Delhi, Chhattisgarh Cong Party Revamp Gets Into Action

By Kajol Singh | INN Live

Congress on Thursday appointed Arvinder Singh Lovely and Bhupesh Baghel as new PCC chiefs of Delhi and Chhattisgarh respectively signalling the party's intent to bring sweeping changes in state units after its debacle in recent assembly elections.

Former minister and sitting MLA Lovely replaces JP Agarwal, who resigned taking "moral responsibility" for the party's worst-ever defeat in the recent Delhi Assembly election. Lovely, 46, has been active in politics since 1987 and is known to be close to senior Congress leader Ajay Maken. 

Tribal Girls Raped In Chhattisgarh Govt. Hostels

At a time when India has passed a landmark anti-rape bill to curb the growing menace of sexual violence against women, the grim reality of tribal girls from Chhattisgarh shows that the situation on the ground is far from ideal. INN investigation revealed how tribal girls were routinely sexually abused in government run schools and ashrams in remote corners of Chhattisgarh.

Girls were raped and physically abused by the hostel authorities in several cases, the girls admitted on hidden camera. The shocker came when medical tests in January 2013 confirmed 11 girls were sexually abused in Jhaliamari Kanya Ashram in Kanker district of Chhattisgarh.

The ashram came into the news after the death of a 12-year old in the school hostel. Official reports suggested that the girl had died due to a severe case of jaundice though on hidden camera the concerned doctors admitted that the girl did undergo a pregnancy test.

Eight arrests were made after the death of the young girl sparked an outrage. Among the arrested were the teachers, hostel warden and the security guard of the Jhaliamari Kanya Ashram.

Not just that, a 17 year old girl from the same ashram was forced into a sex racket by her own hostel warden Anita Thakur. Incidentally, Anita Thakur was awarded the best hostel warden award in 2013 by the Raman Singh government. It was only after there were protests from several quarters that the police arrested and filed an FIR against her.

What is alarming is the fact that routine sexual abuse went unnoticed for four years when hostel guidelines clearly specify weekly medical check ups for the young students residing in the hostels. The IBN7 investigation revealed that there was no monitoring mechanism at the district level regarding the health check up of these students.

And yet these ashrams were touted to be model hostels and a safe haven for tribal children when they were launched in 2007. This project – Adarsh ashram and chhatravas yojana – received huge funds from the Central government.

The government has promised that a fast track court will be set up to resolve the issue as soon as possible. But the parents who send their children to these schools are not satisfied. “If it can happen to other children today, can the school authorities ensure that it does not happen with my child tomorrow?,” a concerned parent said. With school wardens themselves turning perpetrators, there is little hope that they can cling on to.

Why Doesn’t the AP Police Come Clean About Two Missing Tribal Women?

It is easy to know when you have crossed the Andhra Pradesh border to step into Chhattisgarh. An apology of a road that connects to Sukma town takes three hours to traverse a distance of 75 km. The southern part of the state, just like the border areas in Khammam district of Andhra Pradesh, is forest area, where the police stations are heavily fortified posts, protecting themselves more than protecting the local population. Because more often than not, the cops look at anyone who is not in khaki, as an enemy, a Maoist. And if not a Maoist, most definitely a Maoist sympathiser.

And when the law looks at everyone else as an outlaw, they invariably cross the line. Like the policemen from Andhra Pradesh reportedly did on 12 January when they allegedly crossed the border to take away two tribal women – 21-year-old Madvi Parvathi and 15-year-old Kovasi Somidi – from Nimmalagudem village. Home to some 30 tribal families, the village is in Konta block of Sukma district, 3 km inside Chhattisgarh from the border. The tribals engage in farming for their livelihood, growing paddy, millet and chillies and migrating to areas in Andhra Pradesh during the summer to work as labour.

The Human Rights Forum (HRF) team that visited the village four days later, was told by the villagers that an police party, around 100 persons strong, assaulted villagers, including children before taking away six of them into the forest. They were taken to a spot, about half a kilometre from the village, near a hillock where there were remnants of a camp set up by the Maoists a couple of days back. The security personnel accused the six villagers of providing food and help to the Maoists and allegedly beat them.

It was after repeated pleading that four of them were let off but Parvathi and Somidi were taken away. Parvathi who is three months pregnant, was also allegedly partially disrobed by the all-male contingent of cops.

For days after the `official abduction’, the villagers kept combing the forest areas in search of the two women, or perhaps their bodies. Finally they walked nearly two hours by foot to Cherla, a mandal headquarters in Khammam district and narrated the events to local reporters. They also met the Bhadrachalam sub-collector Narayana Bharat Gupta to plead for help in locating the duo. He offered them hope but since yesterday, has been pleading that Nimmalagudem is not part of his jurisdiction.

For the villagers, to be caught in the crossfire between the police and Maoists is nothing new. They say every time there is movement of Maoists in the area or any incident involving the Maoists, the Andhra Pradesh police targets and harasses them. VS Krishna of HRF recalls an incident in Nimmalagudem in 2008 when two men were picked up from the village allegedly by security personnel, taken to Cherla and shot dead. A petition was also filed in the State Human Rights Commission in the case.

