Janata Vikas Manch

Differently-abled women should get a due place in the women reservation bill

2009-07-18T13:05:00.000-07:00

By Dr Sruti Mohapatra

‘Women have been waiting for this since the last fourteen years. We have heard many assurances but we hope that this time the government is going to deliver on the assurance. As far as my party is concerned, 100 percent support is assured the day they bring the bill into parliament for passage.’ Brinda Karat, Politburo member, Communist Party of India (Marxist) .

‘The manifestos of many political parties talk about women empowerment. Especially the Congress Party has it in their manifesto. Girja Vyas, Congress Party leader

Women constitute half of the society throughout the globe and so is the case in India too. But majority of women in our country, burdened with domestic responsibilities, remain illiterate, exploited and dominated by men. Women’s best interests and priorities are thus neglected in a male dominated patriarchal society of which the present parliament is an extension. With growing literacy levels, exposure and economic strengthening, in recent years, women have become concious of the stigmatized life they are leading and also of their under-representation in elected decision making bodies.

Presence of women in such bodies will make a qualitative difference in increasing the empathy for their concerns. So to undo centuries of discrimination and exploitation and redress gender imbalances some sort of reservation or affirmative action is needed.The understanding of such affirmations, reservation, includes notions such as equality of opportunity, social justice, positive or protective discrimination, compensatory discrimination and so on. Reservation is not thus an insidious and invidious discrimination but is a benign, positive, acceptable and necessary discrimination to tilt the balance in favor of hitherto historically deprived, oppressed and repressed classes of our society.

In 1992 Rajiv Gandhi made a move to earmark 33% of all seats for women in panchayats. Today, panchayats in thousands of villages in India are headed by women, and chief ministers of several states are - or have been - women. Yet, any attempt to advance the presence of women in the chambers of Parliament itself has failed time and again. Only 10.8% of the directly elected national representatives - 59 members of the present Lok Sabha's 542, - are women. Even in the Rajya Sabha, where members are appointed and therefore can be more easily chosen to represent a wide spectrum of India, only 10% seats are held by women. And not even one of them is a woman with disability.

Unless the visibility and representation of women is enhanced in parliament the representation of women with disability will remain a dream. Hence, the passage of this bill must be dealt with utmost urgency. Disability is a relevant social matter, and with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) coming into force from May 2008 it is now mandatory for all countries to ensure protection of rights and active participation of persons with disabilities and thus give them the right to citizenship. Key elements of citizenship include being part of a community and making choices about your own life (such as where you live, or the type of work you do). Citizenship gives a person rights but it also carries responsibilities. All citizens should have equal rights and equal responsibilities. However, almost all disabled people, in India, are not able to enjoy their human rights and freedoms on an equal basis to other citizens. This is because of general lack of knowledge and understanding within society about disability, and also to the lack of disabled people participating in decision-making processes around policy or services that affect them. By promoting an increased understanding of disability and supporting the participation of disabled people in public life, political process and policy making, for example, the rights of citizenship for disabled people will more likely be respected and ensured.

The Disability Scenario In India
Government of India has passed the PWD Act for equalization of opportunities, protection of rights and full participation of persons with disabilities in mainstream society. The PWD Act, 1995, provides for reservation of 3% of funds in all poverty alleviation schemes, 3% of seats in educational institutions and 3% of job vacancies for the disabled. But the main problem is that these schemes, policies and legislations are not easy to access.

Lack of information is a major barrier to the progress of disabled people. Besides, the PWD Act has broadly adopted a multi-sectoral approach, which is not effective as except the nodal Departments, no body owns the program. Very few organizations are penalized for not providing barrier-free environments. Even government organizations have not managed to meet the 3% job reservations for persons with disability.

Inclusive education too has largely been a failure: mainstream schools do not have facilities for children with disability thereby effectively excluding them from the first level of social interaction that would help towards developing a more sensitized and aware population. In light of all this, the implementation of the Act needs clear focus, goals and sense of accountability. This is possible with active involvement and participation of persons with disability in mainstream activities.

Women With Disabilities

Concerns of women with disabilities continue to remain marginal in India where they do not even have access to basic needs. Women with disabilities face discriminatory treatment vis-à-vis women and men without disabilities. According to the Indian Census of 2001, women constitute 42.457% of the total population of persons with disabilities in India. Despite the numbers, their voices remain unheard and the existing legal framework fails to address specific problems faced by women with disabilities.

Infanticide of the disabled is widespread, with baby girls being at higher risk. A newborn with Spina Bifida was starved to death by her parents and family in Haryana despite the intensive counseling, support and medical assurances of an NGO and the doctors. The medical, nutritional, educational, emotional, psychological, sexual, recreational and employment needs of a disabled daughter are the last in the list of priorities of a family.

In a research study, the percentage of girls with disabilities going to school (38.34 percent) was found to be much lower than the percentage of boys with disabilities (61.66 percent) getting an education. In India, only 54.16 percent of all women are literate. With such a high rate of illiteracy among women in general, the chances of girls with disabilities of getting an education are extremely poor. Thus, many women with disabilities spend tedious hours employed in cottage industries, in work for which little education is necessary, whereas with a proper education they could be lawyers, administrators, etc. The problems that confront women with disabilities are even more severe in the rural areas. The inadequate or total lack of access to information, health care and rehabilitation services is further compounded by much higher illiteracy rates, longer distances to services and facilities, if they exist at all, and more severe conditions of poverty than in urban areas. In addition, traditions and prejudices that discriminate against women are more widely practiced in the rural areas. Decisions regarding the lives of women in India are generally taken by their fathers, brothers or sons. And again, it is more so for women with disabilities.

Forming part of two disadvantaged and minority groups (disabled people, and within these women), they find themselves up against a double discrimination, as well as various barriers which make accomplishing objectives essential in everyday life very difficult. Higher unemployment rates, lower salaries, less access to medical care, lack of education, poor or no access to programmes and services aimed at women, and a higher risk of suffering physical and/or sexual abuse are just some of the social aspects which women with sensorial, physical or mental disabilities face. This discrimination is the worsening of the age-old discrimination women have always suffered, more severe but harder to fight, which affects aspects such as education, employment, marriage, family, economical status, rehabilitation.

Disability has a profound impact on an individual's ability to carry out traditionally expected gender roles, particularly for women. Although both men and women with disabilities face difficulties in fulfilling their expected gender roles, as long as a disabled man earns a living, his chances of getting married and having a family are much more than those of a disabled woman. A disabled woman is perceived as one who is unable to perform her traditional roles of wife, mother and home-maker because of her disability, even if she may be able to do so in reality. For example, a woman with mobility impairment may be perceived as one in need of physical assistance in self care and grooming, and therefore unable to carry out the domestic tasks that require mobility and physical labor.

Some studies report that women with disabilities are less likely to be married than disabled men. This is largely due to negative attitudes and stereotypes about what disabled women can or cannot do, particularly in societies where marriages are arranged by the elders and is a contract between the concerned families rather than the individuals. There is misconception that because of her physical disability, a woman may not be competent in any sphere. In addition, because there are few positive role models for women with disabilities, many myths prevail about them. As a result, many disabled women come to consider themselves as 'non-persons, with no rights or privileges to claim, no duties or functions to perform, no aim in life to achieve, no aptitudes to consult or fulfill.'

In this dismal scenario we need leaders, who are women with disabilities, in positions where they can influence laws, policies and attitude by their voice and visibility.

UNCRPD And Women With Disabilities

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UNCRPD, the first internationally binding instrument on disability rights, acknowledges in its preamble, ‘the difficult conditions faced by persons with disabilities who are subject to multiple or aggravated forms of discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic, indigenous or social origin, property, birth, age or other status’. It also recognizes ‘that women and girls with disabilities are often at greater risk, both within and outside the home, of violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation’ and emphasizes ‘the need to incorporate a gender perspective in all efforts to promote the full enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms by persons with disabilities.’ The substantive provisions of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities pertaining to women with disabilities is summarized below:
Article 3 (g) – Principle of equality between men and women.
Article 6 – Responsibility of the State Party to recognize the multiple discrimination faced by girls and women with disabilities and undertake measures to ‘ensure the full and equal enjoyment by them of all human rights and fundamental freedoms’, and to enable the realization of the rights by ensuring ‘full development, advancement and empowerment of women’.
Article 16 – Protection from exploitation, violence and abuse. Ensuring of ‘gender sensitive support’; providing of ‘information and education on how to avoid, recognize and report instances of exploitation’; formulating women-centric policies and legislations to address violence, its identification, investigation, and punishment.
Article 28 – Ensuring access of all, ‘in particular women and girls with disabilities…to social protection programmes and poverty reduction programmes’.

Sub Quota In Women’s Reservation Bill

Women are not a ‘single entity’ in themselves and are themselves divided into weaker and empowered sections. There is a concern that while 33 per cent quota will help women from the upper caste to enter Parliament it will not be ensure representation of those from the most backward classes. Hence, sub-quota in the reservation bill is as much needed and based on the same philosophy of Dr. Ambedkar when constituted reservation for SC and ST in Constitution. According to S R Ilyas of the Muslim Personal Law Board, Muslims have been ‘historically under-represented’ in the Indian Parliament.’ In this scenario sub-quota for Muslim women is need of the day. In the present Parliament itself representation of the community is 50 per cent of the proportion of their population. As per Dr B R Ambedkar Sewa Dal and Samajik Nyay Morcha a quota without a sub-quota will augment inequalities in the country and fail to serve its purpose as Dalit women, who are the most backward in the country, need representation to get their due share in mainstream society.

Quota For Women With Disability in Women’s Reservation Bill

The proposed women’s reservation bill calls for reservation for women at each level of legislative decision-making, starting with the Lok Sabha, down to state and local legislatures. Further, if the Bill is passed, one-third of the total available seats would be reserved for women in national, state, or local governments. The bill also states that ‘in continuation of the existing provisions already mandating reservations for scheduled caste and scheduled tribes, one-third of such SC and ST candidates must be women.’ Women with disability have not got much recognition by the traditional women’s movement activists and hence in this context quota for them within the reservation is required to attract attention to their issues.

This sub-quota is unlike other sub-quota demands:

Women with disabilities have been marginalized by mainstream women’s movements in India. These women face a triple handicap and discrimination due to their disability, gender and developing world status, mainly poverty. They have been consistently denied the traditional roles assigned to women. It is assumed that they are incapable of undertaking family responsibilities or obtaining gainful employment. Further, with rampant female foeticide and the unwelcome girl-child, a disabled girl-child is at the receiving end of even more contempt and neglect.
33.3 percent seats in panchayat elections have been reserved for women already. A million women are being elected to the panchayats in the country every five years. This is the largest mobilization of women in public life in the world. But there is not a single woman with disability amongst this million.
Although women have occupied seats in the legislatures, it is simply that they have not addressed the questions which pertain to the problems of women with disability at all. The demand behind the sub-quota in Women's Reservation Bill is that women representatives from disability sector should address the specific problems of their constituency and also highlight the disability issues pertaining to women.
In India the citizen has been conceptualized abstractly as someone who holds rights that are common to all. This bearer of rights or the citizen, note, has no name, no gender, no caste and no class. It has now been recognized that universal rights alone do not serve the least advantaged in a deeply in egalitarian society. For instance, the rights to land do not mean anything in a society where women with disability, especially the mentally challenged, have traditionally been excluded from inheritance of property. Because our society is unequal, different sections of citizens need different rights that address their specific condition, in addition to universal rights. Therefore, women with disabilities need special rights to guard their person and their dignity.
Provision of sub-quota within the bill is constitutionally illegal as the constitution prohibits reservation on religious and caste grounds in the Parliament except for the SCs and STs for which it has made an exception. But the Parliament has already passed a law to protect the rights of persons with disability (PWD Act 1996), hence conceding to the above demand will not require any amendment of the constitution.

Close on the heels of appointing Meira Kumar as the country's first Dalit woman speaker of the Lower House (Lok Sabha), UPA has now committed itself to reserve 50% of its seats for women in village councils and city municipalities in its 100-day action plan. This radical move will give a substantially larger representation to Indian women in a country with a population of 1.1 billion - an increase from their current entitlement to a third of the seats in urban and rural councils. When viewed along with the government's commitment to push for the path-breaking Women's Reservation Bill - that seeks to reserve a third of the elected seats in parliament and in state legislatures for women - this move will ensure the largest-ever political space to Indian women compared to any other country in the world at any time. And, at this hour, it is pertinent to lobby for a sub quota for women with disabilities, to give a voice to the ‘invisible minority’ in India’s women movement.

The author is the founder member of Shared Entertainment and Recreation (SHARE). You can send your feed at janatavikasmanch@gmail.com. Please visit www.janatavikasmanch.blogspot.com for more details.

Chalta hai attitude will render Orissan youth a mere spectator

2009-07-12T08:46:00.001-07:00

By Rupak Johnson

The youth of Odisha have developed a very casual attitude toward every spheres of life, be it professional, social or political. By refusing to shape their attitude in tune with the time, they have developed a habit of showing indifference or a lack of concern for the matters of grave concern often by giving a simple explanation — what can we do?
This regularly repeated behavior pattern i.e. habit, is admissible in certain cases but when it becomes a general inclination or tendency — that is, the attitude is then geared towards ‘Chalta hai’ mode. It is an ominous sign which renders youth powerless in the matter of decision-making. This is a big stumbling block which is responsible for keeping youth from being a ‘mature and contributing citizen’. Not only it affects the health of a society but the state’s overall progress is hampered too. Do the youth understand that they are responsible citizens of this beautiful land endowed with minerals, natural resources and a vast coast-line? Shouldn’t they feel they need to stand up and raise their voice against any injustice or discrimination whether by the State or the Center? It is rather unfortunate to note that they do not know how to belong to the State.

Youth: reaction to issues
Recently, the Congress led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government presented Railway budget and subsequently the Union budget. Prior to that, Delhi High Court passed a landmark judgment decriminalizing homosexual acts between two consenting adults. But there were hardly any collective reaction from Odisha youth on these issues. As far as Railway budget was concerned, once again Odisha got a raw deal compared to its neighbours. For development of poverty-stricken State, there have been legitimate demands for having railway lines linking whole of Odisha, but nothing happened. Instead of raising funds for this purpose, the Centre reduced budgetary allocation from Rs 949.34 crore last year to Rs 715.22 crore, a drastic cut of Rs 234 crore or 25%. In addition, demand for development projects like coach factory to generate employment was turned down despite the fact that the Indian Railways gets more revenue from Odisha than any other State in the country. The youth of Odisha face a lot of problem as a result of insufficient railway facilities but they remain silent; they are not bothered about their rights and privileges; they leave everything into the hands of God. Call it suffering in silence !
Talking about the Union budget, it was pointed out that Odisha’s shares in Central taxes were reduced from Rs. 8,849.49 crores to Rs. 84.95. 93 crore. That means the State would receive Rs. 353.56 crore or 4% less assistance from Centre. If an annual gross devaluation of money (inflation) of 10% is taken into considered, then it was a reduction of around 35% and 14% for the railway and general budget respectively. Such a drastic cut! And that too when Odisha is reeling under the impact of global economic meltdown! Should the youth not raise their voice over this step-motherly behavior? Instead, they remained silent and once again, left everything into the hands of God. Call it saintly behavior!

