CNS: Articles of Pushpa Achanta

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Protesting the life sentence of Seema Azad

Members of the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Bangalore and several other human rights organisations and individuals in the city gathered on Saturday, 16th June 2012 in front of Town Hall, Bangalore to express their outrage at the unjust sentencing of Seema Azad and her husband Vishwavijay Kamal by a sessions court in Allahabad, to life imprisonment and 10 years in jail, respectively. The ruling passed on 8th June 2012 was based on fabricated charges of 'waging war against the state', 'criminal conspiracy' and various sections of the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act [UAPA].

“Arrest Ankit Garg, Release Soni Sori”, “Attn: Ms. President, Mr. Prime Minister, Chattisgarh state, NHRC, Stop Torture of Soni Sori” - These were among the slogans from nearly 20 Karnataka based human rights organizations to the Government of India in support of Soni Sori, a 35 year old adivasi school teacher who has been incarcerated in Chattisgarh police custody since October 2011 despite medical evidence revealing their brutal custodial torture, electrocution, beating, and sexual assault on her, shoving stones into her private parts. Around 100 persons gathered at 6 pm on 24th March 2012 in front of Town Hall in Bangalore to appeal for the immediate transfer of Soni Sori out of Chhattisgarh police custody and her speedy trial. Expressing solidarity with Soni Sori, the people also demanded the arrest of Ankit Garg, Superintendent of Police, Dantewada under whose supervision Soni Sori was subject to verbal and sexual assault in jail. They join people across the country in condemning the award of the Police Gallantry medal to Garg on Republic Day, 2012.

In a press release dated March 19th 2012, the The Kudankulam Antinuclear Struggle Support Group, Keralam said: "As the Tamil Nadu Government has shown the green signal today for the commissioning of the Kudankulam nuclear plant, thousands of policemen have been deployed at Kudankulam and they have arrested about 150 activists. It has become clear that the government is using high handed methods to suppress the struggle.

Demanding justice for Soni Sori of Dantewada

32 organizations and 55 individuals from across India have sent this letter to Raman Singh, Chief Minister, Chhattisgarh protesting the custodial torture of Soni Sori and demanding the punishment of the perpetrators of violence against her.

Annie Besant. Maulana Azad. M. K. Gandhi. Binayak Sen. What do they have in common? They were convicted under Section 124(A) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) or the Sedition Act! This draconian British era legislation "criminalizes the ‘disaffection’ towards the government by words, either spoken or written, or by signs or by visible representations". Unfortunately, this law, introduced in 1860, is still being (ab)used across the country to silence many forms of democratic expression and struggle.

Police in Orissa Shunting local Communities Out - that's POSCO!

In a live update around 3.10 pm IST aired on 11th June 2011 by NEWSX (an English news television channel in India) the local superintendent of police shamelessly termed the peaceful protests against POSCO by people in Dhinkia, "immoral". Importantly, women and children braved the scorching sun to save their land. It is obvious that the government and others favouring POSCO are greedy cowards who will resort to worse methods to try to achieve their ends. "It is crucial for us to remember that the residents of Dhinkia are fighting to protect the commons", remarked Leo Saldanha, the co-founder of Bangalore based Environment Support Group (ESG). After visits and investigations at the proposed site of the POSCO plant, Saldanha, PUCL activist and lawyer V. Suresh and noted film maker K P Sasi shared Tales of Betrayal, Treachery and Subversion at a discussion titled POSCO Fiasco. This was organized in Bangalore on 19th June 2011 by the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) and ESG.

Mohammed Arif and Mohammed Ali Vakil are two energetic brothers in their early thirties based in Bangalore, with a spark of creativity. Small wonder that have published a ninety five page English book titled 40 Sufi comics under the "Creative Commons Attribution No Derivative Works" licence. The Vakils' work was released on-line and in print in January 2011. One can read 40 Sufi Comics on the Internet or purchase it through Amazon and Flipkart. It contains short, simple and meaningful stories represented using black, white and grey illustrations drawn by them.

It was around 10.00 am on Thursday, the 7th of April 2011. Over 400 street vendors from across Bangalore, under the banner of Beedhi Vyapparigala Hakkotaya Andolana (Street Vendors' Rights Campaign), began an indefinite sit-in at the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Head Office demanding restoration of their trading space. They camped overnight at the BBMP compound resolute not to stir until their needs were met. At present, 250 hawkers do not have a source of livelihood since they were evicted ten months ago on July 07, 2010 by the BBMP and the police department without any legal notice.

