Food Sovereignty

Right on Natural resources and its relevance to the issue of Starvation
Activists Spotlight Hunger Deaths of Indian Children
PROJECT OBJECTIVE
TARGET GROUP
TARGET AREA:
STRATEGIES/ PLANNED MEASURES
PVCHR/Jan Mitra Gaon will have following activities and programmes
PARTICIPATION OF THE TARGET GROUP:

RIGHT ON NATURAL RESOURCES & IT'S RELEVANCE TO THE ISSUE OF STARVATION.

Starvation is the direct consequence of the Absence of Food Security,
which in turn is directly related to Food Availability, Food
Accessibility and Food Utilization. Of these the most important obviously, is Food Accessibility which is related to land Ownership and purchasing power of the individual or Community.
The National Sample Survey Organization found that in 17of India's
most populous states, between the years 1972 and 1994 there was a marked decline in average caloric intake. This decline is greatest in rural areas. Where total calories per head had fallen from 2211calories in 1983 to 2149 Calories in the year 2000 - a decline of 72 Calories per head, which is much lower than Brazil, China, Kenya and Tanzania.
Three Fourth of the Scheduled Castes live in rural areas where land
is the prime asset determining an individual's standard of living and
social standing. Today 86% of Dalit households (160 million or 19% of
SCs) are landless or near landless. Those who do own land either own too little or lack adequate capital for purchasing resources for cultivation like Seeds, Fertilizers and or hiring farm implements. Lack of access or inadequate access to agricultural land and capital leaves them no option but to resort to manual wage labor. With 60% of rural SCs working as manual wage laborers and one third of the urban SCs working as casual laborers. Landless agricultural laborers work for a few kilograms of rice or Rs.15 to Rs.35 per day much below the states' prescribed minimum wage rate. Many laborers owe debts to their employers or other moneylenders. Nationwide the vast majority of bonded laborers are Dalits and almost all bonded children are Dalits.
Since more than 60% of the SC workers in rural areas and more than one
third in urban areas depend on wage employment the unemployment and
underemployment rates is highest among the SCs in comparison to other
castes. The level of employment and wage rates further determines their
earning. It is obvious that the SCs would suffer from low income and
consumption and resultant greater level of poverty. In 1993 - 94 half of SC families in both rural and urban areas and nearly two - third of the urban casual labor force of SCs were below the poverty line. Thus in 1987 more than 98% of the rural population of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar did not purchase any grain from the Public Distribution System.

Right to Resources.

Right on natural resources i.e. Land, Water and Jungle for the
cultivation of food and source of income is therefore highly relevant to the issue of starvation. Possession of economically viable agricultural land for the cultivation of food crops to feed the family, accessibility of drinking water and water for irrigation, access to grassland for grazing of animals and access to forest products as a source of income will give the marginalized access to food and purchasing power.
Laws and Regulations prohibiting alienation of Dalit lands, ceiling on
single owner's land holding and allocation of surplus government land
to SCs and STs have been ignored or manipulated by upper castes and
local district administration.

Globalization.

Now the state under the garb of implementing reform in trade and
investment is slowly but steadily withdrawing leaving the marginalized
non-farming and farming community to the mercy of the market. The state is becoming a part of the processes that are responsible for transferring resources from the community to the corporate, pushing-encouraging -and misleading small farmers into growing cash crops rather than food crops which actually ensures his/hers household food security. Thus subsistence farmers who could previously depend on their own produce for a meal suddenly found they no longer had that security when their cash crops failed or market prices for them crashed due to over supply. This is the same for the state of subsidies, which the Government is slowly withdrawing while in the US it is being doubled. We give the following case studies which highlight the consequence to the marginalized of lack of control over common property resources.

1) Nakdu Musahar & Family
Nakdu is boy child belonging to the Musahar caste, which belongs to the
Dalit community. He along with his parents and other children of his
family were working as bonded laborers in a Brick Kiln Factory. Like
other families of their community they have been working as bonded laborers for more than 20 years. The small amount paid to them as wages is just enough for one wholesome meal for one day which is without nutritious.
Their children suffer from malnutrition. The huts they live in hardly
protects them from heavy rain or the severe winter. The older generation and younger generation are bonded and so will be the future generation.

1) Poonam
A dalit girl child of 2 years old from the urban slum of Baghawanala
was suffering from Tuberculosis, Chronic & Acute Malnutrition and
retardation of growth.
Her parents were too poor to meet her medical expenses. Although both
work their earning from daily manual labor is not enough to feed them.
Besides it is not regular.