Now take the much-talked-about issue relating to the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people (LGBT). This topic generated a lot of heat in the country and the youth from other parts of the country expressed their views and opinions. But, in Odisha, the youth did not bother to attach any importance to the topic; they feel it is not their prerogative to discuss the ramifications of the Order. Their common refrain: it’s too hot a topic to discuss in the public domain. Call it piety!
Well, this indifferent attitude is visible even in matters related to their education, the very essence of their survival in this cut-throat world. Despite facing several problems at the education front, they keep mum, for reasons best known to them. Call it ‘Chalta hai’!
Youth: Way forward
Getting over this unhealthy attitude requires a reorientation of the mind with its thoughts, feeling and behavior. The youth need to stimulate themselves for a greater activism — both social and political. It has to be a state of mind, from regressive to progressive, from worrisome inhibition to joyful exhibition. For this to happen, the youth, first, need to recognize their fault and then work on it with a sense of urgency. Catching up with the forward-moving world demands a lot of character and tenacity of purpose. There are certain following points that can serve as guiding principals to be effective as well as politically correct:

Professional Attitude: It goes without saying that professionalism is the key word in today’s competitive world. It is in great demand not only in the big business world but also in the political world. A professional person is the one who keeps one’s word, sticks to deadline and delivers on promised line. Commitment is an integral part of professional attitude and is appreciated by one and all. Compare Bhubaneswar, the capital of Odisha with any other capital city of the neighbouring state like Andhra Pradesh and the difference is there for everyone to see. This State can not afford to lose its image any further; the youth have a task cut out for them.

Accountability: A majority of the youth in society has a herd mentality; they lack the ability to think as individuals and therefore, find it difficult to face situations where accountability is required. This is the very reason why there is a great dearth of leadership quality among Odisha youth. Accountability calls for practicing restraint i.e. nurturing an inner discipline which is a pre-requisite for playing roles of greater responsibility in the public arena. There is no place for arrogance or so-called super-ego which is a sign of individualistic attitude. The youth should learn humility which comes along with accountability; it’s a virtue that unites and is very much needed for the State.

Competency: Before putting the house in order, one must put one’s own self in order. If the youth have to achieve success, they have to create such a workforce that demonstrates the knowledge and competencies for superlative performance on the job. It requires a killing instinct, dedication and a desire to perform at a higher level on a regular basis. Bangalore or Hyderabad have become IT hub of our country because of its competent youth brigade. It is high time that Odisha youth woke up to the reality in the larger interest of the State.

Political Understanding: The youth, in the State, have a very vague and narrow idea about politics often terming it as activities associated with criminals and people with malicious intentions. And, therefore, they avoid it even going to the extent of ignoring their right to franchise! This is because of a lack of understanding about the power relationships in politics that is interrelationships between the people, groups or organizations.
This power relationship is a strong means to build a force which can ensure transparency and accountability in the matter of governance. A need has arisen in the State to cultivate the culture of politics among the youth through debate and discussion/s. And for this, the youth need to come forward.

There are greater challenges ahead for the youth as the competition is getting tougher day by day; global standards have left no place for complacency. Doing away with ‘Chalta hai’ attitude would be a wise step; otherwise the development work of the State would go into the hands of `Outsiders’ and the state youth would be rendered mere spectators !!!

The author is a communication expert and regularly writes on Youth affairs. Please send your comments and suggestions at janatavikasmanch@gmail.com and visit http://www.janatavikasmanch.blogspot.com/ for more details.

Centre has always betrayed Orissa due to meek State leadership

2009-05-28T12:52:00.000-07:00

By Sanjaya Kumar Pradhan
Finally, Congress Led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) got majority, 261 out of 543 Lok Sabha seats, surprising not only the opposition camps (BJP-led NDA, Left led third front and fourth front) but the Congress itself. People have once again proved all pre-poll and exit-poll wrong.
Was it really a mandate for Congress led United Progressive Alliance (UPA), or against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) or the so called third and fourth front? Is the victory not that of UPA but the defeat of opposition (Third and Four Front)? Is the new ruling alliance UPA worthy?
These are the questions which have cropped up in the post-poll. This article has a detailed analysis of politics in India with special reference to Orissa. Do voters have really an option to choose their government or are they forced to vote a political entity into the power due to lack of a better choice? Above all, the straight question is whether UPA at the Centre and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in Orissa have done any significant work for the people to win their mandate again?
National scene
Congress emerged as a single largest party getting 202 seats and UPA - 262 seats. Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Samajvadi Party (SP), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Janational Dal Secular- JD (S) have extended their unconditional support to UPA taking the tally to 320, surpassing the magic figure of 272 to form the government. However, there are some key concerns and myths that need to be analysed.
First, we need to analyse, how UPA got 261 seats. People have not voted for UPA but against the opportunistic, unworthy, unrealistic parties (especially third and fourth front). Third and fourth front were really threat for the country, who were all set to blackmail the central government for their selfish and local issues to fulfil short term goal of their party, compromising the national integrity. They have completely lost the faith of people. Third and fourth front dominated states like Andhra Pradesh (TDP), Tamil Nadu (AIDMK), Kerala, West Bengal (both LEFT), Bihar (RJD, LJP) and UP (SP, BSP) have given huge success to UPA, which has helped UPA to occupy the power at the Centre.
Popular Myths:
Congress is trust worth party: Is completely false. The party, which has ruled the country for more than 40 years and still have slogan that it will work for the poor people. The previous prime ministers of the party have been promising for upliftment of poor, to provide basic education and healthcare and to create employment opportunity improving agriculture. But it has failed completely. In fact, the poverty and unemployment have gone up drastically. It has neither worked for poor people nor it will work in future. Every time the party has come to power has created new scams. It doesn’t create employment but without fail create scams.
Rahul Gandhi charismatic leader: After result declaration, Congress senior leaders have started praising Rahul Gandhi for his charismatic leadership. They gave all credit of the success to Rahul for his extensive tour and public meetings across the country, experimentation of youth leadership, eklachalo in UP and Bihar. The media also joined in the line of chamchagiri Congress leaders. Congress even didn’t recognise hard work of its two Congress chief ministers of Delhi and Rajasthan. Delhi swept all seats; Rajasthan got 20 seats against 4 previous elections. While talking to media, a senior Congress leader continuously denied contribution from Sheila Dixit for the victory in Delhi. The blind followers and chamchas of Congress only know to praise Gandhi family to be in their good book. They keep admiring Rahul and Sonia without understanding the reality on the ground. Do you think that he is a Charismatic leader? Has he really brought more seats to UPA kitty? He has toured all states. Why Rahul’s charisma didn’t work at all in states like Bihar, Orissa, Karnataka and Jharkhand.
In Orissa, NDA alliance was broken, BJD contested alone leaving BJP aside. There was huge possibility for Congress to come to power. The changed leadership, Rahul visited many times but result is very pathetic. Even this time, it got less assembly seats than previous. Congress is claiming that it has given so much resource to Bihar, NDA ruled state. Why did it get less seats (now only 2) than 2004 (4 seats) in Bihar. Where is Rahul’s charisma in Orissa and Bihar?
Youth Leadership: This is a hype that Rahul Gandhi “youth icon” has brought many young bloods into Indian politics. It is true that there are many young MPs in Parliament, but who are they? He himself has admitted without political ground, it is almost impossible to come to Indian politics. They are from the family of previous political strongholds like Chief Minister, Ministers and party leaders. Example – Rahul Gandhi, Son of Rajiv & Sonia Gandhi; Varun Gandhi, son of Menaka and Sanjay Gandhi; M Azhagiri, M Azhagiri and Dayanidhi Maran, whole extended family of Karunanidhi; Milind Deora, son of Murali Deora; Supriya Sule, daughter of Sharad Powar; Jyotiraditya Scindhia, son of Madhavrao; Nilesh Rane, son of Narayan Rane; Agatha Sangma, daughet of P.A.Sangmamany, Sachin Pilot, son of Rajesh Pilot and more. These all are political heir, industrialists.
When these so called political heirs and industrialist or their children study in the best schools (private) in the country, best colleges in the world (LSE, Oxford, Harvard etc) and dream to be astrophysician, IAS etc (otherwise at least they can easily be a doctor, engineer, manager). But at the same time, children in rural and tribal area are struggling to complete their primary, secondary education and rarely go for college education as they can’t afford. They hardly dream to be a teacher, clerk, police habildar, peon, Anganwadi etc. Now, one can imagine the gap between the real Indian youth and the so called “youth icons”, projected by Rahul Gandhi. The rural poor, educated youths are treated as real untouchables and there is no entry to any major political party. All parties are controlled by political heavy weights and reserved for their children and relatives. This is called Political Corruption. Can Rahul Gandhi stop this political Corruption, which is very much in Congress?
Loan waiver and NREGA winning factor: Congress is claiming these two areas like Loan waiver and National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) brought huge success. Congress should introspect. If the loan waiver got success, how many more seats, it has got in the infamous farmer suicide Vidharbha region, Maharashtra. The number has gone down. NREGA is another form of exploitation of labour and decentralisation of corruption. NREGA has given 100 days employment opportunity to one person of each BPL family as unskilled work. It shows that the mindset of Congress. It wants to suppress and exploit people as master and indulge in misappropriation.
Congress knows very well how to rule poor people keeping them away from the real power. They talk about the success of NREGA, which has given the 100 days of employment to rural poor. This is just like throwing roti at barking dog to stop shouting. They provide unskilled labour to rural educated young people paying Rs 10,000 per year (Rs 100 daily for maximum 100 days), when their children are earning in lakhs/ crore per year (as it has been shown that more than half of MPs are crorerpati and have earned 1600% in five years) and spending thousands of rupees daily for their lavish life. This is the attitude of Congress to maintain status quo and poor people should never think about the real power. The money has come to district level through NREGA, so it has to be spent. Therefore, the district wants to achieve their target % of utilisation and spend without really strategic plan for future development and creating community assets. Earlier only the top politicians took benefit, got huge money using their power fulfilled their vested interest. The local politicians also forced them to share some. That is NREGA, which has shown the way for local politicians at Panchayat level to get money providing false documents, doing their work with public money it means the corruption has come to Panchayat level.

Orissa Politics
Now let’s find out the reality in Orissa. The state is blessed with natural resource, potentials human resource (educated, intelligent) but it stands at the bottom of development. Lack of political will and central leadership, Orissa is always betrayed by the Centre. Congress leaders ruled the state maintaining their chamachagiri to Gandhi-Nehru family to retain power. Congress had ruined the state leaving Orissa, one of the poorest states in country. Congress government each term involved in corruption and misused the resources.
The state has been ruled by higher caste (Brahim and Karan) for 95% time and for 40 years by Patnaiks only. However, Biju Patnaik was among the very few national level and vocal leaders from Orissa. He worked hard for the development of Orissa. After the death of Biju Pattanik, Mr. Naveen Patnaik was brought by the party to gain power in Orissa, who led the newly formed Biju Janata Dal (BJD).
Mr. Patnaik claims of corruption-free good governance but what is in the field. The BJP-BJD government did not do any significant development, as it was unable to check the forced out station migration of educated youths in search of employment, to develop agriculture providing irrigation and introducing technology, to provide quality education (primary, secondary or professional), to use existing natural resource, to use grants/ schemes for the welfare of poor.
The government has started selling natural resources of the state at cheap rate only. The frustration of unemployed educated youth and underdevelopment has resulted extremism in the form of Naxalism in Orissa. This discontent is gradually growing in the state. Now government is spending so much resource for empowering police, law & order, which was not required at all. The so called clean government led by Patnaik has created huge corruption in ground for a lay man. Whether, the common people can get the IAY without giving bribe of at least Rs 5,000 (out of Rs 25,000), can get old age pension with giving Rs 500, resident/ income/ caste certificate without giving Rs 100-200 in Tehsil office, school leaving certificate without giving bribe of Rs 50, etc etc, The amount may be small for our political biggies but it really matters for the people to give their hard earnings. Can any development work happen / sanction without giving a share, 30% of the total budget to engineer and BDO at Block level, so contractor takes 30% and the remaining is spent for construction of road, bridge, community buildings. What quality of work, you can expect? The BJP-BJD government did nothing for youth and farmers.
The government claims that it has given rice at Rs 2 per Kg. This is another form of dominance and showing sympathy like congress government to the poor Oriyas. These short-sighted politicians neither worked for inclusive growth nor now working to empower people and making them self-sustainable. The government should empower people to manage (to earn) their family, to educate their children in good schools, to get better health services, to construct own house with hard work etc.
Road map for future
The politicians should give high priority to create employment with dignity (not only unskilled labour) for all, using existing natural resource. The government should work for agricultural development, creating basic infrastructure (irrigation, food storage yard and market), introducing technology and scientific agriculture practices, establishing food-processing units across the country.
The government should provide quality education and other services to all. The basic healthcare will ensure better health human resource, who will contribute for the development of the country. The rural infrastructure, community infrastructure has to be improved very fast. The legal system has to be improved drastically.
Mumbai based writer works in the developmental sector. You can send your comments at janatavikasmanch@gmail.com and visit www.janatavikasmanch.blogspot.com for more information.

A report on Janamata 2009

2009-04-03T14:49:00.000-07:00

Dear All,

Greetings from Janata Vikas Manch.

We have pasted below and attached too a detailed report on Janata Vikas Manch (JVM)’s state level convention on People’s Manifesto “JANAMATA-2009” held on April 1, 2009 at Red Cross Bhawan, Bhubaneswar. The report is prepared by Mr Gobind Ballabh Dalai, a youth activist, JVM.

The convention was organized by JVM in a ssociation with BISWA and supported by Adhikar, Agragamee and Youth Matters.

We have also pasted the Draft People’s Manifesto. A large number of suggestions have been offered in the convention. We will include all the points and a final People’s Manifesto will be released on April 5, 2009.

