By Rajiv Shah Figures culled by the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) Sangharsh Morcha, India’s top civil rights group fighting for strict implementation of India’s premier rural guarantee scheme, floated by the UPA government in 2005, have revealed that Gujarat is the worst pay master, highest highest gap among 20 major Indian states between officially declared minimum wages and NREGA wages.

By Martin Macwan* The problem of land ownership, as it is being framed after the self-immolation of Bhanubhai Vankar in February, covers less than even the tip of the iceberg. For the Gujarat government, it is politically convenient to describe this incident, and many others, of violence against Dalits as an “atrocity” rather than to recognise them as stemming from the alienation of Dalits from agricultural land. Under the diktats of the Manusmriti, the Shudra had no right to property, which led to laws that prohibited Dalits from buying agricultural land in provinces like Punjab before the Land Ceiling Act — a reason for their backwardness despite constituting over 30 per cent of state’s population. Land ownership for the Dalits first came in the form of “community ownership” in the pre-Independence era, when they were granted “community land” in lieu of the hereditary services they offered to the village. The kings too gave such land to Dalits to remunerate their services to the cour...

By A Representative The gruesome murder of a Dalit youth allegedly for refusing to heed the order of high caste Rajputs not to "show off" by riding on his horse is all set to become a major embarrassment for the Supreme Court, which ruled recently that certain provisions the Prevention of Atrocities (POA) Act were being misused to "blackmail" innocent people. The only Dalit boy in the region to ride a horse, he was quite popular in his community.

By  A  Representative While the Gujarat authorities are still in the dark about what may have caused a major fire, which broke out March 25 night, razing to the ground 243 shanties on the banks of a huge city lake, there appears to be little consolation for nearly 1,000 people, who have been rendered homeless because of the fire. Living in sub-human conditions ever since, the administration, they say, hasn’t yet gone beyond carrying out a “survey” of the losses suffered by them.

By Moin Qazi* The country’s largest bank, the State Bank of India (SBI), has closed as many as 41.16 lakh savings accounts between April-January in the current fiscal year for not maintaining the minimum balance, reveals an RTI query. Between April and November 2017, the bank had netted a windfall of Rs 1,771.67 crore, more than its second-quarter profit, from customers for non-maintenance of minimum balance, according to the finance ministry data. The three largest private banks — HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank — earned more than all 21 of their state-owned peers put together from penalties levied for non-maintenance of minimum balance in savings accounts between FY15 and FY17. According to data put out by the ministry of finance the three private banks together collected Rs 1,031.85 crore in FY15, Rs 945.07 crore in FY16, Rs 1,008.79 crore in FY17 and Rs 783.98 crore in the nine months ended December 2017 as penalties for shortfall in account balances. For public-sector banks (P...

By Moin Qazi* “In general, the rural moneylender as a species has proved surprisingly resilient, even in countries such as India and Indonesia where it has been a declared objective of state intervention in financial markets to suppress him.” — Hulme and Mosley, Finance Against Poverty A sense of deep despair runs through the lives of farmers in India. They have lost all hope – and also the will to fight. An increasing number have opted for permanent escape from their physical and emotional pain by ingesting deadly pesticides. Almost every farmer in India’s massive rural swathes is tethered, in one way or another, to the sahukar, the Indian variety of the moneylender, the ubiquitous, ravenous loan shark. For centuries, moneylenders have monopolized rural Indian credit markets. Families have lost land, farmers have been asked to prostitute their wives to pay off debts, and, when all else has failed, they have tied the noose to end their misery. Yet the public image of menacing debt co...

By Paulomee Mistry* and Hemant Shah** The 21 March 2018 reply given by Ganpat Vasawa, tribal development minister, on Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2016, regarding cultivation rights given to tribals in the Gujarat Assembly is full of incorrect facts and half-truths. He gave misleading information on actual status of forest land entitlement. The implementation of the FRA in Gujarat is very pathetic and the state government behaves irresponsibly and with high-handedness and arbitrarily. The actual situation in implementing this law in Gujarat is as follows: Official information shows that, as on 30 November 2017, 1,82,869 individual claims were filed. Only 81,178 of these claims have been approved. Tribal farmers have been given authority letters for 1,27,068.32 acres of land. This is 1.57 acres of land per forest land cultivator. Under FRA, tribal farmers have the right to claim upmto 10 acres.w But in reality, the Government of Gujarat gave them very less land, about one-tenth of their cla...

By A Representative Former vice-president Hamid Ansari has sharply criticized donor agencies engaged in nongovernmental development work, saying that they seek to "help out" marginalizes communities with their funds, but shy away from naming Muslims as the target group, something, he insisted, needs to change. Speaking at a book release function in Delhi, he said, since large sections of Muslims are poor, they need political as also social outreach.

By A Representative Information released by the Government of India's Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) has suggested that, as on November 30, 2017, as many as 84,694 tribals and other forest dwellers have received the "right" to cultivate forest land under the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006, out of total claims 1,90,056, which comes to 44.56% of disposal of pleas put forward by the state's tribal farmers.

By Firoz Bakht Ahmed* What a sad state of affairs in West Bengal, 24-Parganas, Kankinara that a statue of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, India’s first Union education minister, was knocked down by miscreants during clashes that broke out in many parts of West Bengal during Ram Navami processions! The bust of Bharat Ratna, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, was razed in Kakinara which has seen a spree of violence since Sunday. The vandalism of Azad’s statue was caught on camera and the video of the incident is going viral on social media. Strangely, there has been no coverage by the national media on this tragic mishap. Azad was the symbol of interfaith bond between Hindus and Muslims and has been revered most owing to his contribution to interfaith harmony. All those who had indulged in this must be brought to books. More dangerous that the act itself is the increasing fascist tendency that is trying to divide Hindus and Muslims who have always gelled well as sugar and milk since time immemoria...

