ICDS under attack? By Our Representative Ahead of a national level public hearing at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, on August 4, 2014, several campaign organizations have sharply criticized the Narendra Modi government for seeking to “accelerate” efforts made by the previous UPA government during its latter phase to resist “basic social entitlements” for the poor. In a concept note prepared for the hearing, they have said, “We need to address this political context emerging over the last few years, initiated during the later part of UPA-II and likely to be accelerated by the current NDA government.. Just local protests and symbolic mobilisations are not likely to have a significant impact on a deepening policy framework which is corporate friendly and increasingly ‘people resistant’.”

By Our Representative The National Alliance for People’s Movements (NAPM), the apex body of India’s top rights bodies, has released fresh details on rising opposition by civil society organizations around the world decrying  a leaked draft of the World Bank’s proposed new policies , which allegedly seek to “avoid” harmful impacts from the development projects that it finances. “As many as 97 NGOs and civil society networks and 17 distinguished individuals from Asia-Pacific, Africa, Latin America, North America and Europe sent a statement to the World Bank’s Board, demanding the draft be sent back and re-written with serious safeguards to protect the land, housing and livelihood the poor" (click   HERE to read), NAPM has said.

Excerpts from “Preliminary Analysis of Statistics Relating to the Offence of Rape as Reported by the National Crime Records Bureau for 2001‐13”. Research and report by Venkatesh Nayak, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), New Delhi, and Data Analytics, SS Tech Point, New Delhi: *** According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, during the period 2001‐2013, a total of 2,72,844 cases were reported across the 28 states and 7 UTs in India. On an average, a little more than 57 rapes are reported to have occurred every day across the country during this 13 year period. That averages to more than 2 rapes across the country, every hour, every day, during the last 13 years. If the figure for 2013 – the year in which the list of offences that constitute rape was expanded – is discounted, the total for the 12‐year period between 2001‐2012 becomes 2,39,137 cases across all States and UTs. The daily and hourly averages reduce by a few decimal points only . The total figure for ...

By Our Representative In one of its strongest warnings to the Adani Group, which has got environmental nod to go ahead with the Carmichael coal mining project in Australia, the world’s most influential green campaigners, Greenpeace, has said, “Don’t assume this is the end of the story. The Carmichael mine cannot go ahead without the financial support of one the big four Australian banks. Greenpeace will make sure every Australian knows that any bank cutting a cheque for Carmichael is making possible a monster mine that will endanger our Reef and our climate.”

By Our Representative Several people’s organizations which took a lead in campaign for bringing in the new land acquisition law for India -- Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 – have come together to put up a case against new “efforts” by the World Bank to dilute its existing safeguards on Land Acquisition and Involuntary Resettlement. In a letter, they have said that the Bank’s new draft Environment and Social Safeguards Framework on Land Acquisition, Restrictions on Land Use and Involuntary Resettlement threatens to “significantly increase the risk” for the poor people and exacerbate inequality.

Proof of prevalence of manual scavenging in Dudhrej By Our Representative In a sharp rebuttal to the Gujarat government’s dogged refusal to admit the prevalence of manual scavenging in the state, the Safai Kamdar Hak Rakshak Samiti, Surendranagar, has come up with documentary evidence to demand the the despicable practice, which Mahatma Gandhi called “shame of the nation.” Releasing photographs showing existence of manual scavenging under Dudhrej municipality, the organization, associated with Ahmedabad-based Dalit rights NGO Navsarjan Trust, has demanded from the district collector, Surendranagar, to take “urgent steps to stop the practice and employ them in respectable jobs.”

By Our Representative In a move without precedence, one of world’s most influential dailies, the New York Times, has editorially declared that “press censorship” is back in India “with a vengeance.” But there is a caveat, it suggest. During the Emergency, imposed on June 25, 1975, Prime Minister India Gandhi imposed “strict” censorship, but this time it is “not direct government fiat but by powerful owners and politicians.” Titled “India’s Press in Siege”, the top daily, however, compares it with the censorship imposed Indira Gandhi, recalling how, “with defiant exceptions, much of the press caved in quickly to the new rules.”

By Our Representative The National Alliance for People’s Movements (NAPM) has wondered as to why, ahead of heavy rains in the upstream of the Narmada dam, especially in Madhya Pradesh, the state government is gearing up with contingency plans to “save” people from being submerged. An annual affair, the NAPM, which is an apex body of several people’s organizations across the country, it has asked, “If all dam affected persons have been ‘rehabilitated’, then why crores of money is being spent on disaster management?”