Motor Cycle Yatra: In line with suggestions offered by the people, JVM plans to take out a state-wide motor cycle yatra to convey the common man about the People’s Manifesto or Common Minimum Programme (CMP). The yatra is proposed to begin from April 8, 2009.

Individuals or organizations interested to join this yatra can confirm their participation through mail. JVM appeals all to support this yatra whole-heartedly to strengthen the political process in the state.

Please feel free to send your comments and suggestions at janatavikasmanch@gmail.com. And, visit http://www.janatavikasmanch.blogspot.com/ for more details.

Looking forward,

Regards,

Sai Prasan
Member
JVM
Bhubaneswar
Date: April 4, 2009

=========================================

A detailed report on Janata Vikas Manch (JVM)’s state level convention on People’s Manifesto “JANAMATA-2009” was held on April 1, 2009 at Red Cross Bhawan, Bhubaneswar

Pritikanta Panda, a member of JVM introduced the non-party people’s political forum and briefed about the mandate and background that JVM started with.

Sai Prasan welcomed everybody to the convention. He said that the entire world is facing an ideological crisis. After the disintegration of USSR, the capitalist system of US is also facing a crisis. The global meltdown has hit India and Orissa too. The Lok Sabha elections and the Assembly poll will decide the political and economic line for the country and the state.

He said that the political parties need to strengthen political processes and people’s participation in politics are keys to the development of any state and country. He cited the socio-political development that Odisha is facing.

He call upon the Youth to play a vital role in the politics. Digging at the political lethargy in this part of the country and subsequent development retardation, Sai Prasan explained the main features of the People’s Manifesto or Common Minimum Programme.

Deliberations of the first session

Speaking on the occasion, Nageshwar Patnaik, chairperson of first session told about the global development in the political scenario and juxtaposing Odisha’s situation. People’s manifesto as a forceful political process is bound to shape the political scenario as a whole. Raising concern over the political development in the wake of the 2009 elections, he made a strong point in having proper understanding and stand of political parties on key areas like agriculture, Education, Health, industry and tribal development. He stressed on the morality of political parties and reforms in political parties.

Mr Patnaik said that a large scale use of black money, much beyond the ceiling of money to be spent, is a matter of concern. Recall of the government,/political leaders, not to vote to any leader, these are some of the reform initiatives that are necessary.
In Orissa’s context, policy on the natural resources leading to the development of the state is necessary. There is political consensus on some key areas of the development.

Ramakrushna Panda of CPI said that the political parties should prioritise the path they want to follow for the development. Poverty has gone to such an extent that 80% of people live on Rs. 20/- per day to sustain their family. When we talk about alternative development, we should talk on collective development. We should fight against the divisive forces inside and outside the country. Hypocrisy is rampant among the mainstream political parties. Land reform is very important but major political parties are silent about that. We are not against the urbanization, but the process of urbanization is affecting the interest of the farmers in terms of SEZ and other major investment in cities only. We are not speaking of loan exemption only, loan should be given but at the same time, we should focus on small and marginal farmers. Those who are getting loans are waived but what about those who are not getting. WTO agreement is totally against the agriculture and is bound to hit Indian farmers.

The introduction of corporate farming is dangerous and bound to degrade the scenario. Exploitative capitalists - big companies are grabbing farmers’ land. We strongly condemn the policy of corporate agenda. Water privatization, Public Private Partnership (PPP) ghost have been surrounding the government. There is no real partnership in PPP at all; government is avoiding national responsibility on key areas. Don’t we have the system and mechanism to provide the basic minimum facilities to the people of the land? We are against water privatization. With regard to Hirakud dam – we are against Hirakud water going to Jindal, Vendanta and Posco. But people are not getting for agriculture. We should priortise the development agenda . We are clear on the interest of farmers, crop insurance is not yet insured.

Panda criticized the BJP for their communal politics. Such an irony, Modi will take the development of Orissa and will teach us. CPI believes in composite culture. Multi-cultural values had to be retained and strengthened and such divisive forces should be kept outside the national interest.

Nageshwar Patnaik gave a view on the RP’s statement. He said CPI and CPI (M) should bring innovative ways of solving the issues of the development. People should give land on lease like it is being done in Japan.

Suresh Panigrahi of CPI(M) welcomed the measure taken by JVM. He said that CPM was in UPA government for a important cause. We saved the insurance and banking sector from getting for development. We should effect the change in the land acquisition policy and displaced should get adequate compensation. People have not got proper representation or compensaton. We should see the cost effectiveness about the setting up of industries. The industry and agriculture should go hand in hand. It is not one after another.

Mineral export should be based on the value added price not like looting. National Mineral Policy, 1995. We advocated the development of tribals and dalits through land policy. The primary health should not be privatized…The primary health should be well accessible. Young blood should be infused into the party to give proper directions. There should be an alternative policy on youth employment.

Indian is a secular country. Various experiments on the political situation in India. The scenario is very precarious. Congress and BJP can not be the two power centres, rather we need an alternative. The state should demand for the proper share from the centre..We will mobilize the people on such an issue of partiality of Centre.

Narendra Swain of BJD spoke about his party’s commitment in fulfilling the dream of the common man and regarding the holistic nature of the manifesto. Responding to a query on forestry, he mentioned that during their government, the land under forest had been increased from 31% to 37 % of total land cover. He also spoke about their party’s stand on having a non-Congress and non-BJP government. He told about his government’s special measure like Gaon Sathi had brought transparency and accountability in NREGS programme.

Second Session on Holistic Development of the state: Issues and Challenges

The session was well attended by the panelists. Ms. Sruti Mohapatra, Dr Dhanada Mishra, Mr Lalit Patnaik, Mr. Achyut Das, Mr Sai Prasan, Mr Ghasiram Panda and chaired by Mr. K. C. Mallick of BISWA.

On inviting the panelists to the discussion, Mr Mallick drew the attention of the floor on the step motherly approach of the government to the non-governmental organizations in spite of their remarkable contribution in the last few years to the development process of the state. Whereas micro-finance institutions are instrumental in the development of the state, issues like social justice, equity and communal harmony are being ensured only by meaningful contribution of the civil society sector.

Speaking on the thematic topic “Disability and Political Action”, noted disability activist Ms. Sruti Mohapatra deliberated on the history of negligence towards disabled people and in Orissa’s context, it is deplorable. She had been fighting for their rights and have drawn the attention of the political parties in the past, but in vain. She demanded that as disabled people are 10 % of the total population, the political parties should give proper representation to the people with disability. In response to one query, she also spoke that whatever changes had happened in the dismal scenario, it had been only by the help of judiciary. However, the political will is required for proper redressal of the issues like provisioning of services and access of the disabled people as ensured by the constitution of India.

Dr Dhanada Mishra, an educationist deliberated on the education scenario of the state and the proposed role the state had to fulfill the commitment. While he felt that public private partnership should be taken in right spirit and it is the need of the hour to understand the compulsion and have innovative solution to the problems. He also raised concern over the pathetic condition of the higher education especially university education.

Mr Lalit Patnaik, political activist spoke on the thematic discussion on ‘Lack of political responsibility for the weak railways in Odisha” and provided a detailed note on the historical injustice to Orissa on railways. He also held poor communication network that to absence of railways in Kandhamal as one of the reason for the large scale destruction in Kandhamal’s communal violence. The density of Railways in Orissa is the minimum i.e. 14.6 km per one thousand square km area though railways in Orissa have more profit to national income.

Mr. Achyut Das, noted social social worker discussed the issues of social exclusion, socio-economic marginalization of the tribal people in the wake of unplanned industrialization process that the state is experiencing in the last few decades. While he asserted that the lack of political will and participation of youth in active politics would severe the situation to a large extent. It is dis-heartening to see the youth workforce to be migrated to other states and living in sub -standard human condition and the state is languishing in extreme poverty.

Mr Ghasiram Panda, social activist long associated with forest right and livelihood issues of tribal people narrated the only successful involvement of people’s movement in forest management in the form of community forest management which has helped the conservation and management of forest. Taking a dig at faulty governmental policy historically, the role of local people in forest management had been paramount.

Mr. Sai Prasan, a member of JVM, had a thorough discussion on the politics of industrialization in the state of Orissa and raised concern over the jeopardized condition of the state in expediting the process of planned industrialization. While, in one hand more than 60 MoUs have been signed over the last few years, actual work had not yet started due to unplanned and lack of farsightedness of the government in implementing the same. He also appealed the political parties to clear their stand and the government should involve people in any negotiation that the government is having with the corporate. He also appealed that the government should keep the MoUs in public domain so that people can know about them and take appropriate steps for proper implementation of the same.

Third session on Young Generation and Electoral Politics

The third and last session on “Young Generation and Electoral Politics” was chaired by Mr Akshaya Kumar Sahoo of The Asian Age and panelist present were Mr N.A. Ansari of Youth Matters, Mr Debi Prasad Prusty of Youth Congress, Mr Jatin Mohanty of Youth Wing of BJP, Mr Baboo Singh of Youth wing of BJD and Mr Rupak Johnson, communication expert.

Mr Debiprasad Prusty of Youth Congress took a dig at the recent change of political leaders into different parties and cautioned that it is not at all a healthy sign of true democracy. He termed it to be opportunistic politics and believes that the people will give answer to such politicians in future time to come. He also raised concern over the economic imbalance and discrimination happening in present time. He also felt sorry to see the income disparity among the common people and the government employees and asked for immediate scrutiny of the policies like NREGS and revision of the minimum wage employment to be 360 days in a year and enhancement in the daily wage. Narrating the historicity of the student’s politics of Orissa, he held the opinion that the students in recent times are not so politically active as it was in 80’s and 90’s. He blamed this to the new generation being more academic oriented and luxury seeking.

Mr Jatin Mohanty of BJP claimed that his party Bharatiya Janata Party had been a young party and believes in the youth’s active role in politics. He also appealed the youth to be dedicated and sacrificing to be part of politics to bring in change in society. He welcomed the debate organized by JVM and reaffirmed the need of organizing such debates.

Mr Baboo Singh of Youth Wing of BJD claimed that BJD had always been promoting youth in the party and recent municipal election of Bhubaneswar is a clear example where party had fielded more than 60% of seats to youth candidates. He also narrated that how it had so happened that young elected representatives are engaged in corruption too. So a mix of youth and experienced people should be part of the political parties for proper functioning of the political processes.
While all the speakers were of the same opinion of role of youth in electoral politics they raised few concerns over the age that we fix up.

Mr Rupak Johnson strongly appealed the political parties to give scope to youth to articulate their demands and their enhanced participation in the political process to bring about significant change in the state of affairs of Orissa.

Mr Ansari also brought the attention of the floor on the corrupt political practices that are going on at present and the lethargic attitude of the government to the development of youth in Orissa. No government had tried sincerely to bring in vibrant youth policy and implement the same. One such attempt only during the ministership of Mr. Ranendra Pratap Swain of BJD had not culminated into policy formulation and criticized the lack of commitment of the government in effecting the same.

Summarising the sessions on various issues concerning upcoming election in the state of Orissa, Mr Gobinda Ballava Dalai of JVM thanked all the participants for their cooperation for being the part of the process. He also opined that it is the beginning and a long path has yet to be covered to see visible change in the state of Orissa’s development scenario in future times to come. He thanked BISWA for getting associated with JVM in organizing the convention. He also thanked Adhikar, Agragamme & Youth Matters for lending support to the convention.

The report is prepared by Gobinda Ballava Dalai, Youth activist, Janata Vikas Manch

Draft People’s Manifesto – Common Minimum Programme

2009-04-03T14:36:00.000-07:00

JVM has prepared a People’s Manifesto – Common Minimum Programme (CMP) with the contribution of experts in various areas ranging from industry, youth, railways, and education to the financial inclusion. These issues have been widely discussed and debated for over three months following which the People’s Manifesto – CMP was drafted.

This People’s Manifesto will be the key theme at the state level convention on April 1, 2009 at Red Cross Bhawan and after a brain storming session, the final draft will be conveyed to the people of the state.

Following are the main points in the ten broad areas:

1. Industry

The global recession has hit both India as well as Odisha. In this context, the industrial policy of Odisha should be reviewed and renewed to tune itself to meet the challenges of globalization in the year 2009.

Both the people and government of Odisha should have an in-depth study whether the proposed 60 MoUs including POSCO, Vedanta and Tata Steel project will benefit the people of the state or they will be in loss at the end of the day. There has to be a cost benefit analysis of these projects. The state government conceded recently that the Rs 52,000 crore Posco project may likely to generate 4,000 to 5,000 jobs. In contrast, thousands of people are to lose their land and livelihood. Besides, the ecological impact of these plants needs to be properly assessed by the independent authorities.
The state government claims to sign 60 MoUs. Both the parties in power – BJD and BJP – should spell out how many of these MoUs have been materialized. And, it must make all the MoUs public.
JVM demands the political parties to follow following things:

1. Odisha government may resolve the problems it is facing in projects like Posco, Tata's Kalinga Nagar project and Vedanta on the following lines:

Ø It should take the people of the area into confidence and democratically sort out the issues in a transparent manner. It may hold referendum too, if necessary, to seek public opinion in the project affected areas.

Ø B. Only paying the compensation to the people against their land and offering them jobs may not be enough. Apart from this, the political parties should explore other options too. The valuation of the land can be done. And, a portion of the value of the cost of the land can be converted into equity which can also make the land owners shareholders / stakeholders in the project. A Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) can be created for this purpose. Like in Japan, the land from the people may be given to the private companies on lease basis and the land losers may be given bulk money for starting their new life and they may be given annual rentals to ensure sustained livelihood.

Ø C. The government should also ensure a percent (may be 50%) of the jobs across the board to be reserved for the locals of Orissa.
2. The state industrial policy must emphasize on how to attract capital from the people of Odisha origin living outside the state to invest back at home in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) sector for the purpose of employment generation.

3. The state has a lot of scope to develop agro and forest industry. The development of the cold storage and the soft skills like honey-harvesting can be encouraged as a SME sector.
4. Odisha has a long marine / coast line. Fisheries and other similar coast related means can be developed as a SME sector.
5. Orissa has a natural beauty which is attractive. The tourism sector has the potential to develop it as an industry both for the tourists as well as Bollywood and film industry which can provide employment and generate revenue for the state. The sea-food can be developed in such way that it can attract more and more tourists.
6. Similarly, if Andhra Pradesh government can develop Tirupathi Temple and Maharashtra can focus on Shiradi, then Odisha government can also develop Jagannath Temple on similar lines.
7. The globalization has hit the deprived section of society the most in terms of jobs. The state government should ensure that the SC & ST population consisting of 40% of the population gets proper facilities for starting their venture.