After messages sent by fax to the Chief Justices of the Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh High courts seeking their intervention did not yield any result, a habeas corpus petition has been filed in the Andhra Pradesh High court today, to get the police force to come clean on Parvathi and Somidi.

Almost at the same time as the petition was filed in the High court, Gajarao Bhupal, ASP of Khammam police denied having picked up the women, claiming no police party visited Nimmalagudem on January 12.

“There should have been at least a case of missing persons filed in Kishtaram police station under which Nimmalagudem falls but there is no case there. The Chhattisgarh police too has not enquired,” he said.

In an ironical twist, the villagers plan to travel to Khammam district today to physically mount pressure on the administration came unstuck because the North Telangana unit of the Maoists has called a bandh in the area on some other issue.

That human rights are violated both by security personnel and Maoists is not new. For years, villagers in Naxal-affected areas of north Telangana faced either police harassment or Naxal kangaroo courts, just because they did not have the courage to say no to a man with a weapon. But if India’s “greatest internal security threat” is to be fought by the state making several innocents in the geographical ‘Bharat’ pay the price, it would be a war that would only widen the divide that already exists between the two Indias.

Meanwhile, the state needs to answer : Where are Parvathi and Somidi?

Litmus Test For Chhattisgarh’s Public Health Care

Chhattisgarh is all set to allow private diagnostic centres at public health facilities within three months. Critics are appalled by the idea of business space for private players in public health facilities while supporters feel it will improve the pallid health care infrastructure in the State. 

The architect of the new model, J.P. Mishra, chief of the State Health Resource Centre — the State Health Department’s technical assistance body overseeing the project — is a strong proponent of public-private partnership. He spoke in an exclusive interview to INN defending private enterprise in public health.

Now that the bids are closed for private diagnostic centres vying to set up shop in Chhattisgarh’s government hospitals, can you give us a road map of how and when these centres are going to start operation?
A committee will be formed and bids will be opened by the committee in front of the bidders. By the end of the month we should be able to identify the laboratories [companies]. Then there will be an agreement between the companies and the government. The lab officials will visit the places [hospital and health facilities] and identify the spaces to be allotted to them. In terms and conditions, we have said that within a month of execution of agreement they should set up the labs. So by April-May first lot of labs should be operational, if everything goes right.

Why do you think this model of privatisation of public health infrastructure will improve health care?
This is public-private partnership [PPP], not privatisation of health care. Privatisation is selling of ownership. I am rather buying in, contracting in services. I am inviting the private sector to set up shop on my [premises].

Will this provide better health care?
Why not? Let me give you the example of Compfed, the Bihar milk cooperative. Throughout the 1990s they were making profit, unlike other PSUs of Bihar, because they perfected the art of outsourcing. They started giving incentive for good work and penalising [bad work]. Compfed gave incentives to truck operators for timely delivery of milk and penalised them for sloppy performance — the ‘bonus and penalty’ model. I tried that in health care

You have to understand the importance of outsourcing. If I can get something done cheaper, why should I be doing it myself? That is why the automobile industry outsources 70-80 per cent of production.

The automobile companies are driven by a motive of profit…
Profit is not the only motive, improving upon efficiency is. Yes, I would say my unit cost of providing the same services should become less. Today I have to employ a person or put up a machine regardless of how many people avail the services. Therefore, between a salaried person’s earnings and the work the person does, there is no built-in incentive for the person to be efficient.

Hence a ‘bonus and penalty’ model?
Let us take the example of PPP in diagnostics. The turnaround time [delivery of reports] has to be less than 24 hours for at least 95 per cent of the cases referred to the diagnostic centres by the hospitals.

If the labs manage to do that for a full year then they get an extension of one year. That is, now we are giving the diagnostic labs permission to operate for 10 years, it will be extended for one more year.

If they fail, the tenure will reduce to nine years or even less. That is a ‘bonus and penalty’ model.

How will you monitor this?
I had considered the idea of getting the NGOs involved.

One reason why PPP is getting questioned is because we have seen how the Bihar model of health care privatisation collapsed.

The Bihar model did not work because the qualifying criteria were very soft. Then they started with big players. The big players left because the government did not maintain its side of agreement. Payment was not regular. Even the existing players are thinking of going out. In Chhattisgarh, the payments for the patients referred by the hospitals are to be made by an autonomous body called Jeevandeep Samiti, located in the hospitals. One side of my job is to ensure that the laboratories work and on the other side I have to make sure that the payments are done on time.

In remote areas of Chhattisgarh you do not have adequate staff or equipment. So if the government could not manage to take health care to remote areas, why do you think the private parties will be able to do it?
I do not have a direct answer to that. All I can say [is] you will know after we open the bids, whether they are interested in setting shops in Bastar, Sarguja etc. I agree with you that for remote areas there is no alternative to government services. If you look at the focus, the vast majority [of labs] are to be set in difficult areas. [What] we are trying to do is to organise service delivery in such areas where there is no services. For that we can provide incentives to those who are willing to go to remote areas. And I might start only from Bastar and Sarguja. I am not here to make a profit for itself.

