for the women so that they may further supplement their family incomes.

It is an amazing process of political-social-economic empowerment going on and the fisherfolk of Tikamgarh are setting an example for other marginalized and oppressed communities across the country to undertake their journey of independence through creative and courageous mobilization.

Arundhati Dhuru

By Arundhati Dhuru
A-893, Indira Nagar, Lucknow-226016, U.P., India
Telephone: 91-522-2347365, Mobile: 91-9415022772
e-mail: arundhatidhuru@yahoo.co.uk

(Note: The author is a consultant working on behalf of Oxfam to organize this community and is one of the two advisory members in the eleven member management committee to look after the affairs of well being of the community).