8. The government should direct even the private professional institutes to reserve seats for this category and financial arrangements be made to pay their fees.
9. Odisha government, along with the private sector, should educate youths telling that the self-employment is the order of the day. They can also be job-providers by adopting SME model.

10. The people oriented industrialization requires mass education. The Dalits, Tribals, minorities and women should be given a proper education so that they can understand how to participate in the industrial-developmental process.
2. Youth

The power of youth is the power of the State. This is true for Odisha where the youth, with their immense capability and limitless energy, can bring about developmental change in the state.

In order to measure up to the desired expectations, the youths would do well to pull its socks together by taking corrective steps. To cope with the challenges ahead, the youths have to equip themselves with the required arsenal.
JVM asks the political parties to adopt the following points for the development of the Youth in Odisha.

Ø Political awareness is the power to choose between right and wrong. The political parties should encourage more and more youth to come forward and join politics to shape the future of the state.

Ø 40% seat for youth in LS and Assembly poll: JVM asks the political parties to impart political education to the youth. And, give a minimum of 40% of seats both in the Lok Sabha and State Assembly polls. The age of the youth can be considered upto 45 years.

Ø Youth Fund: The political parties after coming to the power should constitute a Youth Fund which should be 25% of the total budget plan outlay of the State. The money from this fund should be spent on sports and employment generation programmes. They should be professionally and vocationally trained so that they can start their own venture. The youth should be given a loan from this fund at one per cent interest. A special purpose vehicle (SPV) can be formed to manage this fund.

Ø Entrepreneurial Attitude: A study of the Indian youth suggests that in metro cities youth are opting for 'self-employment' ways, leaving behind the 'employment seekers' mindset. Instead, they are generating employment through self-employment. This is a healthy trend for a country like India where more than thirty crore educated youth is unemployed! In Odisha, entrepreneurial mindset can be developed to work in the field of agriculture, floriculture, fisheries, tourism, small scale industries and several other untapped sectors. The political parties should work towards this direction.

Ø Communication Skill: Communication is a vast subject and it has several connotations. But the topic which is very relevant for the youth of Odisha, in general, is to have a sound understanding and command over English, which is now the language of the global world. Certain manners and etiquettes associated with English should also be learnt

Ø Information & Communication Technology: In the wake of the global economic crisis, the major IT companies like Microsoft have taken a beating. This gives the understanding that the youth must update his/ her knowledge with the time and opt for the advanced studies like Information & Communication Technology. Scores of computer-ignorant youth should learn the basics of computer and its application in day-to-day life. And, the political parties should take initiative to hold such kind of programmes.

3. Secularism:

The violence in Kandhamal has tarnished the secular image of Odisha before the national and global community. It was a failure on the part of the state government due to which the violence lasted for more than a month leading to the killing of innocent people and several thousands of people became homeless.

All the political parties need to do following things if they come to power in the state:

Ø A fast track court should be set up to punish the murderers of Swami Laxmananda Saraswati. And, the same fast track court should punish the criminals involved in the killing of a large number of innocent people and rape of women.
Ø The conversion and re-conversion politics of both the sides should be stopped.
Ø The government should take a special care for the development of SC and ST who are mainly the target of the conversion and re-conversion politics of Christian and Hindu organizations.
Ø The people who have become homeless in the violence should be given adequate protection for their return to their homes in Kandhamal.
Ø The land dispute between SC and ST should be settled and the ownership of the land to the original owners should be restored.
Ø The fake ST certificate holders should be identified and they should be punished for the violation of law.
Ø The state government should ensure that the communal violence in area of the state should be brought under control within seven days of its eruption. If the government fails to control it within the stipulated time, then it should step down
Ø Government should strictly monitor the inflow of the foreign funds for the religious purposes in Kandhamal areas.

4. Women

The women, in Odisha, though account for a considerable chunk of population, have largely been unnoticed in the state’s political and economic scenario. It is rather unfortunate to note that the women have still not woken up to the reality; they are far from exercising their rights bolstered through women empowerment. Odisha is pacing up its effort to size up the impact of the global meltdown affecting its financial health.

The women need to think beyond the four walls; they need to lift themselves up. In the age of machines and computers, Odisha requires large participation of women. Physical power, the emblem of feudal mindset, is passé; mental power is the new mantra. It's time to dream big. Emancipation waits for them at the door.

In this backdrop,

Ø JVM calls upon all the political parties to give 33% reservation of seats in the Lok Sabha and State Assembly poll.
Ø The political parties should ensure that the atrocities against women whether domestic or in public life should be settled within 120 days of the registration of the case in police station. And, the guilty should be punished during the said period.
Ø Special vocational and professional education should be given to the girl students and the government should bear 50% of the cost of this training programme.
Ø The government should ensure that women get loans at a very reasonable interest rates for setting up their ventures.

5. Policy on land:

The rapid industrialization in the state has led to displacement of poor farmers and tribals. The political parties should ensure that a proper R&R policy is in place.

Ø The consent of the people affected on the nature of public interest.

Ø The land acquisition act 1894 allows people not to be displaced without their consent, in the name of public purpose which is yet undefined. Thus, it abrogates the democratic rights of the people. The political parties should ensure that the first principle of a law or principle should be followed while carrying forward industrialization.

Ø The need to minimize displacement.

Ø Rehabilitation as a right.

Ø The principle based on justice that none be displaced without rehabilitation, which has to be viewed as a right of those who are paying the price of development.

Ø A caste / tribe and gender perspective.

Ø The tribals, dalits and other service castes are its worst sufferers. Even among them women feel the most negative impact. So special attention has to be paid to the needs of these groups. The policy should have caste\ tribe\gender biasness in looking into special and specific attention.

Ø The government should distribute unutilized land among the landless farmers, SCs and STs.

6 Agriculture

The globalization has impacted the farmers of the state most. They are facing several problems which needs to addressed by the political parties.

Ø The political parties should ensure that the water is properly given to the agriculture sector instead to diverting it to the industrial houses.
Ø The farmers should get good seeds at a concessional price.
Ø The banking network in the rural sector needs to be expanded so that they do not fall in the trap of money lenders
Ø The bank loans should be offered at reasonable rates.
Ø The farmers’ consent should be taken while introducing organic farming.
Ø The state government should work on the rural electrification,
Ø The setting up cold storage should be encouraged in the state.
Ø The concept of Rayutu bazaaru should be introduced on the Private-public-partnership model from village to urban area level.
Ø A irrigation network should be expanded.
Ø Mechanism needs to be evolved for tackling both for draught and flood in the state.

9. Financial Inclusion

All the indicators of financial inclusion in Orissa is very weak. The people should be conveyed the importance of financial literacy for managing their financial needs. According to a special report prepared by Union government on the financial inclusion, only three districts out of 30 districts meet the national standard of banking in the state. The state needs a proper banking network for a proper implementation of government schemes like NREGS. The political parties should ensure following things:

Ø The state government in consultation with Union finance ministry should recommend RBI to open new bank branches through out the state.
Ø The political parties should educate people about the importance of financial literacy. They should be conveyed the importance of insurance sector and new investment destinations like Mutual Funds.
Ø The people should also be conveyed which are the banks that offer loans at a reasonable interest rate.
10. Governance

The basic necessities like health and education still remains in a bad condition in the state. The political parties should work for the proper health and education facilities for the people of the state.

Health
Ø The state government should have a proper health policy.
Ø The budgetary allocation toward health sector should be increased.
Ø The political party coming to power should ensure that each village in the state has a proper medical facility.
Ø The government should offer special remunerative package to the medical staff including doctors to work in the rural sector.
Ø All the private medical institutes and hospitals should be properly regulated so that the people can get health facilities at a reasonable fee.
Ø The political parties coming to power should immediately take steps to set up cancer hospital in the state.
Education

Ø The political party coming to power should have a proper education policy.
Ø The public spending on the education should be enhanced.
Ø The permanent teachers should be appointed from primary school to university level.
Ø Special emphasis should be given on SC, ST, minorities and women education.
Ø More vocational and professional colleges should be set up.
Ø The fee in the private engineering and management colleges should be strictly monitored.

Ø The government should ensure the teachers across the board are properly paid in time.
Ø Student Unions elections, including in the private educational institutes, should be held regularly. Teachers and parents associations should be encouraged for the proper functioning of the educational institutes. The students, teachers and parents elected representative should be given place in the management board of the private educational institutes and colleges.

11. Social Change:

v ST development:

Tribals have been at the receiving end in the recent past due to the rapid industrialization and communal violence. The political parties should take following steps for the tribal development:

1. Land rights of the tribals must be protected strictly. The government should not take their land for setting up industries without taking their consent.

2. The political parties should ensure that their justified demands and problems should be solved politically. Their rights should not be muzzled in the name of countering ultra-left by setting up Salwa-judam kind of forces.

3. Tribals must get the right price for their forest produce like Kendu leave.

4. The government should ensure that the tribals should also have a say in the mining policies of the government.

5. The political parties should implement reservation in the jobs in the private sector. And, a minimum of seven jobs should be reserved in the private sector. And, after coming to power, they should ensure that all the vacancies reserved for the tribals should be filled up.

6. The political parties should take proper steps to identify the fake ST certificate holders in the state. And, take criminal action against them.

7. Government should help them in setting up their forest based ventures and made available the loans at a concessional interest rate for setting up small units.

v SC development

The SCs in Odisha still face social discrimination. There were reports of their entry being resisted by the upper castes in the temples. The state needs a big social movement on the lines of Tamil Nadu and UP to put an end to the social discrimination. The economic and social development of SCs is necessary for the overall change of the SCs in the state. The political parties should implement following points:

Ø Criminal action should be taken against those who violate the human rights of SCs.

Ø The political parties should ensure that all the vacancies reserved for the SCs should be filled up in the educational institutes and government. The political parties should ensure 15% reservation for the SCs in the private sector for setting up small units.

Ø Government should help them in setting up their forest based ventures and made available the loans at a concessional interest rate.

12. Infrastructure specially railways

Orissa must develop its infrastructure facility which is very important for the development of the State. Apart from roads, railway network is very vital for the development of the state.

Indian railways has neglected Orissa specially KBK and Kandhamala district since independence. Railway is one of the cheapest mode of transport in the world compared to other means. And, the development of the state is very much linked with the railway network.

All the political parties, irrespective of power in Union and state government, must put pressure on the government/s to complete the three lines within five years.

o The Kandhamal-KBK line: Bhadrachalam Road (Andhra) – Malkangiri- Jeypore – Junagarh – Lanjigarh Rd – across Kandhamal District –

o Khurda Road – Balangir line & Talcher – Bimlagarh

Indian Railways should pump more money in developing rail network in the backward regions in Odisha. It can certainly recover its investments and offer profits in the long run. Indian Railways should finish Kandhamal-KBK line and the Khurda Balangir line in the next five years.

THANK YOU

JVM meeting on March 22, 2009 at Red Cross Bhavan

2009-03-21T11:17:00.000-07:00

Dear All,
Greetiings.
As announced, Janata Vikas Manch (JVM) will hold a preparatory meeting at 4 PM, on March 22,, 2009 (Sunday) at Red Cross Bhavan, Bhubaneswar to finalise the plan and programme for the state level convention on April 1, 2009.
All (individuals / organizations) are invited to participate in the meeting to finalise the plan and programme for the April 1, 2009 convention.
Looking forward,
Regards,
JVM Team
Bhubaneswar
09821265458

Odisha's women need revolutionary change in thinking for a holistic development

2009-02-24T08:15:00.000-08:00

A cultural mass-struggle necessary to change the feudal mind-set
By Rupak Johnson
The women, in northern belt of India, have largely been non-participants in the development process of their respective states. Unlike south, where women are understood to have a pragmatic approach towards globalization, the scene in the north is fraught with confusion and embarrassment.
In mid-eastern state Odisha too, the women are yet to come in terms with the reality of industrialization and modernization. However, too late, Odisha also jumped into the development bandwagon to come out of the poverty tag attached with it for a long time. The present government invited the big business players to join hands with them in exploring the possibility of the elusive growth. And the state desperately requires skilled human resources to work as development agents. The huge task ahead is not possible without the participation of womenfolk, who consist of a large chunk of the population. But the question is: How can they be ready for action ?
Women in Odisha: An overview
The Constitution of India provides for equality between men and women according to Articles 14, 15 and 16. But there is denial of equality at various levels because of the strong feudal mindset in the state. The feudal and agricultural societies of the yore brought in the male-dominance concept because of the physical strength of men-folk. Women preferred to play second fiddle by confining themselves within the four walls of the house cooking food, giving birth and rearing children.
The situation still holds true for Odisha, especially the rural belts, where nearly eighty five percent of the total population resides. And despite dominance of mineral-based industries, agriculture continues to be the mainstay of about three-fourths of the total working force. As a result, women keep themselves associated with only household work; they do not want to think anything else; they restrict their outlook.
In Odisha, like other parts of the country, women are still looked down upon. The birth of a girl child is seen as a tragedy even among people belonging to educated class. The girl is considered as a burden. This is the reason why the reports of female foeticide appear in media at frequent intervals. The disgusting practice of dowry also cast the women in a negative picture; she is treated like cattle in the marriage market; she has no value of her own; her education and thoughts are of no meaning.
It is strange to learn that women in Odisha are still far from equal in terms of their rights and privileges. They work from dawn to dusk doing their chores and taking care of the members of the household, but sadly, they are not supposed to have their say in decision-making. It is the male who decide or rather the society, in general, that would want him to decide. The woman, however intelligent and wise, is seldom asked to participate. It is immaterial to know whether she possesses 'a piece of her own mind'; she is a mute spectator who is forced to play a passive role.
What are the reasons?
Women in Odisha have not learnt to assert themselves and they also suffer from low self-esteem. Intelligence Quotient tests have established that the IQ of an average woman is the same that of an average man.
Given a chance, women can perform as well as men in almost all activities. There have been umpteen numbers of examples in the country where women showed they can deliver. Right from Kalpana Chawla, the late astronaut of Indian origin to, Indira K. Nooyi, the chief executive officer of PepsiCo, Kiran Desai, the man booker prize winner, Sania Mirza, the mixed doubles Australian Grand Slam winner to Aishwarya Rai, the international face of Indian film industry, there are ever increasing number of women achievers from our country. These women are known to have been assertive, a trait which implies exercising one's own rights and having conviction — a firmly held belief in one's own self.
A majority of women in Odisha are cocooned in a pile of prejudice and pre-conceived notion. They do not want to come out of the rut; they lack self-will and the urge to achieve a foothold in the society. The state can boast of a handful of women achievers who have given Odisha recognition at the national level.
Nandita Das, Kalpana Das and Roopa Mishra are some of the achievers who brought laurels for themselves as well as for the state. But, the success rate is few and far between. There is a huge scope for women in new-age professions like television, journalism, fashion design and entertainment. It is rather strange to note that the women here are cut-off from the political thinking; they treat politics as pariah. They still believe in clichés like 'the person who does not have any other work does politics'. Strange enough! Living in a globalised world with such thinking is pathetic and calls for serious attention. It is indeed a gross misconception which has been inculcated on their minds by external forces.
The women should look at their neighboring states Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal where women have strong political base. They need to look at Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Punjab and even North-East. A breakthrough initiative for Industrialization and modernization of the state is possible only through the active and collective participation of its citizens at thinking and action level. Odisha's women must act fast.
What to do?
A change in the outlook is possible with the willingness to change along with a positive approach. The slogan 'Yes, we can' played a key role in Mr. Barack Obama's historic victory in USA; it was the essence of his political campaigning. This attitude is required in Odisha too. The women need to have self-belief which will open up news vistas of opportunity for them. They need a revolution in thinking level, a complete overhauling of the mindset. They need to ignite their brain to have a clear vision of the surrounding.
A mass-struggle is required to help them break free from the mindset of feudal societies. The women need to think beyond the four walls; they need to lift themselves up. In the age of machines and computers, Odisha requires large participation of women. Physical power, the emblem of feudal mindset, is passé; mental power is the new mantra. It's time to dream big. Emancipation waits for them at the door.