What about the diagnostic facilities already existing in the district hospitals? Are you going to shut those down?
It is not a question of shutting those down. It is not like everything is available everywhere and nothing is available in some places. Look at the package — X-Ray is excluded from [proposed private labs in] district hospitals and health facilities as it is available there.

What will happen to the laboratory staff in health facilities?
In some cases we have to redeploy the staff.

You cannot run a parallel lab if you have given it to a private player. So the lab technician has to be redeployed to a place where services are not given through PPP.

There are 500-odd PHCs where we do not have technicians.

That is, from district hospitals a person will go to remote areas?
I have not done that detailed an analysis. There could be a choice of a private player taking the person on deputation.

So in a way, these district hospitals are going to get affected?
To some extent. It has to be seen facility by facility. You cannot generalise.

What about the cost to public?
We will follow Central Government Health Services (CGHS) rates. And give a 10 per cent discount on that. CGHS rate are less than market rates and thus it compels the private players to reduce their rates. It has happened in Tamil Nadu. The money will come from Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) and Mukhyamantri Swasthya Bima Yojana (MSBY) for in-patients. For outpatients, a part of it will come from Jeevandeep Samiti, paid for by the State government. And we have asked for a small amount from State budget for PPP services because we are asking the Jeevandeeps to pay for outpatient cases and they do not have a fund for that.

‘In Time, Everyone Will Pick Up The Gun In India’

By Ajit Sahi

Rengam, a Naxal ‘commander’, speaks to HNN from his hideout in the forests of Bijapur

What’s your role in the Communist Party of India (Maoist)?
To fight the Salwa Judum and bring back the people they have displaced. To those who went to Salwa Judum camps, we say, “Come back to your villages, homes and fields. Raise your children here.”

Why have the people gone to the Salwa Judum camps?
[When the Salwa Judum began in 2005] the Naga battalion went from village to village, burning houses, raping women, slashing people’s throats. The people ran to the camps in fear.

So why aren’t they coming back from the camps?
The Special Police Officers (SPOs) tell them, “If you go back to your villages, we’ll come and kill you.”

You should know that the government and the media portray Naxals as bloodthirsty gun-wielding insurgents with no popular legitimacy.

That’s a wrong image. The people don’t have guns in their hands. The people are in abject poverty and in terrible distress. They have nothing to eat. They have no cattle for farming.

Chhattisgarh Home Minister Nanki Ram Kanwar told HNN that the government wants to bring development to Bastar, but the Naxals don’t allow government agencies in here.
Is that so? Then why haven’t they brought development to the villages and the towns along the roads? If they aren’t able to enter deep in the forests, no one is stopping them from bringing development to the accessible parts.

What exactly is the fight between you and the government?
The people elected [local Congress leader] Mahendra Karma as an MLA. But he began terrorising them. He would be paid off by village sarpanchs [council chief] from development money. The people opposed this and cut off the money to him. In retaliation, he raised the Salwa Judum against us, filling it with young boys and giving them guns, which were used against the villagers.

The government says the Naxals have killed more than four times policemen than the police have killed Naxals.
That’s false. In Bastar alone, more innocent people than policemen have been killed.

When I spoke to Varavara Rao, seen as an overground Naxal ideologue, he justified killings, calling it revolutionary violence. Do you to agree?
If the government doesn’t understand [what we want], then we have no option but to take to the gun. The people are totally ready to bring the Revolution.

Do you think you can defeat the Indian state with the gun?
We will win, because millions are poor and they are ready [for the Revolution].

One can appreciate the need for a revolution to bring relief to the poor. But those who picked up the gun in Punjab, Kashmir and the northeast were brutally put down. How can you win against the state?
If the people buckle under, then it would be the fault of the leadership and point to a lack of preparedness by the people.

The Chhattisgarh Government says the state’s natural natural resources should be harnessed for India’s benefit. What do you say?
The government should first answer for the Bailadila hills. When it began mining the iron ore there, it had promised to employ the locals. Did that happen? No. The iron ore is shipped from Bailadila to Vishakhapatnam, from where it is sent to Japan. The locals go far and wide for livelihood. Because of that experience, people elsewhere refuse to part with their lands.

A Jungle Warfare School has come up in Chhattisgarh where military officers are training SPOs to take you on. By contrast, you live in the forests and know little else. Do you fear they will finish you?
After all the training, they’re still humans, right? The Naga battalion had similarly been trained. The people fought and defeated them.

In the name of the people you kill policemen. Why?
The police are also poor; they are Adivasi boys and girls. But they take up the gun for the government and oppress the people. That’s why we kill them.

Would you respond if the government calls you for talks?
We have seen in Andhra Pradesh that the government deceived us in the names of talks. It cannot be trusted. We won’t meet it.