2) Village Kubradhi in Navgarh Block
Newspapers highlighted starvation deaths here, which were investigated
by a group of Journalist and NGO team. It was found that non of the
families had the Red Ration Card meant for BPL families. Even those who
had them never got the due ration . Those who did get , got only 1/3 of
their rightful amount and that too at higher cost while they were made
to place their thumb print against the full ration.
These people belonging to the Kol community lived on the collection of
Tendu leaves. But their back wages amounting to some 16 lacs were
pending with the contractors who enjoyed close patronage with the local
officials. Their peaceful petitioning of the local government was never
heeded. When they resort to strikes and demonstration , the police inflict on them collective violence.
In these background when 2 people died of Starvation deaths , the
Pradhan of the village petitioned the government .Instead of arranging
relief measures the government filed an FIR for financial irregularities against him although the Secretary was also co- signatory in all financial documents.
3) Katthara Village of Kunda block in Pratapgarh.
In this village a dalit widow named Kaulasha Devi died of Starvation .
She had no ration card and widow pension although she belonged to the
BPL status.
4) Munna of Shivpur of Varanasi,U.P
Munna was a sixteen year old boy Rickshaw puller . His father had died
of starvation death forcing the young child to pull Rickshaw for his
living and to maintain his younger brother and sister. After a few
months He got tuberculosis and died abandoning his brother and sister to their fate.

All these cases belong to marginalized caste families who cannot use
the common property resources of their village and community and of those who are being denied access to the natural resources related to
livelihood which they have been using for generation. Now these are in the hands of Mafia gang, Contractors and feudals . Now the resources are going into the hands of Corporates.Giving them control of common property resources will enable them to generate their own income and grow their food requirements. Without these all government schemes are useless.
Government decision to eliminate subsidies from agriculture and PDS system will add further to the suffering of the marginalized.
______________________________________________________________

Pleading justice to weaver Vishambhar S/o Ramnandan, resident of village Sankarpur, Post- Chiraigoan,District- Varanasi,UP.
The battle for one's legal rights is the poetry of character.-Rudolph Von Jhering

Vishambhar, a weaver, Stays along with his four children (One of them barely 2 months old,who died recently due to malnutrition on 21 May05) in a thatched hut. He is living in a pathetic condition. He
and his family are facing starvation. He has been rendered jobless, as there was recession in the market demand for the past 3-4 Years. His misery and suffering has been further coupled by the untimely death of his wife Jigna on 16th April, 05 and his daughter Soni aged 16 Yrs on 21st April, 05 due to starvation and disease of hunger. They had not received proper food for the last 4-5 month before their death.
The administration/Govt. has failed to discharge its duty of providing even minimum assistance to weavers like Vishambhar. Instead of providing red card in AAY,Vishambhar has been provided with a white card. He does not own even a piece of land, which can be used as a source of sustenance. Faced with such scarcity of food, hunger and starvation Vishambhar and his four children are about to disappear in the abyss of death.
After the media reports, the administration did wake up. Only to sleep again. The authorities provided vishambhar, a meager ration of 50 Kgs wheat and 20 Kgs of rice which would last for a few months. He was
fared to give a false testimony.
The case of vishambhar is not an isolated one. There are many more cases of starvation deaths, which either go unreported, or the facts are suppressed by the administration.
Vishambhar has submitted affidavit to the District Magistrate, Varanasi to plead his cause.

Plea:
1. Relevant orders to the concerned authorities to make Vishambhar a beneficiary of red card, food for work and Indira Awash Yojana Schemes.
2. Absolve him from the liability to repay the loan amount.
3. To take approprite action against the ICDS department for death his newborn son and panchayat secrtary alonwith Pradhan for no action for saving the life of people in village.

