By Our Reprsentative Several grassroots organizations of Gujarat under the banner of Mines, Minerals and People (MM&P) have represented to state governor Dr Kamla against continued mining of the tribal areas of Gujarat, saying this is happening “against the Constitutional provisions, which prohibit mining of any natural resources that come under the tribal areas, whether it is water, land or forests.” The representation underlined, “It is illegal to allow mining in the tribal areas without prior approval of the gram sabha.”  Those who represented included Ashok Shrimali from MM&P, and social workers from affected tribal villages of South Gujarat. There were Namikaben Chaudhury, who is also sarpanch of Mordevi village panchayat, Bhupendrabhai Chaudhary, of Kosambia village, Manendrabhai Chaudhury or Bahej village, and Lalsinhbhai Gamit of Valod village. 

By Our Representative Several villagers surrounding the Kevadia colony, the place where the Narmada dam is situated in South Gujarat, have come together to launch struggle under the banner of Kevadiya Area Development Authority (KADA) Virodhi Manch to oppose implementation of the notication, issued eight years ago, for developing water park, hotels, golf course, camping grounds, trekking trails, boating facilities, sunset viewpoints, resort clubs, etc in the region. "Originally this was planned on the lands of 16 villages. Now this has been expanded to be built on lands acquired from 70 villages", a KADA Virodhi Manch statement issued in the wake of a meeting on May 27 at Kevadia colony said.

By Rajiv Shah A just-released report, “Reducing Inequality: Learning Lessons for the Post-1015 Agenda. India Case Study”, by Save the Children has regretted that “the rapid economic growth that Gujarat has experienced over the past decade has been of the nature of exclusionary growth where goals like social equality, sustainable livelihoods, access to education and health, justice and peace have been abandoned in the race for high-speed growth.”

By Rajiv Shah A fresh survey, carried out by Ahmedabad-based rights group, Centre for Social Justice January between January and March 2013, and sponsored by Action Aid, has revealed that thousands of victims of Gujarat riots, who still remained displaced a decade after the holocaust, are unable to return to their original habitat as they fear they will not be protected. Carried out among 464 internally displaced persons (IDPs), a term coined by the United Nations to identify those who are forced to leave their habitat because of violent situations, as many as 364 of the surveyed IDPs continue living in rehabilitation camps, and another 100 IDPs live in alternative housing provided to them in different towns in eight districts of Gujarat.

By Our Representative In a major exposure of the working of the Gujarat government, a right to information (RTI) reply to a senior activist has revealed that as many as 3,125 Dalit undergraduate students of Ahmedabad district alone have not been paid scholarship despite the fact that they were entitled to it. "The matter came to light after earlier attempts to get information through RTI on scholarship to Dalit students failed to yield result", said Kirit Rathod of the Navsarjan Trust, a Gujarat-based human rights NGO.

By Rajiv Shah  About four years ago, in 2009, three well-known experts, Ashok Gulati, Tushaar Shah and Ganga Shreedhar, published a paper, “Agriculture performance in Gujarat since 2000: Can it be a divadandi (lighthouse) for other states?”. Well-researched, the paper was prepared for the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), both world-renowned institutes. What provided credence to the paper was, Gulati worked as Director in Asia for IFPRI, Tushaar Shah as senior fellow, IWMI, and Ganga Shreedhar as research analyst for the IFPRI. The paper does not seek to hide the fact that it was prepared after taking complete help from the Gujarat government. The authors have jotted down their specially gratefulness to Gujarat CM Narendra Modi’s water resources advisor BN Navlawala, and a well-known pro-Modi agriculturist at that time, ex-vice-chancellor of the Anand Agriculture University, NC Varsheneya, for their valuab...

By Our Representative Senior activists of Gujarat have alleged that the Narendra Modi government wants to begin work on the controversial Kalpasar project, which seeks to dam the Gulf of Khambhat, despite the fact that it has not yet complied with the Government of India's Environmental Impact Assessment Notification on September 14, 2006. The project falls under Category ‘A’, 1 (c), i.e. a river and valley project which requires prior environmental clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) on the recommendations of Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) constituted by the GoI.

By Rajiv Shah  Gujarat is witnessing perhaps one of the highest booms in the real estate sector. Not without reason, it is also attracting a huge population from vulnerable sections to work at construction sites. Despite existing laws banning child labour in hazardous sectors, the case of a 12-year-old boy who fell victim to a major accident, suggests officials and employers remain indifferent. This is the story of a 12-year-old boy, Hitesh Jemalbhai Machchaar, belonging to Sitavati village in Jhalod taluka of the predominantly Dahod district of Gujarat, who suffered from a major accident on July 15, 2011 at a construction site in Surat, which is the state’s second biggest city, next only to Ahmedabad. Hitesh’s parents and relatives, who are marginal farmers, migrate to Surat every year to work as construction workers. In July 2011 Hitesh accompanied his uncle, Choklabhai, who migrated to Surat to work at as a construction worker in Surat. On the fateful date, the contractor, Sur...