The author is a communication expert. Please send your feed back at janatavikasmanch@gmail.com or visit http://www.janatavikasmanch.blogspot.com/ for more information.

Odisha's youth must change mindset to meet challenges of global meltdown

2009-02-18T08:25:00.000-08:00

By Rupak Johnson
Odisha's youth is not different than the rest of India as the global meltdown has them badly. The current batch of engineering and management institutes of the state are seeing a bleak future for their placement opportunities in the industry because the existing ones working within and outside the Odisha are loosing jobs left, right and centre.
Both global and national media reports convey that the frustration, anxiety and anger is being easily seen and experienced throughout the globe in the current global economic crisis which is even greater in magnitude than the Great Depression of 1930s. Job cuts, lay-offs, pink slips are the kind of unpleasant words which have become so frequent these days that it cast a shadow on our very survival in this competitive world. The news dailies are replete with reports of demonstrations by jobless youth, right from US to Germany and France in Europe to several regions in Asia. The situation in India too does not present a rosy picture. Soon after the meltdown shockwaves, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex tumbled bringing the business tycoons many steps down the profit ladder. There have been sudden brakes in the business activities of manufacturing and service sectors. Everyone is asking now: what next?
Odisha: Development Issue
Odisha unfortunately has not undergone any significant developmental change in the last 60 years. A comparative study of the neighboring states like Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal can be done in this regard to understand the actual situation of the state. Andhra Pradesh is known internationally as the progressive state both in terms of IT, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and for the forward thinking of the youth.
On the other hand, West Bengal, though a Communist-led state, has seen the sincere efforts of the pragmatic chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya for the economic growth of the state. Moreover, Bengali youth, shaking off their nostalgia are scattered throughout the globe, thus contributing to the welfare of their home state.
Odisha needs development on many fronts starting with the desire to develop first. And the desire takes place when we ponder sincerely over gain and loss. No country or state, in this fast shrinking global world, can afford to remain aloof. There are genuine development requirements in the thinking level of the Odisha people, especially the youth. Development of the self is what required the most at the collective level. We can take inspiration from the youth of Bihar. Though their state is in shambles, their contribution in national politics as well as union civil services are of great significance. They feel proud to be known as Bihari whereas a person from Odisha, living in West Bengal, New Delhi or Mumbai for years, prefers to give a pseudo identity! There is a big question mark on the self-respect. Whom to blame? The so-called politicians who have failed to give a proper identity to Odisha at the national level or the parents who have not taught their children to be proud of Odisha and its culture? It is high time for the youth to change their mindset to actively participate in the future development of Odisha.
Odisha: Youth Mindset
Once ensconced in the cool comfort of their surrounding, the youth, today find themselves trapped with the onslaught of globalization. It is like suddenly changing pace and be on the fast track! The progress in Information and Communication Technology vis-a-vis cutting edge technology have caught them, lagging behind in the race.
In addition to that, the advent of multinational companies in Odisha has further compounded their task of competing with their counterparts at the highest level! The state requires technical manpower not only to develop infrastructure but also to set up its own manufacturing units at various levels to lessen dependency on other states.
The youth can ill-afford to remain in a regressive mindset when they have a greater role to play for the welfare of their state. Gone are the days when they would enjoy the notion that only fathers were required to work to run as big a family as a volleyball team! Ignorance is no more bliss especially when the very question of existence arises with alarming proportions.
Secondly, an attitude which borders on the periphery of fatalism is equally dangerous as it takes the logic out rendering the thoughts irrational and out of sync with the facts. This is known as back-ward thinking due to which not only the individual's progress is blocked but state too, as a whole, has to pay the price.
Though there is no harm in having faith in God and practicing spiritualism, it is the overdose of religious intoxicants that is really hazardous to one's own development as a contributing citizen of the state.
The youth in Odisha has to realize fact that the Time is slipping out of hand. The youth from other states like Bihar, Jharkhand and others are capturing more number of seats not only in premier educational institutions but also grabbing jobs both in public and private companies in Odisha.
Odisha: Way Forward For Youth
It is not too late. In order to measure up to the desired expectation, the youth would do well to pull its socks together by taking corrective steps. Taking cue from the Darwin theory that 'survival is the art of the fittest', the youth has to equip himself with the required arsenal to cope with the challenges ahead in the global meltdown. The steps to be taken are as follows:
1. Political Awareness: It is the political leadership of our country which takes decisions of our day-to-day life right from what we should eat, drink, wear to what we should watch on TV or where we can smoke to and what type of education we should have. It is, therefore, imperative for the youth to take active participation in the political debate and discussions. For example, the youth in West Bengal, Kerala, Bihar and other state are politically literate and they not only take active part in political debate and discussions, but also express their opinion. Political awareness is the power to choose between right and wrong.
2. Communication Skill: Communication is a vast subject and it has several connotations. But the topic which is very relevant for the youth of Odisha, in general, is to have a sound understanding and command over English, which is now the language of the global world. Certain manners and etiquettes associated with English should also be learnt. The economic crisis has made the selection process tougher. 'Creamy layer' is fast becoming the buzzword in the recruiting companies.
3. Information & Communication Technology: In the wake of the global economic crisis, the major IT companies like Microsoft have taken a beating. This gives the understanding that something advanced like Information & Communication Technology is the call of the day. The first step in this regard for scores of computer-ignorant youth would be to learn the basics of computer and get to know about Internet, emailing and MS-office applications like working on Windows, Excel and PowerPoint. One of the pre-requisites in the professional world today is to be a computer literate.
4. Entrepreneurial Attitude: A study of the Indian youth suggests that in metro cities youth are opting for 'self-employment' ways leaving behind the 'employment seekers' mindset . Instead, they are generate employment through self-employment. This is a healthy trend for a country like India where more than thirty crore educated youth are unemployed! In Odisha, entrepreneurial mindset can be developed to work in the field of agriculture, floriculture, fisheries, tourism, small scale industries and several other untapped sectors.
5. Need to develop 24/7 work culture and dismantle the 10 to 5 mindset: Youth must develop work culture if he or she wants to develop Odisha like Punjab, Haryana, Gujrat, Maharashtra and other developed states in India.

This is the right time for the youth of Odisha to introspect and re-position himself or herself for the development of the state in the post-meltdown. Otherwise, the state will remain unchanged even after another sixty years. This is the bitter truth, one may or may not like it.

The author is a communication expert. Please send your comments and suggestions to janatavikasmanch@gmail.com or rupak.johnson@gmail.com . And, visit www.janatavikasmanch.blogspot.com for more information.

Cartoon

2009-02-18T08:20:00.000-08:00

Dear All,

JVM has received another good cartoon from a member.

Regards,

Sai Prasan

Fishermen commit suicides in Kendrapada district of Odisha

2009-02-18T08:08:00.000-08:00

Ashis Senapati
The national media has started highlighting the problems being faced by the diamond industry due to the global meltdown. The suicide cases, committed by the diamond workers in the western part of India, are being reported on the front pages of the national dailies.
Likewise, in the last few years, the media has been focusing on the farmers suicides in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. And, the government was forced to announce relief package for these farmers.
But, surprisingly, the media attention has not gone towards the miserable condition of the fishermen of Kendrapada district.
It is know to one and all in Odisha that the fishing industry was flourishing, a few years back, in Kharinashi, Ramnagar, Batighar,Jamboo, Petachila, Suniti, Kansarbadadandua, and other villages, with a population of about 20,000 fishermen families, in the Kendrapada district.
But now these villages are going through a nightmare with these areas becoming synonymous with poverty, hunger and suicide following the decision of the state government to ban fishing to protect turtles between November 1 to May 31 every year. The turtles lay eggs during the said period along with the coastline.
On the direction of judiciary, the government has imposed the ban strictly since the year 2002. The fishermen are not allowed to take the boat to the 20 km from the coast within the 35 km long Gahirmatha marine sanctuary and five km off the seacoast in other areas.For many in the coastal pockets of the district, the fishing nets and boats have been the breadwinner. These people used to venture on the sea with their country and mechanized boats to catch fish.. But, they do not venturing on the sea to catch fish during the said ban period – November 1 to May 31.
Some tried to fish slyly but they were arrested by the forest and Coast Guard officials on the sea. At least 160 fishermen have been arrested by the forest and police officials. They also seized their boats.
On January 2, 2007 a fisherman was also killed by the forest guards when he along with 14 fishermen were fishing near the Gahirmatha marine sanctuary.The government each year impose "Fishing Ban" from November 1 to 31st, May to protect turtles and one month ban during the breeding season in July. The fishermen never venture on the sea in the month of May due to the heavy wind for which the fishermen are not allowed to fish eight months in a year as a result their fate is hanging in balance.
The government declaring "No Fishing Zone" on the sea has swept their bread basket away, leaving their lives a torn canvass with nothing to paint on it. With their lives in knots, pockets penniless, future directionless and their boats dead silent, many have opted for the painful exit route to get rid off from the financial misery - suicide.
Gourna Saha(38) of Kharinashi , Rosan Mandal (45) of Ramnagar, Juan Mandal of Pitapatha, Bidyadhar Ram(41) of Kharinashi, Jyganta Biswas(52) of Pitapata, Sripad Jahar( 38) of Ramnagar, Buddayananda Saraswati (43) of Ramnagar, Birata Haldar(35 ) of Ramnagar, Sukumar Srarkar(35) of Ramnagar and many fishermen committed suicide in the last three years in the Mahakalapada block of Kendrapara district of Odisha.
Many fishermen became paupers and insane in these areas after loosing their livelihood. Budhananda Saraswati, Dileswar Das, Sital Das , Balai Biswas, Mahadev Das, Susanta Das and several other fishermen of Mahakalapada areas lost their mental balance after the authority impounded their boats.
Sikha Ram(32) the widow of Bidyadhar Ram of Kharinashi said, "My husband committed suicide on December 15, 2006 after the forest officials seized his boat on November 5, 2006 from the Gahirmatha areas. In 2006, he had obtained a loan of one lakh rupees from a moneylender to make the boat. Now it is difficult for me to survive along with my two sons".
Arati (34), the widow of Gournga Saha, a former Sarapanch of Kharinashi Gram Panchayat said " Three years back , the forest officers seized my husband's boat while he was fishing within Gahirmatha areas. After seizure of the boat, my husband was running from pillar to post to get another boat. After loosing all his hope to get a boat, he committed suicide by hanging in his fishing net"."After the death of my husband, I and my two minor daughters have been eking out our livelihood by binding beedies", said a dejected Arati.
Incidentally, the coastal pockets of Kendrapada and its nearby areas have been witnessing an unusual phenomenon of suicides. With nearly ten fishermen allegedly committing suicide in less than three years, the authority is at a loss on how to infuse life into the fishing sector.
But behind the suicides is also sad story of the role of some local moneylenders who behave like the characters of the greedy Shylock in the Shakespeare's famous play "Merchant of Venice". These village moneylenders charge 30 to 60 percent interest from the innocent fishermen, alleged Ramahari Manna a teacher by profession. It may be mentioned here that the banks charge an interest of 12% to 18% depending upon the nature of the loan.

"Unable to provide work, several dry-fish unit owners have closed their units and some fishermen even sold their boats for scrap", said Tapan Mishra a dry-fish unit owner of Mahakalapada.
"Now, the fishermen are pushed to a corner and with no hopes, many hang their fate on the fishing nets that once gave them life", said Arabinda Mandal ,the former Sarapanch of Jamboo Gram Panchayat.
Odisha government should take steps to prevent further suicides of fishermen in Kendrapada district. The government should offer fishermen an alternative livelihood as Pondichery and other state governments do for the welfare of their fishermen. These fishermen can also be given compensation package during the ban period. Then only happiness can return to these villages of Kendrapada district.
The author is a Odisha based senior journalist. You can send your comments and suggestions at janatavikasmanch@gmail.com or senapatiashis@rediffmail.com . And, visit
www.janatavikasmanch.blogspot.com for more information.

Health services in shambles in Posco-hit villages

2009-02-12T07:47:00.000-08:00

By Ashis Senapati

There seems to be no end to the sufferings of the Posco project hit villages of Dhinkia, Gadakujang and Nuagaon gram panchayats falling under Kujang block of Jagatsinghpur district. The health services in these areas are effected as the health officials stopped to enter the villages for the last two years following the blockage of all entry points to these villages by the villagers to prevent the entry of the government officials.

The health services are in shambles in these seaside gram panchayats. The villagers are protesting against the decision of the government to acquire 4,004 acres of land in this areas for the South Korean steel company Posco o build a steel plant with an investment of Rs 51,000 crores.

Commenting on the anti-Posco movement, Sishir Mohapatra, secretary, Posco Pratirodhaka Sangram Samiti (PPSS) said, "Police filed false cases against more than five hundred anti-POSCO villagers allegedly for attacking government officials, forcefully locking the village post office, assaulting pro-Posco villagers and blocking the roads by erecting wooden gates and committing other crimes due to which many anti-Posco villagers are not coming out of these villages - the bastion of anti-land acquisition movement".