SUGGESTED ACTION:
After visiting the village, the PVCHR representatives sent a petition to key persons in government and other agencies. Please support their petition, by also sending a letter to the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh on this case. A sample letter follows.
----------------
Dear Mr Yadav
Sub.: pleading justice to Vishambhar S/o Ramnandan,resident of village Sankarpur, Post- Chiraigoan,District- Varanasi,UP
I am deeply disturbed to hear of death of two children due to acute malnutrition and disease of hunger in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.
I would like to remind you that you have obligations under international and national law to all persons residing in the state of Uttar Pradesh to respect,protect and fulfil the right to food. Furthermore, I urge you to order a thorough investigation of the case, to establish the prevailing conditions in the children's village with a view to preventing further starvation among children and other residents there.
Finally, I urge you to order a separate investigation into the alleged negligence of the village authorities, and any other concerned state officers,with a view to holding them liable for their breach of these obligations to the two children concerned. In this regard, I would stress that the right to food can be made effective only through enforcement of the right by way of criminal action against persons or
agencies responsible for violations.
Yours sincerely
---
PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:
Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav
Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh
Chief Minister's Secretariat
Lucknow
Uttar Pradesh
INDIA
Fax: + 91-522-2230002/2239234
Email: csup@up.nic.in
PLEASE SEND COPIES TO:
1. Justice A. S. Anand
National Human Rights Commission
Sardar Patel Bhaven, Sansad Marg,
New Delhi 110 001
INDIA
Tel: + 91 11 23346244
Fax: + 91 11 23366537
E-mail: ionhrc@hub.nic.in or chairnhrc@nic.in
2. Chief Justice of India
Supreme Court of India
New Delhi 110001
INDIA
Fax: +91-11-23383792/23381508
3. Justice A P Mishra
Chairperson
Uttar Pradesh Human Rights Commission
6-A Kalidass Marg
Lucknow
27 Park Road
Allahabad
Uttar Pradesh
INDIA
Tel: + 91 532-2726742
Fax: + 91 532-2726743
Email: uphrc@sancharnet.in
4. Mr. Jean Ziegler
UNCHR Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food
c/o Mr. Carlos Villan Duran
Room 4-066
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for
Human Rights,
Palais Wilson,
Rue des Paquis 52, Geneva
Switzerland
Fax: 41 22 9179010
Email: sect.hchr@unog.ch
5. Mr Anthony Banbury
Regional Director
World Food Programme
Unit No. 2, 7th Floor
Wave Place Building
55 Wireless Road
Lumpini, Patumwan,
Bangkok 10330
THAILAND
Tel: +66-2-6554115
Fax: +66-2-6554413
Email: Anthony.banbury@wfp.org or Bkk.unescap@un.org
6. Mr Pedro Medrano Rojas
Country Director
World Food Programme
2 Poorvi Marg,
Vasant Vihar,
New Delhi 110057
INDIA
Tel: +91-11-26150000
Fax: +91-11-26150019
Email: wfp.newdelhi@wfp.org
7.Dr.N.C.Saxena and Mr.S.R.Sankaran, Commissioner
Mr. Harshmander-special commissioner
Supreme court of India
SAMYA,R-38A,2nd floor,South Extention-part2,New
Delhi-49,India
Email:commissioners@vsnl.net

Activists Spotlight Hunger Deaths of Indian Children

Kalyani
OneWorld South Asia
Fri., Nov. 7, 2003

NEW DELHI, Nov 7 (OneWorld) - The death of 18 children between July and September, allegedly due to lack of food, has sparked concerns about growing starvation in a landless indigenous community in a remote village in northern India. As the Indian government belatedly wakes up to the long festering issue, with a decision to distribute free food packets, human rights activists working in the Sonebhadra district of the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, stress that the food aid is insufficient to keep starvation at bay. "The death of these 18 children highlights only the tip of the iceberg," says the People's Vigilance Committee on Human Rights (PVCHR), a rights body based in the Uttar Pradesh city of Varanasi. The activists fear that if the government does not give land for cultivation to the people - belonging to the Ghasia tribe - they will continue to starve. "The situation is still extremely bleak," says PVCHR convener Lenin Raghuvanshi. The children of the Ghasia tribe - all aged between three and seven - died between July and September this year in Naibasta hamlet in Sonebhadra district in eastern Uttar Pradesh. PVCHR says that though local newspapers reported the deaths, the district administration chose to ignore the issue. "They died of the disease of hunger, what else," Somaro, a village elder, told a PVCHR team that recently visited the area to probe the starvation deaths. "As soon as the team entered the village, all children, women and the old gathered to see who had come. We found that most of the children were mere skeletons, as if their body and flesh had been sapped away. It was obvious that they were being dragged into the cruel clutches of death," the team said in a report to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) - a New Delhi-based government-instituted body. On the basis of the complaint, the NHRC Tuesday asked the Uttar Pradesh administration to examine the allegations. The state authorities have to present their report to the NHRC within six weeks. "At a recent meeting, the full commission noted that if the allegations were true, the matter required urgent attention by the authorities, as precious human rights of the tribals were alleged to have been violated," NHRC says in a statement. The Ghasia tribe has been living in a settlement declared a forest area by the government. Decades ago, the tribe made the forest their home, after fleeing their ancestral villages to escape the tyranny of the region's feudal landlords. PVCHR says they cleared a part of the forest and cultivated coarse grains for food. Dependent on forest produce, they supported themselves by making and selling brooms out of grass, combs and clay drums. But forest officials drove them out of the woods, and the villagers were forced to settle in an area just near a district town. Here, officials of the government-run Forest Department reportedly did not allow them to forage for food in the forests. According to Lenin, as a consequence, the families are surviving on poisonous grass and wild mushrooms for the last four years. "The adults somehow managed to survive the ill effects of the poisonous intake, but the little children were unable to tolerate the poison and succumbed to death," PVCHR says. After the NHRC's intervention, food was distributed to the affected families on Wednesday. Lenin stresses though, that the Ghasia people need land for survival. Only land distribution and agrarian reform can stave off deaths, he says. Lenin states that 40 nongovernmental organizations in eastern Uttar Pradesh have launched a movement to press the demand for land for the Ghasia people. The organizations plan to hold demonstrations and launch a signature campaign for this.

