Fisherfolk, tribals come together, rally in protest, siege Midnapore office for hours

By Pradip Chatterjee*
On December 27, 2018 in a first ever joint movement Dakshinbanga Matsyajibi Forum (DMF) and Adibasi Bikash Parishad (ABP) along with, many other organisations of the tribal people came together and staged a massive protest rally in Midnapore town in West Bengal against the government's insensitivity and bureaucratic inaction regarding their long-standing demands. For hours the district magistrate’s (DM's) office was under siege with about 8,000 fishing community and tribal people blocking its entrance.
In West Midnapore, as in many other areas, the fishers and fish farmers either belong to tribal communities or live and work together. Thus common cause builds up among them to move for both fishing communities' and tribal people's rights and entitlements.
The Judge Court ground of Medinipur Town was overflown with thousands of people hailing from places like Narayangar, Keshiary, Kharagpur, Pingla, Sabang, Debra, Medinipur, Keshpur, Daspur, Chandrakona.
The rally was led by Tarak Bag, District President, Adibasi Bikash Parishad; Kartik Banda, State President, Kol Ho Haram Sanagam Society; Biren Tubid, Secretary, Kol Ho Bhasha O Sahitya Parishad; Lakhsman Raut, Adibasi Baiga Samaj Unnayan Samity; Bablu Nayak, Lodha Unnayan Samity; Mangal Murmu, Santhal All India Adivasi Socio-Educational and Cultural Association (ASECA); Sabitri Singh, Bhumij Kalyan Samity; Champa Singh, Adibasi Bikash Mancha; Jharna Acharyya, Convener, DMF Women's Cell; and Debasis Shyamal, Vice-president DMF.
The rally demanded immediate issuance of Government Identity Cards to the fishers and Government Tribal Community Certificates to the tribal people, the fishing communities' inalienable right over water and the tribal communities inalienable right over tribal land, immediate stoppage of pollution and encroachment on water bodies like rivers and wetlands as well as removal of all encroachments including upcoming industries like sponge iron factories and mines on tribal peoples' land. Demands were raised to recognise tribal 'Ho' language and include the same in the eighth schedule.

The fishing communities further demanded replenishment of fish stock in rivers and wetlands by adding fish fingerlings, fishers' credit card for fisher people, soft loan, cold box, bicycles, for fishing communities including fish vendors. They also demanded immediate renovation and modernisation of fish markets.
The tribal people raised demands for enhancement of scope of tribal languages in education, free hostel facilities for students, housing for all under NGNB (Own Home - Own Land) scheme, inclusion of all tribal artists in Lok Prasar Scheme. Implementation of Forest Dwellers Rights Act was stressed again and again.
Additional District Magistrate (ADM) of West Midnapore received the deputation and the memorandum of demands. The administration was visibly rattled by the massive deputation. They promised to arrange for the Identity Cards for the fishing communities and the Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste Certificates without further delay. They also assured to recommend eighth schedule inclusion for 'Ho' language. Implementation of the Forest Dwellers Rights Act was also assured.
The administration promised to expedite the process of providing houses to the tribal and fisher people. Encroachments on tribal lands were assured to be seriously dealt with and reports were sought from concerned Block Development Officers (BDOs) and Sub-Divisional Officers (SDOs) in the matter.

Immediate steps were to be taken to promote Santhali education facilities and hostel facilities for tribal students. Government in the fisheries department would take special care to replenish fish stock in the water bodies and give fishing rights to the local and indigenous fisher people.
The people agitating outside the DM's office listened to the report of the Deputation Team. A decision was taken to review the deputation and keep close watch on the post deputation performance of the administration in keeping their promises. They lifted the siege with the warning that unless the demands are met and assurances fulfilled they will not only return in larger numbers, but also will confront the administration in every village and block of the district.

---

*Convener, National Platform for Small Scale Fish Workers (Inland), a participating organization

Comments

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

India's health workers have no legal right for their protection, regrets NGO network

Counterview Desk In a letter to Union labour and employment minister Santosh Gangwar, the civil rights group Occupational and Environmental Health Network of India (OEHNI), writing against the backdrop of strike by Bhabha hospital heath care workers, has insisted that they should be given “clear legal right for their protection”.

Uttarakhand tunnel disaster: 'Question mark' on rescue plan, appraisal, construction

By Bhim Singh Rawat* As many as 40 workers were trapped inside Barkot-Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi after a portion of the 4.5 km long, supposedly completed portion of the tunnel, collapsed early morning on Sunday, Nov 12, 2023. The incident has once again raised several questions over negligence in planning, appraisal and construction, absence of emergency rescue plan, violations of labour laws and environmental norms resulting in this avoidable accident.

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu. He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

Job opportunities decreasing, wages remain low: Delhi construction workers' plight

By Bharat Dogra* It was about 32 years back that a hut colony in posh Prashant Vihar area of Delhi was demolished. It was after a great struggle that the people evicted from here could get alternative plots that were not too far away from their earlier colony. Nirmana, an organization of construction workers, played an important role in helping the evicted people to get this alternative land. At that time it was a big relief to get this alternative land, even though the plots given to them were very small ones of 10X8 feet size. The people worked hard to construct new houses, often constructing two floors so that the family could be accommodated in the small plots. However a recent visit revealed that people are rather disheartened now by a number of adverse factors. They have not been given the proper allotment papers yet. There is still no sewer system here. They have to use public toilets constructed some distance away which can sometimes be quite messy. There is still no...

Women's rights leaders told to negotiate with Muslimness, as India's donor agencies shun the word Muslim

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.

Warning bells for India: Tribal exploitation by powerful corporate interests may turn into international issue

By Ashok Shrimali* Warning bells are ringing for India. Even as news drops in from Odisha that Adivasi villages, one after another, are rejecting the top UK-based MNC Vedanta's plea for mining, a recent move by two senior scholars Felix Padel and Samarendra Das suggests the way tribals are being exploited in India by powerful international and national business interests may become an international issue. In fact, one has only to count days when things may be taken up at the United Nations level, with India being pushed to the corner. Padel, it may be recalled, is a major British authority on indigenous peoples across the world, with several scholarly books to his credit.

Gujarat Bitcoin scam worth Rs 5,000 crore "linked" with BJP leaders: Need for Supreme Court monitored probe

By Shaktisinh Gohil* BJP hit a jackpot in the form of demonetisation, which it used as an alibi to convert black money into white in Gujarat. Even as party scrambles for answers of how the Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank (ADCB), whose director is BJP president Amit Shah, received old currency worth Rs 745.58 crore in just five days, and how Rs 3118.51 crore was deposited in 11 district cooperative banks linked with Gujarat BJP leaders, a new mega Bitcoin scam, worth more than Rs 5,000 crore has been unraveled.

Counterview

Search This Blog