By Rajiv Shah  The last one decade appears to have witnessed a major change in Gujarat’s rural scenario. While there has been a sharp rise in the number of agricultural workers, perhaps one of the highest in India, there has been a simultaneous near-stagnation in the number of cultivators in the state. While it would be for economists and other experts to conclude what exactly this trend suggests, clearly, the latest Census of India data for 2011, released in early May 2013, go to suggest that there has been a sharp proletarianization of Gujarat’s rural areas, unprecedented in recent decades. The Census of India data show that in 2011 there were 45 lakh able-bodied population of Gujarat who had agricultural labour as their “main” activity. While this forms approximately 22 per cent of those who qualify themselves in the definition of “main workers” of Gujarat, what is significant is that the rise of agricultural “main workers” was to the tune of 50 per cent between the two censuses...

Counterview Desk Jagdish Patel, senior Vadodara-based activist of the People's Training And Research Centre (PTRC) has informed www.counterview.net how India in the second week of May became one of the countries which blocked a decision at a top international meet to oppose action against the use of asbestos and paraquat. A report on the meet, "Joint Chemical Conference Disappoints Those Seeking Action on Asbestos, Paraquat", by Daniel Pruzin, Bloomberg BNA, Daily Report for Executives, Geneva, has the details:

By Rajiv Shah Cat is finally out of the bag. If early estimates in the top corridors of the Gujarat government are any indication, during 2012-13, or the last financial year, the state’s agricultural growth rate slipped into the negative after an average of the last five year plan (2007-12) showed it had already been pushed to a single digit (4.8 per cent). “Soon it will be announced that the agriculture slipped to around minus ( -- ) 13 per cent in 2012-13. In certain places in Gujarat, especially Saurashtra, agricultural growth slipped to minus ( -- ) 22 per cent”, senior state bureaucrat said, adding, “Already, crop failure on account drought during 2012-13 has been assessed to be around 50 per cent.”

By Rathin Das Several NGOs and other activists in Gujarat and elsewhere are up in arms against the Union Home Ministry’s (HMA's) order suspending the Foreign Currency Regulation Act (FCRA) registration of Indian Social Action Forum (INSAF), a network of over 700 NGOs involved in grass root activities. In an order on April 30, 2013, the Ministry of Home Affairs has suspended the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) registration of the INSAF, apparently for its involvement in what the Government considers ‘political’ activities like ‘Dharnas’ and rallies.

By Rajiv Shah  There have been numerous arguments in favour of improving and upgrading the infrastructure of slum settlements, many of which are interrelated. It has been shown by studies that improving living conditions can bring gains to the quality of life, health, and productivity of slum residents. As a recent study by Benjamin Stanwix, a South African scholar, for Mahila Housing Sewa Trust, Ahmedabad, states, “ It can help to break the cycle of poverty, ease the burden on women, and can also be a public good with positive spill-over effects on the wider economy and society. These arguments have been discussed in more detail below.” The study, titled “Urban Slums in Gujarat and Rajasthan: Study of Basic Infrastructure in Seven Cities” (2009) notes, life in the absence of adequate access to basic services such as water and ablutions can be precarious. It is detrimental to health, safety and the dignity of communities. It quotes a UN Habitat study which shows that lack of safe...

By Rajiv Shah The Gujarat government is all set to form Gujarat Affordable Housing and Slum Rehabilitation Authority (GAHSRA), with sweeping powers, under the chairmanship of the the state chief minister to “manage” and “develop” state slums in the state's urban areas. Draft of the Gujarat Slum Rehabilitation and Redevelopment Policy, 2013, in possession of   www.counterview.net , at the same time, seeks to add yet another bureaucratic ladder at the local urban self-governing level under the chairmanship of municipal commissioner in municipal corporation area, chairman of the urban development in the urban development authority area, and the district collector in municipality area. The new structure would be called Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA)..

Pankti Jog By Our Representative An anti-woman government resolution (GR) remains in currency in Gujarat for two years, yet nobody seems to to care. The Gujarat government issued this surprising GR two years ago, which seeks to undermine the authority of the woman as head of the family. The GR, issued on May 6, 2011, yet remained unnoticed for so long till a right to information (RTI) application was filed on December 25, 2012 by Pankti Jog of the Mahiti Adhikar Gujarat Pahel (MAGP), Gujarat’s RTI NGO. Jog says, “The surprising GR comes from the department of food and civil supply. It says that woman can hold ration card in her name only if a male member of the family expresses his willingness.”

By Our Representative Has the Gujarat government adopted a "go slow" tactic vis-a-vis the gruesome incident in Thangarh, Surendrangar district, which took place in September last year, in which three Dalit youths died in police firing? Senior Dalit activist Kirit Rathod of NGO Navsarjan Trust appears to think this is very much the case, "While the Gujarat Human Rights Commission (GHRC) directed, on March 23, 2013, that the director-general of police (DGP) and the CID crime, who sit in Police Bhawan in Gandhinagar, to immediately provide a complete report on the firing incident, even a month after the order the state's top cops have not act", he has said in a statement.