"The death of 18 children due to the disease
of Hunger"

" They died of the disease of hunger and what
else……….." when we asked old man somaro, the reason
for recurrent deaths of children one after the other,
this harsh reality was revealed to us, when our team
representing People's vigilance committee on Human Rights (PVCHR) visited this village to investigate
the hunger deaths. This truth was confirmed as we
observed the pathetic and malnourished condition of
another 17-18 kids of Naibasti, Rope village, Tehsil
Robertsganj, District Sonbhadra. As soon as the team
entered the village all kids, women and old gathered
to see who had come, we found that most of the
children were mere skeletons, as if their body and
flesh had been sapped away. It was obvious that they
were being dragged into the cruel clutches of death.

These hunger deaths happened nowhere else but right
under the nose of the District Administrative
Officials residential complex. The deaths were
reported by the local Hindi newspaper 'Amar Ujala" on
August 5, 2003. The entire Administration was on
their toes after this sensational news was reported in
the newspaper, the Deputy CMO and other senior doctors
rushed to the village and conducted an "on the spot
investigation" and submitted their report to the DM.
This report candidly stated that the reason for these
hunger deaths that have taken place over the last 2
years is none other than the country's prevalent yet
least acknowledged disease of "Hunger". It is crucial
to note here that most of these deaths have taken
place over the last 11 months. The team of doctors
identified 18 other children who due to poverty and
malnourishment are gradually going into the jaws of
death. It is not that the Administration is not aware
of the impoverishment and marginalization of dalits
and tribals prevalent in this district, but they have
conveniently chosen to avoid looking into the problem.
Once these deaths were reported in the newspaper the
entire Administration machinery swung into action with
all its best effort to sweep the issue under the
carpet. The insensitivity of the District Officials
was unveiled, when an old women went inside and
brought the ration supplied by the SDM the same day
i.e one kg of potato, 250 gms of dal and 2kgs of wheat
flour. The quantum of ration made us wonder how
unrealistic and callous the Government Officials could
be, where they do not want to visualize the basic food
requirement of a human being. Even if one were to
overlook the qualitative content of this ration and
focus on the prescribed quantitative parameters of the
poverty line i.e 2400 calories, it is nowhere near the
mark. There is no denying the fact that the shadows of
the feudal mindset loom large over the bureaucracy as
well. It would be interesting to note that this dole
from the Government is not even a patch on what the
agricultural workers get as a wage from the landlords.
Today in many places the workers have managed to get
7-12 kgs of grains as their wage and for this they
fought long and tough battle.

Ghasia Tribe

Nai Basti a settlement of almost 50 households of
Ghasis adivasis is located on the Highway about 8 km
from the District Headquarters'. These settlements are
right next to the residence and offices of the top
District Officials and Police Lines. About 4 years ago
these adivasis had migrated from village Markudi,
Block Nagwa, Tehsil Robertsganj, in search of
livelihood. Markudi, Chiroi and several other villages
of Block Nagwa are the most backward villages of this
district. These villages numbering almost a hundred
are located in a plateau (where the famous Vijay Garh
fort is also located). These villages are still very
remote, for there are still no roads connecting them.
Even today they are accessible only through the
forest, and to reach the Block Office they have to
cover a distance of at least 15 km on foot. Despite
making all kind of efforts like working as
agricultural workers, rickshaw pullers, mine workers
away from their homes, these families were unable to
manage two square meals a day.