The nearby community health center at Kujang is located near the police station of Kujang. And, the villagers are reluctant to visit the government hospital. Some villagers go to the port town Paradeep through sea route. But, it is not possible for many villagers to reach Paradeep through sea route. Last month, police arrested three anti-land acquisition villagers in Paradeep and Kujang when they slyly came out from the villages.

The innocent villagers are being harrased by the police for putting resistence against the land acquisition. A large number of innocent villagers were arrested. Abhaya Sahoo, president, PPSS was suffering from spinal cord problem for which he had gone to Hydrabad. But on his return to Dhinkia, he was arrested by the police near Kujang four months back, Mohapatra said.

"We recently sought the help of some doctors of West Bengal to provide medical helps to the anti-land acquisition villagers. A team of four doctors of Mazdoor Kranti Parisada visited Dhinkia and other villages and treated several villagers. They also provided medicines free of costs to these villagers. The doctors spent three days and treated a large numbers of villagers", said Manaroma Khatua, an anti-land acquisition leader of Dhinkia.

Due to the road block by the anti-land acquisition villagers, health officials are also feared to enter the bastion of anti-Posco movement, said Gadadhar Das a villager of Kujang. "We cut the roads and blocked all the entry points to prevent government officials to enter our villagers to acquire our lands. But we never prevented any health officials to enter our villagers. Some government officials with an ulterior motive are not allowing health officials to enter our villages due to which several villagers are not getting any treatments from the doctors", said Prakash Jena a villager of Dhinkia.
When contacted, Dr Narayan Sahoo, Chief District Medical Officer (CDMO), Jagatsinghpur told this journalist, "All the health workers like ASHA , Anganabadi workers and health officials of Kujang and Earasama are providing health services to the villagers of Dhinkia and its nearby areas. We have never faced any impediments from the villagers to visit their villagers to treat them ".

The villagers of the Posco effected areas have already suffered a lot due to the state repression against the anti-land acquisition movement. It is high time that the state administration take a proper care of these poor villagers. And, the political process should be intensified to resolve the long pending demands of these innocent villagers.

The author is a Odisha based senior journalist. You can send your comments and suggestions at janatavikasmanch@gmail.com or senapatiashis@rediffmail.com and visit www.janatavikasmanch.blogspot.com for more details.

Democratise the development process in Odisha

2009-02-09T08:14:00.000-08:00

By Pravin Patel
Odisha is bestowed with huge natural wealth and possesses rich culture with glorious past. It has a beautiful coast line that not only attracts tourists from all over the world but also provides livelihood to many. Rich forests with flora and fauna on the surface and huge mineral wealth below the surface are all more than enough for its four and half crore population to make them happy and become the leading state of India.

However, in contrast to the glorious past, the present is shocking with uncertain future. The rich land is witnessing more than half of its population below the poverty line who struggle to survive; high rate of illiteracy; lack of quality education and non existence of minimum required health care in rural tribal areas; ruined rural economy; demographic attack on tribal areas disturbing their culture and destroying sources of livelihood and exploitation of the rural poor are some of the hard realties, that has resulted in ultras gaining more and more strength every day.

Is this the development that the people of the state looked at from successive governments during last sixty years of Independence? Retrospective of the facts reveals that the definition of development has been redefined at Odisha not once but several times. Blindly pursuing the policy of rapid industrialization; mortgaging the long-term strategic interests of the state by bowing down to the powerful corporate houses is the latest definition of development. At Odisha, the definition of development is defined again and again. Let us have a look.
Rural economy depends on agriculture and related activities. What a farmer needs is quality seeds, fertilizers and water to irrigate the field well in time with proper marketing support. Helpless farmers are left on their own to look at sky for rains, while the mining and industrial corporations manage to divert the water to their plants.

Poor farmer with no money has to depend on middlemen who supply those poor inputs, charging exorbitant rate of interest and lifts the harvest from the farms to recover money. Such shylocks cause humiliation, stress and economic ruins for the helpless poor tribals bringing tears in their eyes. This is the story with most of the marginal farmers in the tribal areas. Umarkote area in Nabrangpur district will expose that a number of mafia styled Shylocks operate illegally defying Odisha money lending act with many poor persons in their clutches. Who can expect those poor farmer to gather enough courage to lodge a complain? Neglect the farm sector and ruin rural economy to make farmers vulnerable is the first definition of development.

National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) provides the right to get minimum 100 days of employment to rural poor. Villagers through the Gram Sabha are to decide the work which is needed but in nexus with contractors, BDO decides the work that has been done using earth moving machineries but by preparing false muster rolls, Crores of rupees have been eaten away. Any one complaining is taught lessons by the musclemen of the contractors. A report of Parsuram has exposed scam of Rs 500 crore at KBK. Playing mischief in an important program to eat away money meant for creating for employment for the poor and needy and forcing those rural poor to migrate to the urban areas in search of livelihood is second definition of development.

Tribal habitats are bestowed with huge natural wealth in shape of forests and minerals. But by pursuing faulty mining policies that is tilted heavily takes the care of mining and industrial corporations. Iron ore (International market price is Rs. 10,000/tonne) is allowed to be virtually looted at laughingly low rate of royalty of average Rs 17/tonne, speaks of how big games are played to play mischief with the mineral wealth of the state.

Similar is the situation in Bauxite and other costly minerals. While private corporations earn hundreds of crores of rupees, poor tribals are forcibly displaced and huge environmental losses are in bonus for the state. Corporate social responsibility remains on paper as a visit to the mining area villages is more than enough to understand the big games played in the name of development. Pursuing faulty mining policies that makes the state poorer and make tribals vulnerable is the third definition of development.

Forests and Tribals are made for each other. Without forests tribals can not live and without tribals forest can not be safe. Faulty anti-people policies have resulted in the exploitation of tribals to fill the coffers of the private parties and state exchequer. While bamboo is supplied to paper mills at 49 paisa a piece, tribals are harassed and denied their rights to use bamboo for their livelihood. Even at the rate of Rs. 7/- fixed by the forest department, he finds great difficulty to procure it to weave basket and other products.

Similarly Kendu Leaves that generates about Rs. 500 crore per year on average, state collects more than 40% as Royalty and taxes. As per KLCC committee meeting held on March 11, 2008, chaired by Chief Secretary of Odisha, the target for 2008 crop year was fixed at 4.46 lakh quintal. Purchase price of KL has been fixed at Rs. 1420.20 per quintal that means a payment of Rs. 63.34 crore to 10 lakh pluckers, which is a meager amount of only Rs. 639.34 paisa per person. Where as the budget for about 12,000 strong forest staff was fixed at Rs. 20.09 crore as establishment cost.

Forest Rights Act empowers tribals with right to collect, process and sale Kendu Leaves, Bamboos and other non timber products but in absence of any clear rules, there are confusions how to transport the material to the customer’s destination. Playing gimmicks to give shoes for free to Kendu leaves pluckers and exploitation of tribals to fill the coffers of the state and private corporations is the fourth definition of development.

There are enough legal provisions available to tribals to protect their property rights. Panchayat Extension of Schedule Areas Act (PESA) is of much importance. Under PESA, it is mandatory to obtain positive consent of the villagers through a properly convened and conducted Gram Sabha. But by imposing section 144, preventing the tribals to attend the meeting, crushing their democratic right of protest, forwarding those who take leadership initiatives under false criminal cases to remove them from the scene and as if this is not enough terrorize them by beating with lathis, firing tear gas shells and even live bullets, all to forcibly acquire the land of the poor using century old colonial land acquisition act for the “Private Purpose” of corporate houses in the name of “Public Purpose”. Making mockery of the laws of the land to make `Private Purpose’ to ‘Public Purpose’ by bulldozing the rights of the poor people of the state is the fifth definition of development.

R & R Policy of the state is decided in consultation with the project proponent which is to be well explained to the people who are to be displaced. Two major components of the R & R Policy is to make a one time payment in lieu of the land lost, to be determined by the state in consultation with the project proponent and the other is to provide one person from each family a permanent employment in the project that is to be created by displacing them.

Poor tribals, most of whom are illiterates and do not know how to use those money fall in the hands of touts who lure them to cheat them of their money. The result is land is also lost and money is also gone. The proud land owner within no time becomes a pauper and has no option left except to become a poorly paid daily wage earner. Secondly, the permanent jobs never reach to them. Take the list of the displaced person from any project and compare with the list of permanent employment provided them. The result will be shocking.
Locals are pushed to corners and many new faces close to the project proponent and people in power takes benefit with both hands while locals are pushed to corners, barring few lucky ones who are used as show case, who are also shown the door once the purpose is served. Farmers of 3,400 acres of land lost at Behrampur to Tatas, nor the plant has come even after twenty years nor any employment is provided. Making mockery of the R & R policy and not to take penal action against the defaulting private corporations is sixth definition of development.

Promising huge sops to the private industrial and mining corporations including assess to water from natural water bodies, minerals, granting monetary concessions and other assurances as conditions to give permanent employment etc are all the components in the MoUs but are kept a secret document for example MoU inked with Tata Steel at Kalinganagar which is in the news due to bloody killings. In the largest democracy of the world, there should be a policy of democratic industrialization in which complete transparency is assured. Hiding facts from the very people who have voted the government to power as if they are agents of the private industrial corporations is seventh definition of development.

Orissa State pollution control Board is a statutory body duly empowered to ensure that Air and Water pollution norms are strictly complied as per law. Board issues mandatory clearances i.e. “Consent to establish”; “Consent to Operate”, only after fulfilling the required criteria and set norms and guidelines.
It is also a vital clause that on submissions of wrong information or violations of the conditions of the clearances issued, Board is empowered to withdrawal the consents and even seal the unit. But despite serious violations and false submissions the Board has failed to discharge their official duties. Mandatory clearances have been given to one metallic company at Khairban (Latikata Block) on land not owned by them. Village school which is located within 500 meters is shown beyond 1.5 KM, Kalushira village (Kuarmunda Block) is within one KM of Ganesham and two other sponge iron plants but it is shown at a distance of 25 KM, Population of the village is over 8,000 which is shown as only 50. A number of houses are located within 500 meters but it is shown that there are no houses within 2 Km distance.

A visit to any village in the vicinity of the coal based sponge iron plants is more than sufficient to see how the norms are openly flouted, causing irreparable losses to the health of the villagers and the sources of livelihood. How the mischief is played in conducting public hearing is also not a secret. Despite the facts are brought to the notice of the Board, no action taken is concrete proof of an unholy nexus existing between Board and those defaulter plants is the eighth definition of development.

The negative role of the administration that has expertise how to misuse the state police force to crack down on the democratic protests of the villagers, make mockery of the legal provisions of the country in broad day light, behave as a private army of the private corporations, not registering the complains of the poor and instead acting on false complains the victims are made culprits. From Khairban to Kalinganagar many incidents are in front of us where excesses committed by the misuse of state police force. Grossly misusing police force to intrude and bulldoze democratic rights of the people is the ninth definition of development.

Continuing the legacy of the previous governments, the present state government has also opened up all the tribals areas for the liquor vendors to brew and sale liquor, even when the tribals have rights to brew liquor for their own consumption. This has not only resulted in driving those poor tribals to economic ruins but those liquor vendors are busy in all sorts of illicit liquor activities. The result is repeated hooch tragedies in Odisha. Practising faulty excise policy to benefit of liquor mafias operating in nexus with corrupt excise and police officials even at the cost of huge losses of revenue and pushing tribals to economic ruins is the tenth definition of development.

The author is the Director, Tribal Welfare Society and Public Eye Swiss Award – 2008 Nominee. The comments and suggestions can be sent at janatavikasmanch@gmail.com . And, please visit www.janatavikasmanch.blogspot.com for more information.

Make village forests rules transparent in Odisha

2009-02-07T07:49:00.000-08:00

By Ghasiram Panda
Odisha government had taken step towards decentralization of state forest through formulation of Orissa Village Forest Rule, 1985. In context of thousands of community groups protecting and managing nearby forests on their own, this rule holds significance and could have had remarkable impact over whole of forest governance in the state.
However, past twenty years of experience depicts a different scenario, contradicting the then made claims. A close analysis of the existing rules gives glimpses of what went wrong at the policy level which created hindrance and defeated the very objective of village forest and its rule.

It is learnt that the rules in Odisha are so framed that the provisions for village forest can be utilized only for the area under social forestry although this has not been clearly stated. The nature and content of the rule are so, evidently because the primary intension was not to provide a proper legal framework to voluntary efforts of the village communities in the area of forestry being done on a large scale. There are some major issues like larger participation of villagers in managing their affairs, downward accountability toward village, ownership of village over resources, recognition of customary and traditional practices, larger involvement of stakeholders in claim settlement process, resolution of disputes and conflicts and clearly defined role of forest and other government officials, which are not clearly stated or laid down in the rule but have their own significance in larger process of decentralization and management of forest.
Also, rule does not carry the real essence of the Orissa Forest Act; on which this rule was framed. Hence, there is a need to amend certain aspect of the rule by incorporating above mentioned larger issues to make it more rational, toward democratization of forest management, equitable and transparent & accountable towards them, for whom this rule is meant for. Further, we shall try to discuss which and why major amendments are proposed in the existing rule.
Role of Palli Sabha: The essence of Village forest in the act suggests that it is meant to benefit the interest of village Communities. But this essence doesn't reflect in the rule. The rule does not give any scope for villagers to decide or even participate in the affairs of management. Whole management of village forest lies in the hand of few individuals who are not downwardly accountable to village but to forester as he is the person who appoints them in the committee.
Further, Forester has all functioning power similar to JFM in the management of village forest. This gives space to vested interest to maneuver the whole process in their favor and get leverage of association with someone who matters.

Therefore, in the amendments, focus has been given to village assembly for larger participation and downward accountability for management of village forest. In context of Orissa, Palli Sabha is the actual village assembly as it covers only one village or in maximum two villages and also has statutory recognition by government. Therefore, the proposed amendments give important role to Palli Sabha in terms of resource ownership and management rights over village forest and its produce. Since Palli Sabha is not an elected body but a democratic entity by virtue of village residents being its suo-motto members, it is rational and justified to give it all rights over the forest under its jurisdiction.