By Rohit Prajapati* Union environment minister Prakash Javadekar’s decision to lift the moratorium of eight critically polluted clusters of the country is inexplicable. The ministry took the decision on June 10 2014 but announced it publicly on July 24 2014 on MoEF’s website. Narendra Modi took oath as Prime Minister of India on 26 May 2014 and Prakash Javadekar took charge as the Minister of Environment & Forests and Climate change on 30 May 2014. Immediately Javadekar started fulfilling Modi’s commitment given to the industrialists during the election campaign in return for their “support” to BJP during the election. Javadekar decided to lift the moratorium from some of the critically polluted industrial clusters as a first step within 11 days in the ministry. On June 10, 2014 he suspended the September 17, 2013 order extending a moratorium on 8 critically polluted industrial clusters. That order related to “Re-imposing of Moratorium in respect of critically polluted areas namely...

Javadekar By Our Representative In a major decision, which has raised the eye-brow of senior environmentalists, the Government of India has decided to lift the moratorium on industrial investment in Vapi in South Gujarat, which was found to be “most polluted” in September 2013 by the previous UPA government. Along with Vapi, an office memorandum of the Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF)  has decided to lift the moratorium on seven other industrial clusters -- Ghaziabad (UP), Indore (Madhya Pradesh), Jharsuguda (Odisha), Ludhiana (Punjab), Panipat (Haryana), Patancheru-Bollaram (Andhra Pradesh) and Singraulli (Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh).

By Our Representative In what may prove to be a major embarrassment for Narendra Modi’s Gujarat model of development, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has sharply criticized the state government for giving “undue benefits” to three of the biggest investors in Gujarat – Reliance, Adanis and Essar. The CAG report, which was tabled in the Gujarat state assembly, has particularly come down heavily on the Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) failing to recover “full wharfage rate” between 2008-09 and 2012-13 from the Reliance Petroleum Ltd’s captive jetty in Sikka, Jamnagar.

Farmers of Dholera SIR By Our Representative Five years after it was enacted, a farmers’ body of Gujarat has challenged the constitutional validity of the state’s Special Investment Region (SIR) Act, 2009. The Gujarat Khedut Samaj (GKU), in a statement issued in Ahmedabad, said that the GKU, in association with “residents of 22 villages of Dholera SIR” -- being set up on 55,000 hectares (ha) of land towards the south of Ahmedabad along the Gulf of Khambhat as a smart city as a Central government project -- have “challenged” the Act and the notification declaring Dholera region as SIR.

By Rajiv Shah At a time when the Government of India is considering to tone down two of the main components of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 – social impact assessment and consent – a top World Bank document , leaked to Counterview, has insisted that there cannot be any land acquisition without “free, prior and informed consent.” Pointing towards the need to “strengthen meaningful consultation with vulnerable groups, project-affected communities, and indigenous peoples”, it has added, “Emphasis should be on the need for strong and consistent risk assessment and risk management.”

By Our Representative In an important move, the World Bank has begun investigation into the alleged neglect of the salt-pan workers by the Gujarat government in the Little Rann of Kutch (LRK). The investigation, which is proposed as a “research study”, follows a complaint by a non-government organization (NGO) Agariya Heet Rakshak Manch (AHRM), which told the World Bank in April (click HERE ) that its multi-crore project for developing biodiversity in the Wild Ass Sanctuary in the LRK is being used by government officials to evict the agariyas from their land. AHRM has been working among the agariyas for the last several decades.

By Venkatesh Nayak* The media has reported about the Rules notified by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), Government of India, for the filing of information and annual returns relating to assets and liabilities for all public servants covered by the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013. What is good about this notification? The notification of these Rules is a step forward from the statutory requirement under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005. Under Section 4(1(b)(x) of this law, every public authority is required to proactively disclose details of salary paid and the compensation package offered to every civil servant who is its employee. However, there was no statutory compulsion on civil servants to publicly disclose information about their movable and immovable properties inherited or acquired. So several RTI users demanded the publication of this information under the RTI Act by filing formal requests. While some Information Commissions ordered disclosure of inform...

By Our Representative In what may seem to be a direct support to the NDA government’s expressed “need” for a common civil code in India, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) has expressed serious concern over “the coexistence of multiple legal systems with regard to marriage and family relations” in country. It has added, these multiple legal systems “apply to the different religious groups and which results in the deep and persistent discrimination against women”.

By Our Representative At a time when the Narendra Modi government is all set to consider dropping it, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) has asked the Government of India (GoI) to “promptly enact the draft Communal Violence (Prevention, Control and Rehabilitation of Victims) Bill” as an important step to prevent violence against women. It notes “continued marginalization and poverty of women and girls survivors of the Gujarat riots living in the relief colonies and their precarious living conditions with limited access to education, health care, employment and security.”