Why do you say that Salwa Judum was set up to protect the projects of the Tatas and Essar in Chhattisgarh?
How will the Tatas work here without police protection?

If the government winds up Salwa Judum, would you stop police killings?
Whether or not we stop killing the police is for later. The government must first let the people in the Salwa Judum camps go back to their villages. We killed them because they terrorised people, destroyed crops, and stole Rs 1 lakh from villages.

Dantewada SP Rahul Sharma says that the government will finish you off.
How does it matter what Rahul Sharma says? Can he come in here?

Gandhi won freedom by nonviolence. Bhagat Singh picked up the gun.
Bhagat Singh chose the right path. He was a revolutionary from childhood and had a great fervour to fight on behalf of the people. It was because Gandhi refused to take a stand that Bhagat was hanged.

The Taliban have picked up the gun.
Pakistan’s is a religious strife. Our struggle is class conflict.

If you have the people’s support, then why don’t you fight elections?
We don’t believe in elections. For so many years politicians have won elections. Did they bring any freedom to the people?

But you aren’t those politicians.
Once we sit on the chair, we will become like those politicians.

But when the Revolution comes, you will have to sit on the chair, right?
But that will be the people’s government.

Mao won in China with the gun. Will Indians really pick up the gun?
They will. It might take years. But everyone will pick up the gun in India.

Do you oppose schools and hospitals?
We are fine with schools. But the government builds a school block and uses it for the police. So the people don’t want schools. We want hospitals, too.

And electricity?
We don’t need electricity. We’ve never had it. The wood in the forest is good enough.

Development is seen as roads, electricity, jobs. How about you?
But electricity is not free. And the people don’t have money to pay.

Would you agree to an autonomous administrative unit?
No, we won’t accept any such thing.

Is Bastar a part of India?
Bastar has no connection with India.

Do you want independence for Bastar?
Not just Bastar. Slowly, all of India will become independent.

Is India free or subjugated — ghulam?
Ghulam

The Trials And Tribulations Of Undertrials In Chhattisgarh

By Vinod Soni (Guest Writer)

Criminal trial, which drags on for a long time, is worse than the punishment. I recently visited Chhattisgarh Central Jail along with some of my friends through the Legal Aid Services. Apart from being exciting, the trip had the objective of giving us, upcoming social workers, who would form an essential part of the Legal Aid Services all over country as professionals, a sneak preview of the big task that lies ahead. We were to visit New block of the jail, which is basically a jail for undertrials. Before entering the main area, one has to undergo a lot of checking for security and nothing, except a notebook and pen, is allowed inside.

Chhattisgarh Order Revives Old Question: Can Secular Constitution Work In Hands Of RSS-Ridden Bureaucracy?

The founding fathers were clear that civil servants should not be permitted to join political organisations such as the RSS.

The Chhattisgarh government’s notification this week allowing state employees to join the controversial Hindutva organisation, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, has revived two questions. First, will communalised officials be able to uphold the Constitution in its letter and spirit? And second, should the RSS still be treated as just another cultural organisation that lacks political overtones?

'Humanity, Charity Still Exist In Great Indian Doctors'

By Mithilesh Mishra / Raipur

In rural Chhattisgarh, haunted by poverty and fragile healthcare, a 55-year-old man weighs only 28kg; an eight-year-old boy will die of rabies because his labourer parents work for twelve more days before seeking medical help; and doctors try hard to save a woman who has consumed pesticide.

When I first see the woman, she is lying on a bed in a clean and spare room. She is unconscious, her head thrown back, her neck muscles straining. She has swallowed poison in an attempt to kill herself, and when we first enter this room where she lies bedraggled and insensate, Dr Yogesh Jain looks up and says he is sick of getting these cases.

A Peep Inside Chhattisgarh's 'No Vote Zone' In Elections'14

By Mithilesh Mishra | Raipur

SPECIAL REPORT According to data collected during last year's Assembly polls, 15 polling booths across villages which fall under the Konta Assembly constituency recorded zero polling percentage. Time, they say, flies. But in Chintalnar, ever since the Salwa Judum movement began in 2005, it first froze and then turned backwards.

Situated in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district, Chintalnar has no roads, no hospitals, no electricity, no administration. But the village, which hit the headlines after one of the bloodiest Maoist attacks claimed 75 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) men and a policeman in 2010, is a cause of envy for its nearby villages which have the dubious distinction of polling zero votes for more than a decade now.

Maoists rule India's 'Red Corridor'

By Sudha Ramachandran

Indian Maoists hijacked a train with 800 passengers in the eastern state of Jharkhand on Wednesday morning. Although the crisis was defused within five hours, when the Maoists released the train and its passengers, the incident has sparked grave concern throughout the security establishment.

The ease with which the Maoists were able to stage an operation of this magnitude - and at a time when security has been tightened for general elections - has laid bare yet again that it is the Maoists' writ, not that of the government that runs through this part of the country.