Constitution of Forest Enquiry and Settlement Committee: In the existing rule no detail procedure were laid down for registering the claims and settling the existing rights. There is only one small provision in the rule where concerned Range Officer is supposed to register and verify the individual claims if any and give report to Tehsildar for settlement. But nothing were mentioned about procedure through which these claims are to be registered, verified and settled, which gives scope and leverage for the concerned person for manipulation.
In addition, nothing had been made with respect to communal rights of neighboring villages such as Nistar rights or circumstantial rights of such villages who are protecting or managing such forest for long and those families who are dependent on such forest for their survival and drawing their own bonafide livelihood. Claim and settlement process is a significant issue which needs to be taken up carefully so that minimum disputes and conflicts might arise out of notification of such forest as village forest and vesting of rights in one particular village.
Hence, in the proposed amendments, constitution of Forest Enquiry and Settlement Committee and power of registering, verifying and settling claims and rights to this committee instead of Range Officer and Tehsildar is mentioned. Such Committee shall be constituted with three government officials including revenue and forest; three ex-officio members nominated by Panchayat Samiti of forest area and one ecology expert from local university or other institutions. This committee shall be constituted at Sub-divisional level and one member each shall be nominated from local forest federation and civil society organizations. Verification and settlement of all claims shall be done in the open public meeting in the concerned village/s and Palli Sabha shall give its free informed written consent on every order passed by such committee. Provision for rights and privileges of other or neighboring villages and pastoral communities are also mentioned in the amendments.

Resolving disputes and conflicts arising before and after notification of Village Forest: In the present rule, no provision except appeal to sub-collector is mentioned about resolution of disputes and conflict arising out of settlement process and over management of such village forest. However, the disputes and conflicts are bound to arise given the complexity of forest conservation and management and spread of claims over one particular forest patch among many villages. If mechanism for dispute and conflict resolution is not included, creation of village forest shall become a curse for conservation rather than boon.

Henceforth, in the amendment, constitution of Dispute Resolution Committee with nine members at district level is proposed. Out of the nine members four are from Forest federations and civil society organization. One retired Judge served in the district and nominated by Zilla Parishad is also included. Proposed amendment gives authority to this committee to ask for reply from any concerned person or organization including revenue department and forest department in case of any dispute. After receiving reply from concerned parties, the committee shall settle the dispute in the open public meeting at the concerned village. Its order shall be final but subject to further appeal.

In case of conflict arising after notification over management of village forest, such committee shall intervene if asked but not before all other possibilities such as discussion in the Palli Sabha or in case of inter-village conflict, in joint Palli Sabha and any other traditional or customary institutions existing in the area. Such committee shall only intervene in the last and through open public meeting and its decision shall be final but subject to further appeal.
Framing its own rules and regulation: The present rule does not provide any scope to incorporate diversity of institutional functioning and try to impose a crafted institution over the village with no functioning power. However, experience suggest that villages through their own customary and traditional rules have ably managed and conserved forest and created remarkable impact over resource regeneration and empowerment of village communities.
Therefore, amendments proposed talked about inclusion of space for villages to devise their own rules and regulation in line of their customary practices and in accordance with forest governing laws so that conservation of forest and meeting local needs shall go vis-à-vis. The amendment gives power to Palli Sabha to devise their own rules and regulation in written form covering aspect of protection, management of resource, penal system, grazing and benefit sharing. All such rules are framed and approved in the open public meeting with two-third of quorum. Palli Sabha shall also have power to challenge if it feels any objection is raised by the govt. department over its rules are not technically sound or which may jeopardize the rights and welfare of villagers or not in accordance with the law.

Structure of Village Forest Management Committee: In the present rule, there is provision of Village Forest Committee under which all management rights over village forest are vested. However, in a close analysis, it suggests that these management rights are superficial with complete accountability towards Forest department, particularly with forester and Range Officer. The constitution and functioning of this committee also gives same impression where Forester has all power to appoint members to this committee. Also he/she has power to call meeting and maintain notice & proceeding book.

Therefore, the rule provides lot of space for maneuvering by forester while villagers are restricted in putting their view. The proposed amendments suggest overhauling of the present structure with changed name. The committee in the amendment called as Village Forest Management Committee. It has all management right and have right to implement the decision of Palli Sabha. The structure of committee in the amendment is such that all its members and office bearers shall be elected by Palli Sabha. The Chairperson shall have authority to call and preside over the meeting. The Secretary so elected has to maintain all proceeding and notice such issued for record. He/she also correspond with govt. department and other agencies for specific purpose. Village fund for purpose of this rule shall be operated by four account holders including Chairperson and Secretary. Forester or any outsiders without permission of the committee shall not sit in the meeting and in no case they are part of decision making.
Sharing of Produce: In the present rule, any villager can get forest produce from the village forest on payment of schedule rate of concerned forest division. This provision in no case is in line of natural justice and equality. Though the villagers put their efforts in form of protection and maintenance of boundary to regenerate the resource, still they have to pay same amount of rate which any outsider or contractor has to pay. Then where is the incentive for forest protection. They must be entitled to take necessary produce for domestic consumption and bonafide livelihood without paying any amount. This same notion has been proposed in the amendment. Other than this one part of amount generated from sale of forest produce gathered on communal basis shall be distributed among households on one share per kitchen basis. Apart from this, special provisions for sharing produce among economically weaker sections, Women headed family, widow, Old age persons, Physically challenged persons and landless person; rule such devised by Palli Sabha. For outsider, produce shall be sold on the schedule rate applicable in the concerned division.

Flow of Fund accountable to Village: Financial accountability in relation with village forest management in the present rule is upward with no mention of village. This allows the vested interest to crop up and dominate the process. On the other side, those who are really dependent on the forest get excluded from the process. This very aspect defeats the purpose and objective of village forest. Henceforth, there is a need to include certain provisions in the rule which shall ensure downward accountability towards village.

This will not only make system function properly with better participation but also ensure functional transparency in the management of village forest. Therefore in the proposed amendment, aspect of monitoring and review of all financial transaction of the committee by Palli Sabha is included. Further, any type of grant from government or panchayat or any private agencies to village fund for management of village forest shall be approved by Palli sabha in the open meeting. Palli sabha is also authorized for internal audit through its special committee. In addition village fund can be utilized for any purpose as deem fit by Palli Sabha and decided in the open meeting.

Apart from these major issues, there are number of issues which are included in the proposed amendments to ensure better participation, transparency and accountability, equitable distribution of resource among community members, enhancement of environmental services and social justice of forest protection and management. Henceforth, it is presumed that through these amendments, long standing issue of recognizing community efforts in regeneration of resource and democratization of forest governance shall be achieved.

[The author is co-ordinator, Working Group on Orissa Village Forests Rules Amendment Process. Please send your comments and suggestions at janatavikasmanch@gmail.com and visit www.janatavikasmanch.blogspot.com for more information.]

Politician Vs Poor family of KBK region

2009-02-06T09:34:00.000-08:00

A member has send this cartoon to Janata Vikas Manch. The cartoon is relevant in the current political scenario.

Politician Vs Poor family of KBK region

2009-02-06T09:31:00.000-08:00

Secular polity should be strengthened for the holistic development of Odisha

2009-02-04T09:39:00.000-08:00

By Sudarsan Das
The 2008 was the black year for Odisha. Kandhamal violence has not only shaken the back bone of Odisha's society, but it has also tarnished the state's image before the national and global community.

The communal conflagration of Kandhamal has lasted for several months last year. It spread to new places in new forms and made people helpless and threatened. The situation has turned more complex. Both the sides used fire arms, ammunitions and explosives. It appeared as if Kadhamal is on a keg of explosives.

There are long range implications of the Kandhamal calamity. Not only it has undermined our national and international standing, it may also hamper the foreign aid and foreign help to Odisha. Likewise, it may undermine and jeopardize the long standing traditions of cultural amity, understanding & co-existence, between ethnic groups, castes and communities of the state. Truly, the happenings of Kandhamal are no longer a small mis-adventure but turned into a great disaster.

Kandhamal violence has moved the chief minister of Odisha too. While Naveen Patnaik was touring the torched villages, turned into graveyards, an affected old destitute woman reportedly approached him. She held his hand and cried disconsolately. The heart rending cry of that old woman and the tragic circumstances melted his heart and tears rolled down his cheeks.

The media head lines next day went hoarse "The Chief Minister, cried". On return to Bhubaneswar with a heavy heart he told the media: "The incidents of Kandhamal are the most unfortunate event during his administration" .

Not only the chief minister, but majority of the people of Odisha think in the similar manner. The incidents of Kandhamal have affected them deeply. The compassion in their hearts, as his, have rolled down as tears. The people of the State have been deeply saddened by the recent communal incidents in Kandhamal. The combined gash of their hearts and tears of their eyes has shaken one and all.
The history of Indian communal violence shows that the main reason of riots is: Government inaction. Of course, Gujarat is a rare exception where, official encouragement was behind the riots. But in most places, riots become uncontrollable when and where government fails to instill the fear of law in the minds of the rioters. When government fails to instill confidence in the mind of the affected public and fails take steps to create fear of Law in the mind of the rioters, it is self-evident that riots will spread. Strict Government action alone, impedes riots and rioters.

In this regard in September 1957, the then prime minister of India, late Mr Jawaharlal Nehru, had written a letter to the then chief ministers. Invoking them to resist people involved in communal violence and hate, he wrote, "The issue should be fronted with strong action, as early as possible. The violators of law should be arrested and enterned, asap. People should believe that Government has no soft corner for the rioters".

Unhappy at the administrative actions taken, Nehru further wrote, "We have slowed down in this regard. Thus, the problem has continued to escalate. The main promoters of poison of communal hatred, the mischief mongers and goons, are thus continuing their work, unhindered. Yet, when the issue comes to a boil, a few innocent are arrested, the master minds escape the persecution.”

We observe the deviations from these guide lines, in Nehru's own time in office. But relevance of that letter and invocation is still paramount, particularly in light of the recent communal violence in Kandhamal.
If one analyses the sequence of events from last December till today, one comes to the clear conclusion that the state government has not taken the measures necessary to prevent the spread of communal hatred and consequent violence. Rather, the government has remained a silent spectator, Naveen Patnaik being the Home minister of the state. The fire of communalism in Kandhamal had also spread to other states of India, like Karnataka & Kerala.

The majority of Odiyas are religious but are not communal. Even today they are free from communal hatred and malice. Communal amity still prevails in the state. But, the individuals and organizations, undermining this amity need to be brought to book with a strong hand. pronto.

The communal hate, crimes and disturbance, starting July 22, 2008 till today has dumbfounded all of us. The murder of Swami Laxmanananda and following counter attack, burning of thousands of houses of innocents, mass rioting and large scale disturbances have blackened the image of Odisha.

It is difficult to find words harsh enough, to appropriately condemn these dastardly acts. On the other hand, those who became the leaders of the post Swami Laxmananda murder acts, who burned alive innocents like Rajani, who burned thousands of homes, caused a state-wide
unrest and vandalism, sure are no friends of Hinduism.

Many intellectuals forewarned in 1950s about spread of communalism in Punjab, which was ignored. It surfaced in 1981 and in 1984 and became so vicious that it crossed all bounds of humanism. People saw how vicious can the communal violence be, in the post partition, India.

In the 90s, communal thoughts prevailed in creating a series of communal riots in which cities like Moradabad, Meerut, Bangalore, Bombay, Bhagalpur, Jaypore and Lucknow, endured. These riots, challenged the human conscience and values of Indians.

At the advent of the 21st century again the country got shocked at a conflagration of communal violence. In February-March, 2002, the Gujarat conflagration burned out of control. It was so vicious, venomous and wide spread that it threatened common man with fear and disgust. The ripping open with a sword of a human fetus out of the body of a pregnant women, in that riot, does not have any parallel in our history.

Gujrat riots are deemed a national shame. This riot was the most vicious since, 1947 and was unprecedented in the history of Gujarat and it's administration being actively involved in these riots. Gujarat Police took the role of rioters.

The Sangh Parivar has tried to make Odisha as their second laboratory of communalism to retain power in the state. Communal is a bane to the human society. It is anti-religious and anti-development. It is now the duty of all the citizens of the state specially the intelligentsia to thwart the communal mindset and to restore communal peace and harmony. The secular polity of Odisha should be strengthened for the overall development of the state.

The author is a political activist and columnist. Please send your comments at janatavikasmanch@gmail.com or sudarsan_d@yahoo.com and visit www.janatavikasmanch.blogspot.com for more information.

Kendu-Leave collection makes state rich and tribals poorer

2009-02-01T08:46:00.000-08:00

Panchayati Raj governance and Forest Rights Act can help the tribals to revive their economic status, writes Pravin Patel, director, Tribal Welfare Society and Public Eye Swiss Award 2008 nominee

More than 10 lakh (1 Million) tribals and other forest dwellers are engaged in the Kendu Leaves (KL) collection in the state of Odisha. Kendu leaves trade in Odisha was done by few private contractors who made huge money in this lucrative trade. Those private contractors were so powerful that they successfully managed to interfere in state politics but also got the ministers of their choice. The interferences were tolerated in exchange of huge donations to political parties to buy favours. The instability of the Odisha governments during 1960s is largely attributed to the powerful Kendu Leaves lobby.

Immediately on coming of the late Indira Gandhi to the centre stage of National Politics; through the then chief minister late Nandini Satpathy nationalized the trade in the year 1973 to get rid of the private contractors. Big claims were made that KL contractors are exploiting poor tribals, as such to save them from being exploited, the trade will be conducted by the state Forest department which was assigned the duty to collect KL from the tribals and process the same and hand over to the Odisha State Forest Development Corporation for marketing.

With change in the players, Private traders' monopoly has been replaced by the Forest Department monopoly. Since 1973, a long period of thirty five years has passed. It can be safely assumed that the plight of the tribals must have changed within this period in the KL trade that generates annually about Rs 500 crore (INR 50 million) from average production of five lakh quintals. We were shocked to see that the plight of the tribals has on the contrary worsened. Poor tribals have become pauper. The very fact that almost half of the population of Odisha lives Below Poverty Line (BPL), which must be 80% or more amongst the KL pluckers. Besides acute poverty, lack of quality education, corruption in Public Distribution System (PDS) and lack of health care has resulted in malnutrition that has pushed them to their premature death.

Despite change in policy that promised them to bail out of exploitation, despite spending huge money on several developmental heads, if this is the reality, Questions are raised why? Whom to blame? What can be done? To find answers we need to look at reasons one by one.

The first reason is the dictatorial attitude of the forest officials who have replaced private traders. KL activities have been a milking cow particularly for field staff like for rangers and forest guards. Fictitious purchases; under counting of leaves and various tricks played in quality gradation of the processed leaves are some of the sources of eating away the money.