Letter to Prakash Javdekar, minister for Environment, Forests & Climate Change, Government of India, by Rohit Prajapati, Girish Patel and Himanshu Thakkar, seeking detailed environmental scrutiny of the Statue of Unity Project planned inside Narmada River, 3.2 Kms downstream of Sardar Sarovar Dam and Shoolpaneshwar Sanctuary: This is to once again remind you of our letter dated November 7, 2013 and our reminder dated February 5, 2014 sent to the Secretary of MoEF and copy to the concerned authorities of Gujarat Government. In these letters we had called your attention to glaring gaps in meeting environmental, social and safeguard norms in the ‘Statue of Unity Project’ planned inside Narmada River, 3.2 kms downstream of Sardar Sarovar Dam and Shoolpaneshwar Sanctuary. Till date, we have received no response from your office on issue that concerns statutory social and environmental safeguards. We had sought your authority to stop all activities related to this project in absence of ...

By Our Representative Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), a Cleveland, Ohio, US-based independent research group, has pushed the panic button by saying that top industrial Gujarat-based Adani Group’s latest announcement of agreement with South Korea-based multinational company, POSCO, for joint investment in the Australia’s coal mining project in Queensland province is likely to “send shiver down the spine of global coal investors.” An Adani release said, the two have signed a “binding agreement” to develop a “rail line to open up the Galilee Basin coal reserves in Queensland”, which will “ lead to the opening of the Carmichael mine project.”

By Our Representative Close on heels of the Government of India’s controversial decision to raise the foreign direct investment (FDI) limit in defence sector to 49 per cent, the powerful Reliance Industries Ltd’s New Delhi-based think-tank has asked the Modi establishment to make “a critical doctrinal shift in the country’s approach to national security”: transform the Indian defence sector by “encouraging the large-scale entry of the private sector into the defence research and development and industrial sectors.” And for this, it indicates, there is an urgent need to increase the country’s defence budget, which is allegedly very low.

By Rohit Prajapati* In May 2002, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) released an extensive report saying that “there was a growing gap between the efforts to reduce the impact of business and industry on nature and the worsening state of the planet”. The Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) in its press release dated April 13, 2014 stated, “A new report by the IPCC shows that global emissions of greenhouse gases have risen to unprecedented levels despite a growing number of policies to reduce climate change. Emissions grew more quickly between 2000 and 2010 than in each of the three previous decades.” The IPCC added, “There is a clear message from science: To avoid dangerous interference with the climate system, we need to move away from business as usual… Stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere requires emissions reductions from energy production and use, transport, buildings, industry, land use, and human settlements.” Formal token capital ...

By Our Representative In a new analysis, titled “Corporate karza maafi at Rs 36.5 trillion”, well-known scribe P Sainath, known for his authoritative reports on rural India, has said that in 2013-14 the former UPA government had “foregone” revenues that could fund the rural jobs scheme, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) for three decades, or the public distribution system (PDS) for four-and-a-half years. He suggests there is no change in this, and the movement towards giving concessions to the big and the mighty continues.

By Our Representative Yellapragada Sudershan Rao, new chairman of the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), is all set to trigger in a new period of what he calls “real history”, proudly claiming that he has no qualms in declaring his appointment is “political.” Involved in a project to “fix” the date of Mahabharata war, Rao has said, “The Ramayana and the Mahabharata are true accounts of the periods in which they were written”, contesting historians DD Kosambi and Romila Thapar who have seen them only as great epics having different versions added to them for over 1,000 years. To him, they are “myths from a western perspective” alone.

Dalit representatives demonstrate in Veraval By Our Representative Unrest has gripped Dalit villagers surrounding a fast-expanding town off southern Saurashtra coast in Gujarat, not far away from famous Somnath temple. Thousands of villagers, mainy of them Dalit representatives of Saurashtra, gathered outside the district headquarters of the newly-created Gir-Somnath district at Veraval early this week to protest against the state forest department’s move to forcibly occupy hundreds of acres of land being cultivated by Dalits for more than four decades. A representation to the district collectorate, Somnath-Gir, said, “The forest officials entered the fields illegally and removed standing crop. Worse, these officials, who are responsible to take care of environment, removed 30 years old mango trees the Dalits reared.”

By Our Representative Gujarat’s senior environmentalist and social activist Rohit Prajapati has complained to Prakash Javadekar, Union minister for environment, forests and climate change, and the ministry’s secretary Dr V Rajagopalan, that his Gujarat counterpart Ganpatbhai Vasava has “made an illegal announcement about the lifting of moratorium on industrial cluster Vapi, Ankleshwar and Vatva.” The moratorium, imposed by the former UPA government, bans any fresh investments in the three clusters along with tens of others in India, because of their high levels.

By Our Representative The National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR) has said the Union budget for 2014-15 has brought “no significant policy for inclusive and equitable growth as promised by the Modi Government.” Saying that it has “belied the expectations of Dalits and Adivasis”, an NCDHR statement said, “The Union Budget 2014-15 should have allocated Plan funds under the Scheduled Caste Sub Plan (SCSP) and the Tribal Sub Plan (TSP) in proportion to the population shares of SCs (16.8 percent) and STs (8.7 percent). However, the allocation is Rs 50,548.16 crore (8.79 percent) for SCs and Rs 32,386.84 crore (5. 63 percent) for STs.”