Counterview Desk Text of the representation by the Minority Coordination Committee to Gujarat governor On Prakash Kohli on the development and protection of the minority community : The population of minorities in Gujarat is 11.5% (as per of Census of India 2011), which includes Muslims 9.7%, Jains 1.0%, Christians 0.5%, Buddhists 0.1%, and others 0.1% . In the state like Gujarat 82.3% Muslim children take admission in the primary schools, but this percentage is found to be decreasing at the matriculation or Standard 10th, when it reaches just 32.5% only. This is a very serious situation. Gujarat is witness to internal migration for many years, and it's main reasons include riots and establishment of industries on a large scale along the sea coast. About 2 lakh people of the minority communities have migrated and settled down in big cities. They are helpless. They live their lives amidst deficient minimum basic amenities. They live mainly in slum areas. The most affected comm...

By Rajiv Shah While a lot is known about fatal accidents caused in Gujarat’s premier shipbreaking yard at Alang because of lack of occupational safety, a yet-to-be-published study “Labour Conditions in Surat Textile Industry", supported by Bonn-based Südwind Institute for Economics and Ecumenism , is all set to create a flutter. It has estimated that, in the last three years, 84 fatal accidents have been reported in registered textile processing units in Surat, in which 114 workers died.

By  A  Representative There appears to be no end in sight in the dispute between about 1,700 employees, who include 1,200 workers, of an Indore-based textile mills, sold by Century to Kolkata’s Wearit last year, with the workers insisting that the Madhya Pradesh labour commissioner’s order for payment of eight days’ “unpaid” wages was far from sufficient.

By Adv Masood Peshimam* The BJP recently established its electoral supremacy over Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland. BJP’s win in Tripura is all the more astonishing, as it created a popular wave against the CPI(M), which was not that easy, as Tripura was ruled by CPI(M) without a break since 1993. The then political dispensation in the state meekly caved in despite the credible track record of the Manik Sarkar government in Tripura. The Manik Sarkar government was free from all allegations of corruption. He is one of the most honest politicians in the country which is a rare commodity in contemporary Indian politics. Being an honest politician, he could not afford to wallow in abundant affluence and richness. It is said that he neither owned a house nor a car. He shunned all the glory and pomp of office. His wife went to the market in a rickshaw for purchases, many a time without the observance of official protocol and security. Sarkar is thus austerity exemplified, though there ...

Powerloom units in Surat Counterview Desk A new study on the working conditions textile units of Surat in South Gujarat -- powerloom, processing, embroidery, garment units, and composite mills -- has revealed that 82 per cent workers do not receive any payslip on receiving their salary, hence they have no written proof from the managements whether they receive the amount they are be legally entitled to get.

By A Representative In a controversial observation, a recent book on human rights lawyering has said that there are greater possibilities of success in legal struggles for the victims of caste-based discrimination than communal violence. The book, titled "Breathing Life into the Constitution: Human Rights Lawyering in India" by Saumya Uma and Arvind Narrain, believes that this is because communal violence is often perpetrated for political gains, to "enjoy" political clout.

By Moin Qazi* "Princes and lords may flourish, or may fade; A breath can make them, as a breath has made; But a bold peasantry, their country’s pride, When once destroyed, can never be supplied" – Oliver Goldsmith, “The Deserted Village” Small farmers are the key to ending poverty and hunger and promoting sustainable development. In India, small and marginal farmers—those who work on less than two hectares (five acres) of land—constitute 80 percent of all farm households, 50 percent of rural households and 36 percent of the total of all households. Sadly, the plight of these farmers is very distressing. Agricultural productivity levels have been stagnant for the past 10 to 15 years. An estimated 70 percent of the country’s arable land is prone to drought, 12 percent to floods, and 8 percent to cyclones. India’s top policy think tank, NITI Aayog, recently found that the agricultural sector is 28 years behind in its expected development. Today, India’s small farmers have little...

Surlej By A Representative A top civil society source has revealed that the Cumulative Impact Assessment (CIA) studies of  several big and small hydropower projects for Himachal Pradesh's three major river basins, Sutlej, Chenab and Beas, have either been completed are in the process of completion. However, for most of these, little or no local consultation, as required by law, has been carried out. 

Gagan Sethi Excerpts from the book “Breathing Life into the Constitution: Human Rights Lawyering in India”, by Arvind Narrain and Saumya Uma, published by Alternative Law Forum – 2: *** The efforts to bring justice to victims of communal violence face the same challenges as faced in efforts to bring justice to victims of caste violence. Victims face enormous pressure to abandon their quest for justice and the institutional bias of the various stakeholders of the criminal justice system is a deterrent factor in the struggle for justice. One distinguishing feature between caste and communal violence is that communal violence is often perpetrated for political gains – the perpetrators enjoy political clout, have political affiliations, or hold public offices; the struggle for justice in cases of communal violence thus brings the human rights lawyers in direct confrontation with the state and its political might. Moreover, unlike challenges to Dalit atrocities, where one can work towards t...

By  A  Representative Arguing strongly against the Government of India allegedly curtailing the special category status to India's North-Eastern States, the country's well-known land rights apex body, Bhumi Adhikar Andolan (BAA), has said that this is being done in order to open the region for corporate "loot and plunder."

A cow protection police station in Alwar By A Representative How are the BJP rulers in Rajasthan seeking to compensate the families of those killed by the so-called gau rakshaks or cow vigilantes? According the recipe provided by a senior state official, who admitted that none of those lynched in the name of cow protection have been offered cash compensation, pointing out, their family members would be persuaded to take up "Adopt a Cow" policy of the Rajasthan government.