The train was on its way from Barkakana in Jharkhand to Mugalsarai in the neighboring state of Uttar Pradesh when it was hijacked near Hehegarha railway station in Latehar district. Around 200 Maoists are said to have carried out the operation. A railway station in Palamu was bombed as well.

In March 2006, a train was hijacked in the same district. Passengers were set free after 12 hours. The Indian Railways have been targeted repeatedly by the Maoists. Besides holding-up trains, they have blasted railway tracks, burned railway stations, looted weapons from railway police and abducted personnel.

No passengers were hurt in Wednesday's hijacking and hostage drama. The operation, which took place on the eve of the second part of India's month-long five-phase general election, was aimed at scaring voters into staying away from polling booths.

Maoists have called for a boycott of the polls in the states of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Bihar. In a bid to disrupt polling during the first phase of voting last week, they detonated landmines, raided polling booths and torched electronic voting machines. Around 20 people were killed and scores injured on polling day alone.

Analysts have sought to downplay the impact of the Maoist's poll violence. Bibhu Prasad Routray, research fellow at the Delhi-based Institute for Conflict Management has written that "Maoist violence on April 16 affected a meager 0.09% (71) of the 76,000 polling stations that were identified as vulnerable in the first phase." He argues that Maoists suffered damage in the violence they sought to inflict on the security forces in the run-up to voting.

While the Maoists have carried out spectacular attacks and did disrupt polls to some extent, they were not fully successful in effecting a boycott. Voter turnout in the constituencies worst hit by Maoist violence was a respectable 50%.

Maoist influence runs through a stretch of territory referred to as the "Red Corridor". This extends from the Telangana region in Andhra Pradesh through Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand up to Bihar. Areas in western Orissa and eastern Uttar Pradesh are also under Maoist influence. And they have some presence in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka as well.

The area where the Maoists operate has grown dramatically in recent years. In the early 1990s the number of districts affected by varying degrees of Maoist violence stood at just 15 in four states. This rose to 55 districts in nine states by the end of 2003 and to 156 districts in 13 states in 2004. Maoists are believed to be operating now in around 200 districts (of a total of 602 districts in the country) in 17 states.

Government officials point out that these statistics and the name Red Corridor have conjured up images of Maoists being in control of a large swathe of land and posing a threat to the Indian state. An official in Chhattisgarh's Bastar region told Asia Times Online that while the Maoists do control "some area" in Dantewada district and are able to carry out big attacks in several states, in most areas of the Red Corridor they operate as a hit-and-run force.

"They do not threaten the government, either at the state or the federal level and they are nowhere near sparking off a general uprising," he said, drawing attention to the diminishing public support for the Maoists and increasing resistance to their diktats.

Human-rights activists argue that while the Maoist threat might "not have Delhi on its knees, it is a fact that the problem has laid bare India's failure to deliver good governance, to respond to the plight of the poorest and most marginalized sections of its population".

Unlike jihadi violence that comes from across the border in Pakistan, Maoist violence has its roots firmly in India. Indeed, the Maoist problem has left India red-faced.

Districts that fall in the Red Corridor are rich in minerals like iron ore and bauxite. But the people living there, who are largely Adivasi or tribal are desperately poor. Exploited by forest officials, contractors, mining companies and middlemen and neglected by the state, villagers in the Red Corridor are among the worst off in the country.

And it is to liberate them from their oppressors and the Indian state that the Maoists claim to be waging their armed struggle.

It is true the Maoists have improved life for the Adivasis by forcing local officials to dig wells or pay better wages to the villagers. But over time, the liberators have turned oppressors themselves. Villagers who don't obey the Maoists have been killed and Maoist violence stands in the way of development projects.

The scale of Maoist operations has grown dramatically over the years. In November 2005, more than 1,000 Maoists stormed a jail in Jehanabad in Bihar and freed about 350 of their jailed comrades. Armories and camps of the police and paramilitary forces have been raided. A week ago, they signaled capacity to stand and fight the security forces. Around 200 Maoists stormed a state-owned bauxite mining company in the eastern state of Orissa, taking around 100 employees hostage. They battled for more than nine hours with members of India's Special Operations Group and its Central Industrial Security Force before they finally retreated.

Analysts have drawn attention to increasing Maoist attacks on infrastructure. P Ramana, research fellow at the Delhi-based Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses, has pointed out that 62 telecommunication towers were damaged by the Maoists in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Orissa in from 2005 to 2008, with 43 of these occurring in 2008. These attacks are aimed at disrupting "communication amongst the security forces, as well as between 'police informants' - who have been provided cellular telephones - and the security forces, in order that operations against the rebels get impaired," he writes.

The Maoists have also been blowing up power lines and service towers. In May 2007, they blew up three 132 KVA high-tension towers in the Bastar region, plunging six districts into darkness for a week and disrupting normal power distribution for a fortnight. "Functioning of hospitals, communication systems and rail traffic, besides iron ore mines was badly affected," Ramana points out. In June of last year, two 220 KVA towers were blasted depriving 15,000 villages of electricity.