A Majur Adhikar Manch protest in December 2013 By Jignesh Mevani* In a recent decision, the Gujarat police refused permission to hold a public meeting to highlight exploitation of construction workers in Gujarat next to one of the biggest real estate projects of the state coming up on way to Gandhinagar. The letter denying the permission to hold dharna issued by the Gandhinagar police reads, “Since the session of Gujarat Assembly is on, we cannot grant you permission, for it can disturb law and order situation in the state.'' The dharna was planned by the Majur Adhikar Manch, which is affiliated with the Gujarat Federation of Trade Unions.

By Rajiv Shah  The latest Census of India figures have revealed that, despite tall claims of the Gujarat government of development having touched marginalized groups of the state, large sections of the state’s tribal population is facing unprecedented unemployment and marginalization of workforce. An analysis of Census’ data on workers suggests that in the total population of the age group 15 to 34, 2.17 crore, 7.13 lakh persons, or around 3.29 per cent, are found to be seeking jobs. Then there is 9.65 per cent of the population – or 20.93 lakh – in this age group which is forced to work as marginal workers for a period of three to six months in a year. However, a comparison drawn with the two most neglected social groups reveals that while the Dalits of the age group face almost a similar proportion of joblessness and marginalization, the tribals’ predicament remains extremely pitiable. The Census data go to show that 9.34 per cent of the tribals (2.70 lakh out of 29.67 lakh) – a...

By Our Representative A new development in Madhya Pradesh may knock hard as setback to the Gujarat government, which is all set to raise the Narmada dam from 121.92 metres to 139.64 metres soon after the current monsoon season. The Jabalpur High Court of Madhya Pradesh has sought explanation from the Madhya Pradesh government, the Narmada Control Authority (NCA) and the Narmada Valley Development Authority (NVDA) to explain why shouldn’t the decision to raise of the dam height be stopped till action is taken on the Jha Commission Enquiry Report on large-scale corruption in the rehabilitation of Narmada oustees.

By Our Representative The Government of India’s move to amend the new land acquisition law, which makes people’s consent mandatory for any effort to take away farmers’ land, has begun. On July 9, hundreds of farmers from 24 villages of Mangoan, Roha and Tala Tehsil of Raigad district in Maharashtra, under the banner of Corridor Virodhi Sangharsh Samiti and Jagatikikaran Virodhi Sangharsh Samiti marched towards sub-division office (SDO), before the land acquisition authority, against what the two people’s organizations calls “forced land acquisition of 67,500 acres for the Dighi Port industrial areas.”

Shantaben, 15th victim of deadly silicosis in 2014 By Our Representative Shantaben Khushalbhai Parmar, 55, has become the 15th victim of the deadly silicosis disease, widely prevalent among workers working in the agate industry of Central Gujarat, particularly in the Khambhat area. She breathed her last on July 8 morning. With the death of Shantaben, the year 2014 has already recorded the highest number of deaths due to silicosis since 2010. She lost her husband of silicosis long back. In December 2011 she lost her eldest son Raju at the age of 35 because of silicosis.

By Rajiv Shah Latest report on measuring poverty authored by a committee headed by former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor C Rangarajan, has found that as many as 11 major Indian states out of 20 have fewer percent of poor than Gujarat. Submitted to the Modi government as a plea to come up with a new poverty criterion that takes into account “public expenditure that is being incurred in areas like education, health and food security”, and linking it with consumer price index, the report says that Gujarat has 27.4 per cent below poverty line people (BPL), or 1.69 crore – 1.1 crore in rural areas (31.4 per cent) and 5.89 crore (22.2 pe cent) in urban areas.

By Rajiv Shah  Prof Bibek Debroy, an economist who is known to have taken a leading role in “authoring” the concept what came to be known as “Gujarat model”, said in his book “Gujarat: Governance for Growth and Development”, released in 2012, that the real growth in Gujarat could be found in rural areas, where poverty reduction has come about as a “trickle-down effect.” Quoting National Sample Survey (NSS) figures, he said, “In rural Gujarat, there has been a very sharp drop in poverty, significantly more than all-India trends. In 2004-05, the below poverty line (BPL) number for rural Gujarat was 9.2 million. That’s still a large number, but is significantly smaller than the 12.9 million in 2004-05.” Based on this, he said, the poverty in Gujarat had gone down during that period by 12.4 per cent, which was one of the highest in India. It seems, however, that in just about two years of his drastic observation, which Prof Debroy kept repeating at several forums, things appear to be ...