Seventy years old Somari Devi says that the area where
their ancestors had settled was also a rocky and
mountainous terrain. In order to escape the bondage
and atrocities of the rulers they settled in the deep
forests. They cleared the forest and cultivated coarse
grains like Sava, Kodo, banking entirely on the
monsoons for irrigation. Their livelihood was
dependent on forest produce through making and selling
products like brooms made from Baghai grass, combs and
drums called " Mander" (made of mud) used in Karma
dance. Once there was restriction and access to the
forest and the forest produce this crucial economic
support was also taken away from them hence they were
forced to migrate from their village. Most of this
tribe settled near the district headquarters in the
hope of better employment opportunities by virtue of
being closer to the town. But the reality is that
money flow from the earnings from the town simply
caters to their secondary needs, but the primary food
grain supply is still ensured from the agricultural
work.

For the last 4 years the families have to survive on
the wild and poisonous grasses like
"Chakwar"(botanical name not known), wild mushrooms
and extremely poor quality of rice. The adults some
how manage to survive the ill effects of the poisonous
intake but the little children are unable to tolerate
the poison and succumb to death within couple of
years.

When asked why they don't migrate somewhere else, they
simply said that they have no other place to go and
they could only improve if they were allotted land by
the Government. " It was only in the search of
livelihood that we have left ancestral village and
settled here " they mused.

Ghasia tribe is one of the indigenous tribes of this
area, had their tribal kingdom around 12th century
(around Singrauli) Numbers of these adivasis are
spread out in the Singrauli area bordering Bihar and
Jharkhand. Karma dance, which is characteristic of
these adivasis, depict the entire cultural history and
their relationship with the nature. Even during the
rule of the Princely State when they worked in
bondage, they did not have enough to eat, and the
families starved. After the abolition of the Zamindari
System and enactment of Labour Reform Act in 1950, the
Princely State had to relinquish their claim on the
entire land and the Government for relinquishing their
claim on land heavily compensated them. The courtier
of the Raja the priestly class, who had come in this
region with the King once upon the time, emerged as
new class of Zamindars in the post independent era. In
spite of Abolition of Landlordism and Land Reform Act,
the control over the land and village commons got
concentrated in the hands of this small section of
landlord, as a consequence the benefits of all
development schemes like irrigation, leveling of land,
boundary construction of agricultural fields were
reaped by this new class of Zamindars. The dalit and
adivasis who had toiled to clear the forest to make it
cultivable and even tilled it, were denied any
ownership and in fact driven away.

Land Alienation Fundamental Problem Leading To Food
Insecurity

The basic reason for these hunger deaths is that the
hands that toil do not have any land of their own.
Hunger deaths have often taken place in this area but
have failed to come into light. Really speaking the
death of these 18 children also highlights only the
tip of the iceberg. If the Administration were to
really take these deaths seriously (of which there is
no indication as yet) they would realize that it is
high time that land redistribution is the only
solution, to this problem. It has to be acknowledged
that such radical agrarian reforms can only pave the
way for ensuring food security so that people can lead
decent and dignified lives.

The land in which these families are presently settled
also belongs to the Forest Department (FD). And every
now and than the staff harasses them to vacate this
land. Just around the huts they have sown some 20-30
plants of maize and the forest staffers often abuse
them and threaten to destroy these alleging that they
cannot cultivate the forestland. It would be
interesting to know that in this patch of land not
even a single tree exists, what to mention of forests.
Despite the reported deaths from this community, the
FD has been pressuring them to cut these small maize
plants. They are so insensitive that they failed to
accept that these plants are basically grown for
eating roasted corn fruit (bhuta), and such plantation
is insufficient for any food grain production.

The irony is that even these tragic deaths have not
shaken the authorities so far, the Administration has
failed to either allot land, provide ration cards.
Even after Central Government has made it mandatory to
provide mid-day meal to all school going children in
the age group of 0-5, they had only promised a mid-day
meal after a month. It is surprising that the
extremely malnourished children went completely
unnoticed by District Health department, which has
been implementing Polio immunization programmes for
children of this community every year. None of the
medical teams bothered to take stalk of the real
health status of the children, and it really raises
questions about the efficacy and outreach of the
health programme.

We have all heard of Kalahandi but similar images are
not very rare in Sonbhadra and neighboring districts.
This is not the first incident of the hunger deaths in
the area, but complete erosion of sources of
livelihood has caused many deaths in most of the
villages.