Maoists have displayed their military capability through their high-profile attacks on railways and other infrastructure. They have been able to inflict losses running into millions of dollars on the state they are seeking to overthrow.

But simultaneously they are inflicting heavy losses on the people they claim they are going to liberate. They have worsened the daily lives of some of India's most exploited people.

A BJP MP in Bastar is washing people's feet and stirring resentment against Christians

Over the last few months, Hindutva groups have stepped up their activities in Chhattisgarh’s tribal region, leading to attacks on church-goers.

On Friday, when thousands participated in the Run for Unity in New Delhi, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the residents of Madhota village in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar district ran around the courts in Jagdalpur to deal with the fallout of the social divide deepened by the visit of the local Bharatiya Janta Party MP.

On October 9, on the invitation of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Dinesh Kashyap, the BJP MP from Bastar, came to the village, washed the feet of 35 people and announced their return to the Hindu fold.

Why Congress Is Likely To Lose Battle For Middle India?

By Ankit Trivedi / INN Live

The Congress should have been riding the anti-incumbency wave to power. INN Live travel across central India to discover why the party is floundering. The analysis of INN Live tour shows the anti-Congress wave is dominated in central India states while Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) puts its strong hold with a strong leadership and enormous public support despite Congress party's public services. BJP's main agenda is to expose the scandals of Congress regime and show the party's grass-root public work towards minorities and rural people. Congress mostly works in urban areas to populate its populist schemes and utterly failed to reach rural India in these regions. INN Live minutely analysed the entire situations and sketched as following state-wise sequences.

Focus: Can Rahul Gandhi Reinvent Congress Glory In 2014

By M H Ahssan | INN Live

Rahul Gandhi is a transformed man. Long preoccupied with the distant future of the Congress, he is now just as concerned with its immediate prospects.

In the last fortnight or so, Rahul has had a series of meetings for the party's manifesto committee with a host of senior party leaders and Cabinet ministers in attendance. He has met more journalists in the last 15 days than he has in nine years of his political career, albeit for pen-down, off-the-record meetings in small groups. 

Keeping Minor Girls In Lockup At Night, Chhattisgarh Cops Breaks The Law, Triggers Unrest Amonmg Citizens

Three young girls were allegedly chased, beaten, made to march for eight hours and locked up in a police station. Next day, they were sent 400 Kms from their homes.

A note put up before a magistrate in Dantewada by three adivasi women, Somdi, Gangi and Lakme, recounts the events of April 27 that have resulted in their daughters – three minor girls, one aged 15, the other two aged 17 – being taken 400 kilometres away by the police.

Chhattisgarh Government Decided To Celebrate 'Mother's And Father's Day' Instead Of 'Valentine's Day' On Feb 14

The BJP government in Chhattisgarh wants to purge February 14 of any hint of romance.

The Chhattisgarh government wants to save school children from classmate crushes and instead get them to love their parents. Earlier this week, the state education directorate sent out circulars to the district education officers, asking them to ensure that all schools celebrate “Matri-Pitri Divas” or Mother’s and Father’s Day on February 14.

A government spokesperson, who requested anonymity, said that it was “obvious” why the state had chosen Valentine’s Day for such a celebration.

Editorial: What 2013 Results Mean For Poll 2014 Scenario?

By M H Ahssan | INN Live

The results of the 2013 assembly elections in Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan are out but those looking for clear pointers towards how the next general election will play out are likely to be left scratching their heads.

The Bharatiya Janata Party turned in a spectacular performance in Rajasthan and wrested the state from the Congress. It has retained Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, the latter with a significant increase in its seat share. But in Delhi, the BJP failed to properly ride the wave of anti-Congress sentiment, yielding crucial political space to the Aam Aadmi Party and falling short of a clear-cut majority.

'Indian Mujahideen Planned 'Big Terror' During Elections'

By Kajol Singh / Delhi

The Indian Mujahideen planned to follow up their terror attack in Patna last month with explosions at Nalanda University, 100 kms away and strikes in Chhattisgarh, which votes this month for its next government, say investigators.  

The National Investigation Agency says that it has pieced together the plans of the Mujahideen based on documents that it recovered from a small hotel it raided earlier this week in the hope of finding one of the main planners of the Patna attack.  The papers that were found in a room that was allegedly used by the suspect, who remains untraced, proved that some of the men who planted the seven bombs that exploded in Patna were also behind serial blasts in the pilgrimage town of Bodh Gaya in July.

Congress To Win: Is Modi ‘Wave’ An Overhyped Myth?

By M H Ahssan / INN Live

Narendra Modi needs to take an urgent break from his frequent-flier programme to consider a few uncomfortable questions that are popping up everywhere. Have his rallies turned into political clones of T-20 games where people get together, scream, shout, clap, cheer and then go home after having a good time? Have Modi shows been reduced to item numbers in the overall tamasha of electioneering? And, finally, is Modi actually a factor in the ongoing Assembly elections? 