Ashok Chatterjee* reviews the book, “Lest We Forget History: Tracing Communal Violence in Gujarat 2002″ by P G J Nampoothiri and Gagan Sethi (Books for Change, Rs 300, 2012), which recounts Gujarat’s tragedy from the perspective of a special monitoring group set up by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC): *** National attention is focused once again on the Gujarat pogrom of 2002. Conflicting accounts have emerged from the Supreme Court’s Special Investigation Team (SIT). Its apparent exoneration of Narindra Modi is challenged by the Courts amicus curiae, while a cover story in TIME on the Chief Minister as India’s icon of economic growth has failed to remove the visa ban imposed by the US since 2002 on grounds of human rights violations. “Lest We Forget History” recounts Gujarat’s tragedy from the perspective of a special monitoring group set up by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) soon after the killings began, on which the co-authors served. Their conclusion is chill...

By Rajiv Shah  Gujarat’s urban poor has gone up from 4.3 million in 2004-05 and 4.5 million in 2009-10 as a corollary to the state’s high-speed urbanization (35.83 per cent urban population in the last one decade, highest in the country) is enough reason to believe that Gujarat’s slum population would also be rising at an even higher pace. If Census of India’s 2011 figures suggest that Gujarat’s 42.6 per cent population lives in urban areas, a 2009 study, “Status of Urban Slums in Gujarat and Rajasthan: A Case Study of Seven Cities”, carried out by Benjamin Stanwix of the University of Cape Town, for the Mahila Housing SEWA Trust, Ahmedabad, has estimated that the “population of the slums in Ahmedabad has been growing faster than that of the overall population, almost doubling in the two decades since 1976 to over 41 per cent of the total population.” Other experts believe, as of today, as of today, around 45 per cent of Ahmedabad lives in slums. It may be lower than Mumbai, where...

Rohit Prajapati Counterview Desk  In an open letter to Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, senior Vadodara-based environmentalist Rohit Prajapati of the Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti has wondered why is the CM so shy of providing answers to permanent resident Gujaratis (PRGs), who have repeatedly asked him certain questions on issues related with people’s concerns. The letter has been written against the backdrop of the CM’s address satellite-based to non-resident-Gujaratis (NRG), who live in the US, as he did on May 12. The letter following questions Prajapati wants Modi to answer: Text:

An agate worker By Rajiv Shah After failing to implement its own government resolution (GR) on paying Rs 1 lakh as compensation to those who die because of silicosis, a deadly lungs disease which is common among agate polishing units in Khambhat town and taluka of Gujarat, the Gujarat government is now planning a new one to "amend" its error, which allowed insurance companies to cover only those under group insurance scheme who die in an accident. While nobody in the government has any idea of what this new GR would be and whether it would be able remove the "technical hitch" which supposedly is the chief reason why the year-old GR could not be put into action, voluntary organisations working with the silicosis victims believe, the year was "lost" because of official indifference.

RTI On Wheels, run by MAGP By Our Representative The Mahiti Adhikar Gujarat Pahel (MAGP), Gujarat’s foremost Right to Information (RTI) NGO, has revealed that there is a whopping 41.2 per cent violation of RTI norms by the first appellate authorities (FAAs), who happen to be Gujarat government officials, which leads to a large number of cases piling up with the Gujarat Information Commission. Last year, it has said in a statement, there were in all 30,491 RTI appeals or complaints, out of which 19,130 could be disposed of.

By Our Representative Ahead of his proposed address to 18 US cities via satellite, scheduled for May 12,  Association for India's Development (AID), a US and Canada-based NGO, has asked Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi to have a closer look at how vulnerable sections of society are suffering in his own state. In a letter to Modi  and state revenue minister Anandiben Patel, 54 AID volunteers, who support civil society efforts in India have asked him, in a signed letter, to urgently look into the plight of the salt pan workers in the Little Rann of Kutch. "You must already be aware of the recent untimely and heavy rainfall in the Little Rann of Kutch and surrounding areas", the letter reminds the CM.

By Rajiv Shah  The Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009, has, without doubt, become a major milestone to ensure that children aged 6 to 14 are able to get free and compulsory education. However, initially, Gujarat was one state which seemed extremely subdued in implementing it. In January 2012, it was one of the three states – West Bengal and Karnataka were the other two – who had failed to come up with rules to implement the Act. This came to light when the Government of India asked West Bengal, Gujarat and Karnataka to notify RTE rules in order to begin implementing the Act. Then human resources development minister Kapil Sibal wrote letters to these states, asking them to notify the rules in the “larger interest of the students”. By that time, as many as 30 states and Union territories had already notified their respective state rules or adopted central rules. Model rules under the RTE Act were shared with all states at a meeting of state education secretaries, held as early as in...