When one hears of farm suicides, Vidharbha in Maharashtra may come to mind immediately. And then perhaps Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh or Kalahandi in Orissa. Of course, if we have been tracking the subject, we may know that Karnataka, Chattisgarh, Kerala, West Bengal, Assam Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Punjab will figure in a list of badly affected states. It is ironical that the last among these was touted to be among the success stories of India's Green Revolution.

Christmas wasn't merry...
2011 will be unhappy
until Dr. Binayak Sen is free!
Some of us were fortunate to spend a few hours with this soft spoken civil liberties activist sometime back. His humility was touching and inspiring. It is extremely painful that an insecure state has imprisoned him again on irrational grounds. We hope that this humane spirit will return to remote parts of rural Chattisgarh to continue working for the benefit of some of the most excluded Indians through his organization, Rupantar, soon. Read more

Last week, 33 organizations across India issued the following statement in support of Tehelka reporter Shahina KK. She faces charges from the Karnataka Police under IPC 506 for intimidating witnesses. Her expose in The Tehelka showed how the police case against Abdul Nasar Madani, head of the People's Democratic Front (PDP), accused in 2008 Bengaluru blasts, was fragile and based on non-existent and false testimonies. Read more

Decreasing hunger, increasing health: Promoting awareness and accessibility to food and care

It is common knowledge that food grains rot and waste in government warehouses while millions of Indians starve or subsist on extremely little. This directly impacts their physical, mental and emotional health and very often their survival. Further, due to the rampant corruption in the public distribution system (PDS), the economically marginalized barely get their due from the 'fair' price shops. The integrated child development scheme (ICDS), anganwaadis, balwadis and government schools which are supposed to provide nourishment along with education, child and health care, are gradually heading the same way. Read more

Photo credit:
Deepak Srinivasan, Maraa

In August 2008, one of the worst communal genocide attempts on the Christian community occurred in Orissa's Kandhamal district, among India's poorest places. Over 100 people including women, differently-abled, children, Adivasis and Dalits were killed. 3 women were gang raped and many were injured. 295 churches were destroyed. Educational and medical institutions were not spared. 15,000 fearful and threatened survivors who cannot return to their villages unless they convert to Hinduism are still living in tents. Read more

When I question why
a public bus over speeds
or cars and trucks park wrongly
most simply stare... Read more

Over a hundred people from Karnataka representing various human rights groups/issues gathered on the rainy evening of 3rd June 2010 on the steps of Bangalore's Town Hall. Using informative leaflets and slogans, we jointly protested the two day Global Investors Meet (GIM) held in Bangalore that day and the next. Read more

July 2008 was memorable for Mani, Saraswathi (Sarasu for short), Santhosh and their friends. Teenagers from Sudarshan Layout in Gurupanpalya, a very low income neighbourhood in southern Bangalore, they had inaugurated the Ambedkar Community Computing Centre (AC3) near their homes. Teaching themselves and children around them about the immense possibilities of free software, they aroused the curiosity of its pioneer, Richard Stallman. After hearing about them at a free software conference in Thiruvananthapuram, he visited AC3 in December 2008. Committed volunteers with Stree Jagruti Samiti, AID-Bangalore, Free Software Movement Karnataka and Ambedkar Yuva Sangha who have been assisting them throughout, catalyzed this. (Geeta Menon, Balaji Kutty, Senthil Sundaram, Pulkit Parikh, Aravind Rajaram, Nitin, Ravi et al are among those who started a tutoring centre with the kids which grew into AC3.) Read more

International Women's Day, 2010 – the centenary of the idea’s evolution. The words “Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition” make me wonder: should women seek a distinct identity or basic acceptance as human beings? Incidents that I have been seeing and hearing over the years are convincing me that the former may be possible only with the latter. And one that I witnessed on 8th March this year is horrifying yet hopeful. Read more

Incessant downpour in drought prone and poverty stricken northern Karnataka.

Aftermath: 5000 villages in 12 districts inundated. 225 lives lost in a day. Worst in 60 years. Estimated total loss - 18000 crores.

In this article, are some revealing images from "The Deluge and After", a homage to the victims and survivors by Esha and ActionAid. Read more

Will you marry only a fair-skinned girl?

“My mother jokes about how I am too dark to be her daughter”

“Kaali ho rahi hai. Tujhse shaadi kaun karega”?

