CNS: marginalized

Showing posts with label marginalized. Show all posts

Sustainable Development Goals 2030: A challenge or an opportunity?

Avantika Chaturvedi, CNS Correspondent, India

Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights underpin every aspect of sustainable development and economic growth and cut across the three dimensions of economic, social and environmental development. Member countries to the UN adopted the Global goals for sustainable development in September, 2015. These goals aim to play a crucial role for the upliftment of the underserved populations.

[हिंदी] [Signature petition] To protest against the decision of Planning Commission of India to file an affidavit with ridiculous definition of poverty, growing number of people from many cities will observe a five-days fast (22-26 October) and observe a black Diwali (Indian festival of lights). "We have decided to observe five day fast from 22nd October 2011, to the morning after the Diwali at my Ashram in Lalpur village of Hardoi District of U.P. and will observe a black Diwali along with the villagers this year. The government has adopted an economic policy which is clearly benefitting the already well off sections of society at the cost of the poor. It has no idea how to deal with poverty and price rise making the survival of poor very difficult. It has not been able to check farmer suicides, hunger deaths, malnourishment of children or maternal mortality rate. While the ministers have made crores in corruption the government has chosen to remain insensitive to the issue of poor" said Dr Sandeep Pandey, Magsaysay Awardee and a visiting Professor at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Gandhinagar.

Photo credit: A.Muthukrishnan

The Asia to Gaza caravan arrived to a grand welcome by the Governor of Latakia, Dr. Khalyl Mashhaddya, a cardio-thoracic surgeon, on 25th December, 2010, in the port city of Syria, with school children playing their band and raising pro-Palestine and pro-Syria placards on the street.

Addressing poverty in TB programmes of Bihar

44.3 per cent people in Indian state of Bihar are living below the poverty line, which is the second highest number of poor people in any state of India (Orissa has the most poor people in India). Not surprisingly diseases that are associated with poverty like tuberculosis (TB) are at alarming levels. However there is a annual reduction in poverty, and TB programme performance is improving as well, said Dr AK Jha, State TB Officer, Bihar. Dr Jha was speaking at the consultative workshop of the TB and poverty sub-working group of the Stop TB Partnership held in India (29-30 October 2010), the secretariat of which has now moved to the South-East Asian office of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union). There are sessions at the forthcoming 41st Union World Conference on Lung Health, Berlin, Germany (11-15 November 2010) addressing TB and poverty as well. Read more

A Division Bench of Justice Shri K K Lahoti and Justice Shri Ajit Singh, issued notices to the Principal Secretary, General Administration Department and Principal Secretary, Department of Finance of the Government of Madhya Pradesh to show cause and reply to a letter from Justice S S Jha Commission of Inquiry regarding the lack of adequate funds and support being provided to the Commission to carry out its investigative work into the massive corruption of hundreds of crores in the rehabilitation of the Sardar Sarovar project affected families. Read more

17th of May is International Day Against Homophobia
Well, why do we need to celebrate such a day? "Homophobia is expressed in ways which does not treat MSMs, lesbians and transgenders with respect, and prevents their access to basic human rights, particularly the right to live with dignity. So, it is imperative to draw the attention of various countries, particularly of the South Asian region, to this fact. The main challenge before all of us is to create a conducive atmosphere for making appropriate health and other services accessible to persons with different /alternate sexuality" said Shivananda Khan, who has been honored with Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) by the British Queen, for his services to HIV/AIDS prevention and among marginalized communities in South Asia. Shivananda Khan is one of the keynote speakers at the High Level Dialogue to discuss punitive laws, human rights and HIV prevention among men who have sex with men (MSM) in Asia Pacific, in Hong Kong on 17th May to mark the International Day Against Homophobia. Read more

Whom are the houses for under the Kanshiram Urban Poor Housing Scheme?

To read this post in (हिंदी) Hindi language, click here

In the list of those who were alloted houses under the Kanshiram Urban Poor Housing Scheme last month, not a single urban poor figures from the two slum dwellings that were bulldozed last year in state capital Lucknow of Uttar Pradesh (UP). Read more

Illegal and unjust decision of NCA-MOEF to submerge 200,000 people

News is just round the corner that the Environment Sub Group (ESG) of the Narmada Control Authority (ESG) has accorded further permission for erection of 17 mts high gates on the Sardar Sarovar Dam (SSP) in Gujarat that will take it from its present height of 122.92 mts to its final height of 138.68 mts. There is however, ‘assurance’, that has emerged from the April 1st meeting of the ESG that there shall be no additional submergence by such a move and that the permission has been sought only after compliance of all the environmental conditions, that have not been complied with over the past 20 years !! It has also been stated that the gates shall remain in an ‘open position’ until such time that the catachment area treatment is not fully treated. 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

Gandhians appeal to respect people's inalienable rights

"Freedom of expression is a fundamental right enshrined in the constitution of India. We are proud to live in a nation that believes in the ideal of universal human rights. However, sometimes the state expediently forgets its professed ideals and tries to ride roughshod over the rights of citizens. These transgressions have become more frequent as commercial, industrial and mining interests from all over the world have become more interested in the resources of this country" said veteran Gandhians Narayan Desai and Surendra Gadekar in a statement issued on DailySouthAsian. 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)

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Orissa Diary.com, Orissa, India
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Bihar and Jharkhand News Service (BJNS)
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