Some Historical Facts

Sonbhadra district is rich in minerals and other
natural resources that contribute the maximum revenue
for the State Treasury every year. The land is
extremely fertile, with extremely good crop yield,
infact the name "Sonbhadra" has been derived from this
" gold yielding" character of land and forest. In the
folk songs there is widespread mention of 'Sonchirai',
'Sonpehri', 'Sonmachli', 'Sonphadi', 'Sonnadi', which
highlights the rich heritage of the area. But the
people enjoyed this rich heritage only till the
resources were under the control of the community and
not under the State control. Once the forest was
nationalized the plight of forest dependent
communities and forest dwellers has steadily
deteriorated. Today the FD is the biggest "Landlord"
and controls more than 40% of land in the District. It
is understood that because of tough terrain, dense
forest and fear of the wild animals, the revenue
records of this particular area were not prepared
during the British rule, as had been undertaken for
rest of the country. Subsequently the British made
land settlement procedures only with rulers rather
than the peasants, in fact whatever land records were
prepared were done on the basis of visual measurement.

The main objective of ZA (Zamindari Abolition) act was
to grant land to the tiller and remove all
intermediaries. But in the case of Sonbhadra district
the entire process was postponed for 18 years, all big
landlords appropriated the land, drove away all those
poor who were tilling the land, and registered the
land titles in their names and even those of their
cattle. Therefore in Sonbhadra, Chandauli and Mirzapur
Districts the land was looted rather than
redistributed which was diametrically opposite to the
intention of the ZA act. Due to feudal repression and
lack of any alternative support structure the dalit
and tribals tiller were forced to clear the land in
and around the forest, to fend for their livelihood.

Unfortunately the Government has gone on declaring all
forests either reserved, or protected which has
further marginalized people. Today where Ghasia tribe
are settled land has been declared as forestland under
Indian Forest Act, 1927 (IFA). According to the
section 4 of this act before declaring any forest area
as Reserved the people have to be served a Notice by
the Government, so that the people can file their
claims. And only after proper investigation of their
claims the land can be declared reserved under section
20 of IFA, and there are provisions for settling the
claims between sec. 4 and sec. 20 of the act.

However in this area once again the law of the land
has not been implemented - without settling any of
these claims the land was declared as forestland, and
even today 500 villages are part of this dispute.
Since 1997 the FD has been trying to chase away these
people, using all kinds of unscrupulous methods to
evict them. The story of south of Kaimur, Singrauli of
this district is even more startling. It is now known
as the "energy capital of India", for its highest
power generation capacity. One could recall that in
1964 it was with the construction of the "Rihand Dam",
symbol of so-called development that this entire
process of displacement and alienation of the adivasis
was triggered off. As a result the most fertile land
was submerged under water, and lacs of people lost
their homes and livelihood. Infact there are no
records that tell us the destiny of at least 20
thousand people who were forced to leave. It is tragic
that no viable rehabilitation plan was choked out for
these displaced people. They were only doled out plots
of 40x60 yards for residential purposes and for the
last 20 years they are awaiting fair compensation for
the agricultural land that had been taken away from
them. The question of a sustained livelihood for these
displaced people still remains unanswered. Who
benefited from the construction of the Rihand Dam? Was
it for irrigation or for power generation? Even today
U.P Government has no answer to this question. On the
contrary, it has become a dumping ground for the
coalmines, powerhouses, industries, and their
townships. The fly ash released by the 6 Powerhouses
located on the periphery of the dam is converting this
reservoir into a poisonous well. The people who live
around the reservoir are forced to consume the highly
radioactive water and tolerate the toxic atmosphere so
created.

Whenever these displaced people have tried to fight
for their rights they have been brutally crushed by
the administration and entangled in false criminal
cases to the extent of being declared as "Naxalites".

The Struggle

At the time of various land settlement and
particularly at the time of the Kaimur Survey
Settlement (1982), the land conflict was further
aggravated. This happened due to the connivance of the
survey officials and revenue machinery. This
continuous robbing away of their resources has caused
a deep set of resentment amongst the adivasis,
particularly the youth and women. Over the last few
years the political sensitization of these people has
led them to question why only their ancestral land has
been taken away? Why there is no justice forthcoming
from the administration? The callous administration
has no answer to this question except the 'bullet'.
The fact that there is no scope for protest only goes
to prove that the State is trying to completely shrink
all democratic space. In order to avoid resolving the
issue of land restoration to the adivasis, the
administration has resorted to creating an atmosphere
of terror in the area.

The bottom line is that the hunger deaths are a result
of a lack of political will to implement the agrarian
reform in its true spirits. Even today there is
reluctance on the part of the State to admit that the
tiller of the land has to own the land. The argument
and campaign by some leading economists that revamping
and privatization the Public Distribution System can
solve the problem of hunger, and prevent the hunger
deaths, is very difficult to pallet. The issue of food
security is directly related to the equitable
distribution of land and it seems difficult to locate
a solution for this else where.