Obituary: V C Shukla, The Uncrowned King of Chhattisgarh

By Mithilesh Mishra / Raipur

At 84, Vidya Charan Shukla fought his multiple injuries valiantly for more than a fortnight. Eventually the veteran Congressman lost the battle of life bringing to an end a sixdecade-long career that had negotiated many humps, seen several highs but could never reach the pinnacle he always thought he was cut out for. But fate had another plan, or how else can one explain Shukla joining the convoy he was not initially supposed to be a part of. 
    
It is premature to say if death of Vidya ‘b h a i y y a’ would have any repercussions on the Chhattisgarh polls, but one thing is sure: the politics of the state would never be the same again. Even from the margins he wielded enough influence, especially in Raipur, the city Shuklas had lorded over for nearly a century.

Women Labours: 'Everywhere, Yet Invisible'

Does participatory development result from the actions of local groups themselves, or is it shepherded by NGOs? A documentary film on migrant women labourers explores their coping strategies against poverty and restricted roles, as well an NGO's efforts on their behalf. Mahita notes Women Builders' sensitive and unsentimental portrayal. 

The lot of unskilled labourers is generally a hard one, but hardest for women, who often do not receive legitimate wages, or get complete access to those earnings once home. Not only do they earn less than their male counterparts, if they work as part of a family unit, they frequently do not get paid at all. Most of them are employed on a project-by-project basis, and have no insurance against periods of unemployment, because their work belongs to the unorganised sector. Existing legal regulations (Abolition of Contract Labour Act, 1971), which provide women labourers with maternity benefits, are seldom enforced. 

A large proportion of these unskilled women workers tend to be migrants and thus, seasonal labourers, who are rarely given sickness or even accident benefits. These migrant workers often lack access to clean drinking water or facilities for bathing, not to mention any means of caring for their children when they are at work. They are also vulnerable to police harassment, since their civil rights are not recognised. 

How should development efforts tackle the problems of these women, who suffer the debilitations of poverty more than any others? The last decade has witnessed a growing consensus among development practitioners about the correct approach towards poverty alleviation: they stress that instead of being top-down, the process should be participatory and collective. This vision, advocated by NGOs and governments alike, is a noble but problematic one. Does collective action truly evolve from local women's groups, or is it marshalled and shepherded by NGO intermediates? Are NGOs themselves outsiders? Do they recognise the self-help strategies local communities have already evolved? 

These questions are taken up in Women Builders, a thought-provoking new documentary on women labourers in Chhattisgarh - labourers who are as yet not unionised but might soon be encouraged to act collectively by institutions like the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the International Federation of Building and Wood Workers (IFBWW). 

When so much hype surrounds the 21st-Century working woman and her purchasing power, it is instructive and chastening to dwell on the lives of these women, who also inhabit the working world, but in a completely different capacity. Women Builders was commissioned by the ILO in consultation with the IFBWW and produced by Jandarshan, a community filmmaking unit based in Raipur, Chhattisgarh. Following a screening organised by the Oxford Ethnographic Film Society, I had a chance to speak with the film's producer, Margaret Dickinson. It was Dickinson who, along with course leader Stephen Jinks (of Sheffield Independent Film and Television) and NDTV cameraperson Natasha Badhwar, trained the twelve students who now comprise the staff of Jandarshan. 

  The first half of the film depicts the lives of four women working at a building site in Chhattisgarh, while the second portion examines the impact of the organising activity carried out by two Gujarat-based NGOs, Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA) and Bandhkam Mazdoor Sangathan. SEWA has 20000 members who work in the construction industry. It arranges for them to get accident insurance; it also trains women in masonry, so that they can weather the impact of job losses which are expected to increase with the growing mechanisation of the industry. Despite this training, contractors rarely hire women to perform skilled work. Nevertheless when women labourers do break through this barrier, their prospects improve significantly, as happened in the case of one SEWA-trained woman, who doubled her salary when she began working as a bricklayer. 

The breadth of SEWA's work does not, however, extend into the sphere of migrant women workers, arguably the worst-off casual labourers. Bandhkam Mazdoor Sangathan is one of few organisations which tries to help these women. In addition to standing up for their rights when they face police intimidation, they also provide them with basic amenities like drinking water and bathing facilities, as well as education for their children. 

The two-fold structure of the film - it is both a portrait of four women working on building sites, and a commentary on the efforts of NGOs to organise them - means that the two narratives can seem disconnected. If the first section is a collection of human stories, focussing on the lives and histories of these women, the second half owes its premise to the film's genesis as a commissioned work. Despite the involvement of the ILO and IFBWW, Women Builders takes a rather provocative look at the role of NGOs and collective action in bringing social justice to these women. 