The latest Tweets? Let us hope not but beware of them! And perhaps go a step further. Like Kannan Mehta and her friends who designed and organized the ‘Kya aap sirf ek gori ladki se shaadi karenge?’ campaign [Will you marry only a fair-skinned girl? campaign] on one of the Bangalore's main streets in November 2009. Here's what I learned about the protest during an e-chat with Kannan a student of the Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology in the city. Read more

Jurmil Morcha and CPJ Karnataka enlighten Bangaloreans about Chattisgarh's marginalized

Jurmil Morcha and CJP Karnataka enlighten Bangaloreans about Chhattisgarh's marginalized

Jurmil Morcha, a local people’s movement from Chhattisgarh participated in a recent series of events in Bangalore as a response by the Campaign for Justice and Peace, Karnataka (CJPKar) to the gross human rights violations on adivasis and dalits in that state. From 4th-9th December, four Jurmil Morcha members highlighted the prevalent injustice towards adivasis and other excluded minorities using powerful and lively folk music and puppetry in parks, colleges, auditoriums and streets across Bangalore. Alongside the Jurmil Morcha activists, CJPKar volunteers (some of whom had visited Chattisgarh earlier this year) informed the general public, concerned individuals, civil society groups and community based organizations about the need to pressurize the State to follow Supreme Court directives to rehabilitate displaced adivasis and restore civil administration in affected areas of Chhattisgarh. CJPKar sources have revealed that nearly 3.5 lakh adivasis in 700 villages have been displaced while their resource rich land is being sold off to Indian and foreign mining corporations.

Jurmil Morcha performs at Cubbon Park, Bangalore

Meaning United Front, Jurmil Morcha, formed in January 2009 is based in Ambargarh Chouki block of Chattisgarh's Rajnandgaon district. Its core group consists of five talented and energetic yet economically backward and barely literate dalit and adivasi women empowered by challenging patriarchy. They include Pandwani artist Budhan Bai Meshram, orator Bhan Sahu and Jaswanta who all live in an Ashram (a refurbished Kothar or crop storage space) in Paangri, a remote, yet picturesque adivasi village with a primarily dry river surrounded by dense forest and hills. Through songs and oral narratives, Jurmil Morcha has been actively mobilizing communities and increasing awareness about social discrimination, child rights, migration, health and women’s problems in Chattisgarh. A founder member of Chhattisgarh Visthaapan Virodhi Manch (a state level coalition for joint action against displacement of adivasis and other marginalized communities), following its emergence, the group raised the demand for implementation of the Famine Code in all drought hit areas of Chattisgarh including Ambagarh Chouki block. Apart from highlighting the issue of long delayed payments of wages under the NREGS, the group also organized a children led padyatra on 2nd October invoking women's independence and joy for all villagers particularly kids.

Jurmil Morcha's core group plans to initiate the formation of Naanchun Morcha (children’s front). It dreams of establishing a centre for cultural expression and publish a children’s newspaper to strengthen kids' voices. Despite financial hurdles due to its reliance on the minimal contributions from the extremely marginalized people with whom it associates, Jurmil Morcha continues to invest more time and energy in them. The group is scheduled to formalize its constitution and leadership next year. Its three fold strategy is to:

* Demand smooth and transparent operation of government’s welfare schemes for the excluded
* Endeavour collective production by marginalized communities
* Resist programmes, policies and processes leading to further marginalization

Further, CJPKar comprising civil society groups, students, lawyers and individuals who condemn Operation Greenhunt demands that the Governments of India and Chhattisgarh:

Withdraw all paramilitary forces in adivasi areas and disband Salwa Judum
Implement the Supreme Court’s order on rehabilitating adivasis in Chhattisgarh
Repeal the Unlawful Activity (Prevention) Act & Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act
Cancel all existing MOUs with large corporations (especially those engaged in mining minerals) and start dialogue with adivasi representatives

Agreeing that mobile phones had become omnipresent even among the economically excluded thanks to the government's 'initiatives', Ajeet Bahadur, a theatre director and Jurmil Morcha activist observed, "Gehoon, anaaj nahin, lekin iski aadat tho lagwaadiya sarkar ne!"

Pushpa Achanta
(The author is a freelance writer, a Fellow of Citizen News Service (CNS) Writers' Bureau, and a community volunteer based in Bangalore, India)

Published in:
Modern Ghana News, Accra, Ghana
Citizen News Service (CNS), India/Thailand
Elites TV News, USA
Banderas News, Mexico
Orissa Diary.com, Orissa, India
World News Network, USA
Bihar and Jharkhand News Service (BJNS)
World News Network, USA
Littleabout.com
Country.com