It is true that the adivasis were completely
unfamiliar with the money economy but their deep
understanding of life sciences is evident from the
fact that they know that ownership and control of the
basic resources of land is the solution to the problem
of livelihood of all agrarian people. Urban
intellectuals and economists fail to look at the
problem in the eye, when they avoid the issue of
implementing agrarian reforms. The life experience of
the common people have led them to believe that no
dose from Government or other agencies will ever solve
the problem of hunger, it is they themselves who have
to organize themselves and fight to recapture their
lost land. In keeping with this understanding they are
organizing themselves, so that their tomorrow is not
marred by hunger deaths. There are fresh instances
where land being captured in the leadership of women
in Tehsil Robertsganj and Ghorawal, where they have
also fought to get the wage hike from 5 to 7-12 kg of
food grain.

Names of the Children who died in past few months:

Names Age

1. Punnu s/o Ramsubak
4yrs.
2. Roshan s/o Shivkumar
3 "
3. Bijmal s/o Shivkumar
5 "
4. Lalmohan s/o Puneshwar
4 "
5. Printa d/o Puneshwar
5 "
6. Jiuat s/o Ramvriksh
4 "
7. Dhiman s/o Mangru
2 "
8. Phool sings s/o Kalinger
5 "
9. Deepak s/o Sukhan
6 "
10. Somaro s/o Asha
4 "
11. Jeeravati s/o Suneshwaf
7 "
12. Kairi s/o Tarku
5 "
13. Saransh s/o Katwaru
3 "
14. Bimli s/o Katwaru
5 "
15. Ramkaran s/o Sukalu
5 "
16. Ramgovind s/o Sukalu
4 "
17. Kavita s/o Sudama
5 "
18. Kuwara s/o Santosh
4

The establishment of the Jan Mitra Centre to work for the Jan Mitra Gaon (People Friendly Village) is also quite justified, as it will network with tribal people, allied systems, NGOs and other stakeholders for mass action for social transformation.
Interventions in Education, Health, Outreach activities for children (child to child activities, children's forum etc), organisation building activities through village committee formation, establishment of community centre, food grain bank, village treasury, installation of hand pump, large scale celebration of the Karma Mahotsav will help improve the lot of the target community to a great extent and will yield long term results like installing a sense of solidarity and strength in them. This will instil confidence in them to fight for their rights, preserve their own cultural identity and to further progress to come up into the mainstream of the existing society.

PROJECT OBJECTIVE

Ø To review the policies and strategies regarding sustainable livelihood & collective ownership of means of production.
Ø To organise Campaigns on Sustainable livelihood linked with right to food, rights over land, forest and water and effects of globalisation.
Ø To organise Campaign against displacement forced migration and atrocities by the state.
Ø To form a Cultural Front to strengthen the cultural movement in the state to protect and preserve their cultural heritage, as Tribal Rights.
Ø To empower tribal community to build their own organisations to protect and preserve their cultural heritage and for economic, political and socio-cultural progress for transformation and establishment of people friendly village (Jan Mitra Gaon)

TARGET GROUP

Primary Target Group: Ghasi tribes of Nai Basti

Secondary Target Group: Local NGOs, Law & Policy makers, Government officials, Academicians, Panchayat level workers.

Tertiary Target Group: Community at large, International NGOs, Media.

TARGET AREA:

STRATEGIES/ PLANNED MEASURES

PVCHR believes in participatory activism, which will mean collective demand generation and social transformation.
A Jan Mitra center at Raup Village will be established. The centre will network with tribal people, allied systems, NGOs and other stakeholders for mass action for social transformation.

Establishment of people's friendly village (Jan Mitra Gaon)

Jan Mitra Gaon is a village where every individual is assured of his or her social, economic, political and cultural rights as per the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and is living together within the society without any form of discrimination.

PVCHR/Jan Mitra Gaon will have following activities and programmes

Micro Level Initiative

(A) Direct action with children

1. Education

· The community will monitor the functioning of the existing Government Primary School for its qualitative enhancement.
· On teacher's day, the community will award deserving teachers selected by them in a public ceremony.
· Teacher's federation will be formed to provide a platform for dialogue with the Government teachers to know their problems, difficulties and strategies to tackle them.
· The community will be motivated to participate in the school and ICDS centre's programmes so that the quality is maintained.
· In the later stage the community will demand for a new school in the Raup village with trained and qualified teachers along with basic infrastructure.

2. Outreach Activities for Children.
Apart from formal education, the emphasis will be on such extra curricular activities like Painting and Arts, Melas and Picnics, participation in Bal Sansad or Children Parliament and Exposure visits.