The film's structure means that, having come to appreciate and admire the self-reliance and resilience of its protagonists, the viewer also contemplates the NGOs portrayed from their perspective. The distance between the two worlds becomes especially apparent in a sequence depicting Indian and foreign delegates at an international conference on women's labour organised by SEWA. As they present papers (in English) on necessary legislation to protect women labourers and guarantee their rights, the women who are the focus of this entire debate look bemused, and often, bored. Obviously, organisations like SEWA play an important role in improving the lives of women labourers, and Dickinson is quick to brush aside any suggestion that the documentary might undermine their effort. 

Nonetheless, she keenly emphasises that "there is solidarity and a strategy amongst those working together, despite the absence of collective organisation". Indeed, one of the most inspiring moments in the film occurs when a few women address their mobility difficulties by saving enough to purchase their own bicycles. Although many of these women are primary wage earners in their families, coping with the chronic unemployment that afflicts their husbands, in cases where both spouses are working, the women often establish informal babysitting arrangements with their neighbours, paying stay-at-home mothers to watch over their children. The over-riding impression is of a group of women who are aware of their own needs, and have the initiative and intelligence to fulfil them, finances permitting. By taking matters into their own hands, they themselves make a difference to their lives. 

Part of the filmmaker's brief was to make a film which would be "useful to those working with women labourers". That said, Dickinson admits that screenings of the film before members of the IFBWW and the ILO evoked a mixed response. The ILO collaborator, Jill Wells, liked the film, and Dickinson elaborates, "we agree about the value of collective organisation and unionisation but it is not the be-all and end-all, and so, whatever people can do on a smaller scale is to be encouraged". The IFBWW associate, Fiona Murie, was not as receptive to the film's conclusions. Dickinson recalls, "her attitude suggested a certain criticism because it didn't show enough of the IFBWW". 

More importantly, most of the women who were interviewed were also shown the film. The original plan was to show the film on the building site, but when contractors raised a fuss about the women missing working hours, the programme had to be moved to a community hall in the evening, which made it harder for the women involved to attend. Although unable to go to that screening herself, Dickinson says that she heard that the women expressed a great deal of interest in the first half, which focussed on their lives, but showed surprisingly little curiosity about the second section (perhaps they too felt as detached from the goings-on as their counterparts in Gujarat). She feels that this might have had little to do with their attitude to the subject matter per se. It was more likely, she says, that they found it "difficult to read the subtitles (from Gujarati) fast enough" and were distracted with pressing domestic duties awaiting them at home. 

Keen not to exclude the women and their perspective from the finished film, she responds sharply when I bring up the recent controversy surrounding Zana Briski's Oscar-winning documentary, "Born into Brothels", on the children of prostitutes in Calcutta. Feted largely in the West, Briski has faced much more resistance from Indian film critics and NGOs for her perceived self-importance and condescension towards the society she depicts. When I ask Dickinson if the outsider/insider conflict is an issue in her work, she replies that it is certainly something she is aware of, and to that end, has always worked with all-Indian crews. "But", she continues, "I think the Indian press pick too heavily on it. Jandarshan did another film on a tribal project by a foreign student who lived in a village for two years. I think, having lived in that environment for so long, she would be likely to have a better view of that reality than say, an Indian journalist coming down from Delhi". 

Describing the details of her own work, she says that her crew worked hard to gain the trust of the protagonists, many of whose male colleagues were initially suspicious of the film-makers' motives, believing them to have a prurient interest in focussing on women. She explains that prior to filming, one of the Jandarshan trainees, Ajay T.G., spent a lot of time taking photographs of the women, who "liked this, because they couldn't afford pictures themselves". No one had filmed them before, and Dickinson says she wanted to create "a non-victim portrait, and highlight their energy and competence". 

Despite the presence of tragedy in so many lives - one of the women profiled left primary school to start work because her mother died, another works to provide for her paralysed husband, yet another young woman is victim to an unhappy marriage - this is not a tragic portrait. Their lives are difficult but they cope. When I point out that the film opens with a woman directly addressing the director, and querying why he is filming her, Dickinson adds, "yes, the woman at the start of the film is sharp and thoughtful, like many. You know, they are undaunted women, despite their difficult lives. I wanted to show their condition, without making them into victims". 

The documentary appears to make a deliberate effort to reveal certain positive elements in their lives - for example, showing them eating together irrespective of caste differences. When I bring this up, she says that she wanted to illuminate the complexities in their lives: the complexities generated as a result of moving from village to city in search of work. She elaborates, "there is a certain romanticism associated with village life, (we) tend to lament when people have to leave their village, whereas it can be quite restrictive for women, especially on caste grounds. I wanted to show how being in a town changes some things for the better, by breaking some of those barriers". 

This impression of women working together in a spirit of solidarity is what the viewer leaves with: an awareness of the strong bonds formed through their shared experiences as labourers. It remains to be seen if this sense of community can be expanded - either through their own initiative or through processes of collective action - to empower them even further. Women Builders is a sensitive, yet unsentimental view of a social group that is very present and all too absent at the same time: they provide the backbone to our buildings, but remain unrecognised and unrewarded for their contribution. For giving us a glimpse of this reality, as well as for its provocative take on the question of collective action and social improvement, it deserves to be seen.