Children Panchayat: A children chaupal will be organised every month. The Children Panchayat will be formed parallel to Village Panchayat. The children Panchayat will monitor the activities of PVCHR and the village Panchayat and send one representative to PVCHR Village Committee and Jan Mitra Village Committee. Children Panchayat will also monitor the school functioning. The Children Panchayats in all the villages will meet once in a year as children's Parliament and discuss the collective demands of children and forward them directly to the President of India.

(B) Action with Community & local governance

1) Organisation building

· A village committee will be formed in the Raup village. Committee will be overall responsible for the successful implementation of the concept.
· The community will be made to protect their own rights, make collective demands, protect their land rights, rights to life with dignity etc.
· Meetings will be held with teachers, community, Basic Siksha Adhikari (BSA), CBOs to sensitise Panchayat members and education committee members on child right to education, on quality of education, to keep vigil on the state of education in the village, to mobilise, parents to send their children to schools.
· Community will be mobilised to avail of the benefits of Public Distribution System shops and demand fair price and regularity in disbursals. Community will be mobilised to complain against malpractice.
· Efforts to reduce discrimination among the boys and girls.
· Dissemination of legal information during regular meetings held with the community.
· Training on gender, dalit & Law.
· Encourage community to fight against police atrocities. Strengthen CBOs on such issues. Build a public opinion against police atrocities against dalits. Spread information about law on wages through pamphlets, wall writings etc.
· Developing an understanding on gram sabha, right to information, land acquisition act etc

2) Health: Strengthen the existing Integrated Child Development Services centre; regularise the visit of ANM, facilitate health check up for the ailing persons of the village.

3) Human Rights Education
To create awareness among the community on their rights and to teach the children and youths of their constitutional rights, the committee will set up village level Panchayats based on Gender and Age e.g. Children Panchayat, Youth Panchayat, and Women Panchayat. These will be used for dissemination of knowledge of such rights. Further curriculum will be developed to teach them on the nature and evils of Patriarchy, Fundamentalism and Caste.
4) Establishment of Community Centre
A Jan Mitra centre at Raup Village will be established. This centre will have networking with tribal people, allied system, NGOs and other stakeholders for broader mass action for social transformation. This will be a place for common gathering of the people belonging to the Ghasia Tribe, and other concerned people out side of the community for meetings, festivals and programmes.
5) Food Grain Bank: Food grain bank of the community to meet the essential and emergency needs.

6) Village Treasury (Gram Kosh): Savings of the community from common income to meet the essential and emergency needs of an individual as well as of the community for progress.
7) Initiative for drinking water: The hand pump installed by government is not so deep (less than 200 feet), hence not working. Women have to go far away to fetch drinking water. One hand pump needs to be installed (200 ft deep) for them to have access to water.

Macro Level initiative:
1) Advocacy: No one organisation can effectively campaign at all the different levels, which often requires very different attitudes, strategies & skills. To achieve this complex mix of work, Forum on Rights of Marginalised (FRM) / Vanchit Adhikar Manch will help in advocacy.
2) Karma Mahotasava
Karma along with its four forms is a very famous tribal dance of the Ghasia Community. PVCHR will organise Karma Mahotasava (Karma Festival) in the first year. Through Participation of eminent personalities, media and allied system in festival will build a new platform or outlet for income generation to Ghasia Tribe. Karma, Jhumar, Chatisgardhi and Domchach etc. are tribal dances for collective income generation. It is people's campaign initiative for tribal welfare as well as to generate opportunities to enhance their community income through eco-friendly products of their own. So that they can protect and preserve their own cultural identity along with their income for livelihood and for further progress to come up into the mainstream of the existing society and eliminate whatsoever evil exist at present in their community. It is being recognised by the Cultural Department of the UP State. Part of the group income will contribute to village treasury for developmental work as well as for any emergency need of the community.

3) Documentation

Review of the overall work, its progress and drawbacks will be documented systematically for further improvement of the project, followed by study, discussion and assessment of the Core Group, CBO's and experts for assisting the community for further progress.

PARTICIPATION OF THE TARGET GROUP:

Thus right from the evolution of the project there is continuous participation of the target group. Forming different groups among the community like Jan Mitra Center, Bal panchayat, women's forum and village treasury, Food Grain Bank that involves active participation of the target group, will carry out different interventions of the project. It is envisaged that after the withdrawal of PVCHR, the community will be aware and empowered enough to carry forward the campaign by themselves for getting their rights.