The other reason is the overall neglect of the tribals by the state in practicing anti-tribal policies for the comforts of Biri manufacturers, Industrial and Mining Corporations. It is shocking to know that while Iron Ore, Bauxite and other natural mineral wealth are allowed to be virtually looted at laughably low rate of royalty, for example Iron ore, it is only Rs. 4/- at the lowest and Rs. 27/- per MT (International market rate is about Rs. 10,000/-)

Bamboo is another example. Under management of OFDC, Bamboos were supplied at a highly subsidized rate to paper mills. When the paper mills can be supplied bamboo at only 49 Paise each piece, why tribals needs are ignored? Why tribals are harassed on false cases despite those tribals need Bamboos to weave baskets and make other products for livelihood. Even the artisans' needs are ignored.

Games played in Kendu Leaves

State share of earnings in shape of royalty and taxes is more than 40%, where as 10 lakh pluckers gets only about 25%. Forest department with a staff of 12,000 spends about 15% towards establishment cost, research and in the name of other over heads. What research they have done at the cost of spending crores of rupees is any body's guess.

The above facts makes it amply clear that the state policies are drafted to help those who can buy favours where as the poor tribals are denied their legitimate rights. State must accept the fact that its wrongly cultivated policies have failed to save tribals from being exploited or improve their economic and social conditions. The result of thirty five years of failed policy has pushed them to absolute poverty.

Newspapers have reported of selling children and wives at Bolangir district, where KL of best quality is collected that fetches highest rates in the country. Exporters compete with each other to buy those leaves at the highest rate in the country, those who collect the leaves are extremely poor.

The story is not limited to Bolangir only. We find in newspapers reports about protesting tribals from many areas of the state that even after months payments to the KL pluckers are not made. KL pluckers mortgage their cards to the money lenders, who collect the money on behalf of the pluckers. Delay causes further losses of high rate of interest charged by the money lenders.

It is painful to note that the Kendu Leaves Coordination Committee chaired by Chief Secretary, finds it difficult to even increase a paisa or two per bundle of 20 Kendu leaves by stating that any increase in purchase price will make the KL business less lucrative. Even when the decisions are taken with great difficulty, it is publicized as if great favours done on KL pluckers. This exposes the mentality of the state who exploit tribals as a tool to earn Rs 500 crore but even a token increase in KL purchase prices, their eyebrows are raised. From the air conditioned comforts they expect tribals to defy scorching summer sun with mercury touching 48 degree to collect KL.

From the above facts, we can conclude that monopoly of the state, dictatorial attitude of the forest officials at the field level, inept police to crack on illegally operating money lenders and lack of accountability at all level by the concerned officials is the root cause of misery to the tribals. The very purpose to save the tribals from being exploited at the hands of private contractors for which the trade was nationalized stands defeated.

The present policy practiced from last 35 years has failed. When there is a need to completely change the policy, tribals are lured by playing cheap vote bank politics by promising to give them shoes / chappals for free. Nationalization of Kendu Leaves is a glaring example to demonstrate how blindly a failed policy can be pursued so long for political games and satisfying Biri industries. Where the tribals should go?

After a long struggle to get justice by the tribals and civil society organization, it took 60 years to the Indian parliament to admit the 'historic injustice' done to the Scheduled Tribes and forest dwellers to get rid of the corrupt forest and revenue department officials. "The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006" finally recognized their rights, but the rules were framed much later i.e. w.e.f. January 1. 2008. The delay in implementation of the act is largely due to the strong opposition by a certain group of people who desperately tried their best to see that the tribals are not given their rights.

Forest rights act besides recognizing ownership of occupied land in the forests and provides rightful access to collect 'minor forest produce', including Kendu leaves, Bamboo, Honey besides other minor forest produces. FRA provides unrestricted collection of minor forest produces by tribals and other forest dwelling communities. It also allows one time processing and sales to whomsoever they wish. However, in absence of clear rules, some confusion remains on how to transport the material from the forest to the customer's destination.

Forest officials and traders who exploit tribals are under fear to get out of business if the tribals use their rights. Few retired Forest Department officials of Odisha have filed a Public Interest Litigation before the Hon'ble High Court of Odisha demanding to stay the implementation of the act by labeling tribals as "Encroachers" and feared that they will destroy the remaining forests. On the contrary, in many areas tribals themselves have come forward to protect forests. The fact remains that without forests tribals can not survive and without tribals forests can not be safe.

As per a report, Odisha has lost more than 25% of its forest cover during the period 1972 to 1999, which is much before the Forest Rights Act has come in to force. This further exposes the hollow charges of the officials who have not only failed in their duties to protect the forests. Is it a secret that timber and forest mafias have eaten away most of the forests including the Simlipal reserve forest! The so called plantations done by the forest department has largely remained on paper only. Money is spent but trees are not seen in itself; complains of corruption in the department. Where has the money gone that has been spent in the name of plantations?

Government policies and institutions have failed to raise the economic condition of the tribals all these years. Panchayati Raj governance and Forest Rights Act are two legal provisions that empower tribals to shape their future and improve socio economic conditions. A beginning has been made but lot more needs to be done. There is an urgent need to spread awareness amongst tribals about their rights on forest produces including Kendu Leaves; Bamboo; Sal Seed and other forest produces so that they can demand justice and start using those rights for their speedy economic recovery.

Please send your comments and suggestions at janatavikasmanch@gmail.com. And, visit www.janatavikasmanch.blogspot.com for more information.

Seafood-cum-beach tourism can help in employment generation in Odisha

2009-02-01T08:43:00.000-08:00

By Umashankar Das

The global meltdown has impacted the Odisha's industry and finances. All the mega projects are facing challenges on several fronts due to the liquidity strain in the global market.

This global meltdown is expected to continue for another one or two years. In this kind of situation, Odisha needs to explore newer opportunities of employment generation and development. The state has a wealth of tourism resources. Some of the most important features would be tourist monuments, pristine beaches, diverse flora and fauna, and unique tribal culture.

Odisha government does try to promote tourism in it's own efforts. But, it has taken a beating due to the lack of diversified brand image. Today, Odisha is popular for it's religious tourism in Puri and getting the Konark Sun temple as a package..

The state government should focus on the potential of aqua-based products as a major driver to create a brand image. Just to cite an example, the following can be a show-case towards this direction.

a) A resort at a pristine beach.
b) Specialisation in sea-food related cuisine
c) A by-product would be focus on Odia cusine.

The plan needs following things:

1) Provide a small piece of land (less than say 2 acres or approx. 80,000 sq. ft).
2)Government provides a loan to a private entrepreneur (Local).
3) In return, the government has a stake in the project.
4) Creation of an expert team which can guide the local entreprenuer in setting up and managing the project.
5) A tie-up with a management institute for guidance

This would develop local entreprenuership as opposed to looking only for big investors in terms of mega projects like Posco or Vedanta. Local entreprenuership will always create more jobs. Also, big investments take a long time to fructify.

The Idea behind a beach-cum-seafood resort is that, it provides a chance to create a brand image which can be used to develop the brand image of Odisha. The marketing potential for such an enterprise is huge and cheap. Internet could be a medium. There will be no need to spend money to buy media space in expensive TV channels. Today, the travel industry is looking for new and innovative ideas. Also, most of the travel Industry depends on Internet for it's marketing and revenues.

A chain of such resorts along the coastline will act as a feather in Odisha's cap. And, has the potential to generate employment as well as build Odisha's brand image in the global world.

The author is an IT professional and actively participates in the development debate on Odisha.

Make police force accountable to the people of Odisha

2009-02-01T08:35:00.000-08:00

By Pravin Patel

India has celebrated 60^th Republic Day on January 26, 2009. The people are getting aware of their constitutional rights as the democratic process is getting mature day by day. However, the life has not changed much for the majority of the tribals across the country.

Instead, it has become difficult for the tribals to maintain their livelihood as their land is being snatched by the establishment due to the rapid industrialization. The story is not different with the tribals of Odisha too as they are loosing their land due to the industrialization.

Odisha has huge natural wealth but its people are poor and most of these poor are tribals in whose habitats that wealth is stored. It is this wealth that has become curse on them above and over their economic and social exploitation. In the process of rapid industrialization, tribals are also facing threat of being forcibly displaced, resulting in law and order problem in their areas. Tribals feel neglected and cheated as the administration appears to work in favour of powerful industrial and mining corporations.

Under this circumstances, Police has an important role to play to ensure that the faith of the poor tribals on our constitution remains in tact, but the behavior of the Odisha police is not satisfactory and mostly negative while dealing with the tribals.

As if the communal riots in shape of Kandhmal are not enough, expanding presence of naxalites to newer areas and increasing threat of terror attacks from across the border has expanded their role. It is not only the constitutional duty of the state to maintain law and order but also to ensure that lives and properties of the people are protected. As such, it is expected that the state government makes enough arrangement to keep efficient police force that works at its best to live up to the expectations of the people of the state without coming under any pressure with full honesty and sincerity. Registering complains of rich or poor alike, without any discrimination and conduct timely investigation to ensure delivery of justice.

However the ground reality is otherwise. Except some exceptions, Odisha police is not only arrogant but also have different yard sticks to measure crimes depending on the person with whom they deal with. Rich and politically powerful persons manage to go scot free despite committing serious crimes, poor innocent persons are made to suffer for no fault and end up in running from pillar to post, spending their precious little hard earned money in legal matters.

Odisha Police has lived far below the expectations of the people. The general opinion of the people on police will be that as a corrupt, inefficient and biased. This is the truth; why people try to keep away from police, raise their eyebrows even at the visit of police in the neighborhood. Transparency International, a worldwide organization that fights corruption has ranked Indian Police Department as the most corrupt department of the country. The situation in Odisha is not different.

Beginning with traffic related offences to the local gangs of criminals, dons, kidnapers, thieves, pocket picketers and also economic offenders and white collared criminals no body can survive without the help of the police force. The very fact that such gangs are operating freely without any fear of being caught and punished have made Odisha their favorite hunting ground. Mafias operating in Mining, Timber and other forest products; Killer doctors conspiring with Medical labs owners who have mercilessly killed thousands of female babies in the womb of their mother; Fake medicine racketeers operating freely in nexus with officials of the drug department pushing them to death; Illicit liquor manufacturers operating with chain of retailers causing repeated poisonous hooch tragedies that takes premature lives are enough to expose the reality that exists. Besides there are gangs of Gamblers, Cheaters, Thieves, Extortionists and other petty criminals almost all over the state. Naxalites expanding wings to newer areas is another proof of the poor state of policing in Orissa.

Lack of vigilance has resulted in thousands of Bangladeshi making Odisha their permanent home illegally. Two Bangladeshi fish trawlers acting heavier on local fishermen on the Odisha coast is a very recent experience that increases the job of the state police with the experience of Mumbai terror attacks from the sea route. When facts are known to the men on the street, how can it escape the notice of the state police? But the irony is that when such illegal immigrants should be behind the bars, they have managed to enter in to the voters list of the country. But there is no political will to crack down on those staying illegally.

With the increased industrial and mining activities, police have additional task to deal with the situation of unrest of the farmers and others who use their democratic rights to protest against the injustices caused to them, be it in the matter of displacement, increasing pollution or even try to protect their constitutional rights. When the need is to bring in drastic changes in the faulty mining policy, Relief and Resettlement policy to make pro people and ensure that pollution norms are strictly complied with. However, authorities ignore the same in the name of pursuing rapid industrialization, but police has either cracked on people who protest at the illegalities or remained a silent spectator. There are enough examples to exhibit anti people face of the Odisha Police.

Registering complain as First Information Report (FIR) is mandatory on the part of the police. Take Sundergarh district to exposes the truth. Despite hundreds of cases in which tribals have fallen victims to the atrocities committed by rich and politically powerful non tribals, most of their complains are not registered whereas on the contrary false complains are registered against the poor tribals who are pushed to jails on false charges. All this happens despite tribals have legal protection available to them in shape of SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act on their side.

Recently, the tantrum shown by the owner, a non-tribal, of a metal firm has become the matter of discussion in Sundargarh district. They have established a 100 TPD sponge iron plant at Khairban village, Latikata Block of Sundergarh District. By filing false information, they not only managed the mandatory environmental clearances but also managed to crush the democratic rights of the villagers with the help of Brahamni Tarang Police. Govt. primary school located within 500 meters is shown as located beyond 1.5 KM from the plant.

Christina and few other tribal women who protested plying of heavily loaded truck on the narrow village road is pushed by the car driven by the owner of the metal company himself. As if this is not enough, he gets out of the car and pulls the lady by hair and clothes to push her out of the road, tearing her blouse in the process. Christina's complain is not registered but on the contrary she is picked up in the middle of night by the police.

On May day, drunken supervisor of drives the truck in to the house of Mahesh Mahali who was to marry few days and damages the house that is located at the entrance of the same narrow road, house is damaged, villagers protests. Nor the truck is seized nor the unlicensed driver is arrested but innocent villagers are rounded up.

Seventy year old Sukra Mahali denies to sale away his farm land but the land is forcibly grabbed. All his efforts to register even the FIR have failed. D.O. Letter of Minister of State for Home, Government of India, written to the Hon'ble Chief Minster also failed. Instead police calls Sukra Mahali to the police station forcing him to sale away his land to the plant owners.

Patras Ekka is severely assaulted for his only fault that he denied to pay Rs.2/- to the illegally run cycle stand owner but 17 tribal youth who sat in the Kinjirkela PS demanding registering the complain are seriously assaulted with iron rods, stones, sticks and what not within the police station premises by the cycle stand owner and his musclemen in presence of police. Ajit Kujur who received 70 stitches on his head is labeled as absconder. Where as illicit liquor vendors, dacoits etc are termed as saviors of police. The result is a false case against the victims that they attacked the police station. The height of the wrong is practiced by SP, Sundergarh who in the official communiqué to the National Commission of Schedule Tribe, stated that Tirkey, Kerketta, Ekka, Toppo, Kujur are all people belonging to Schedule Caste.

In another case, the Tribals at village Budakata under Kutra PS have fallen victims of a sponge iron company at Balanda also under Brahmani Tarang PS, under the influence of another Sponge Iron Factory, 111 tribals were booked under different cases. Lanjiberna, Lamlai, Kansbahal, Bilaigarh, Kuarmunda, Birmitrapur, Rajgangpur story is same every where. The most recent is the matter of Tutu Kishan who was called at Rajgaganpur PS and forced to sign three blank papers believed to get his forcible consent to give consent to sale his land to a Orissa based Cement company. Hundreds of false cases are filed on the victims so as to save the skin of real culprits who are the wealthy plant owners who have money and reach to buy favours.

Twelve Kilometer long overhead conveyor belt to transport lime stone over few villages is being constructed on land acquired from tribals without obtaining positive resolve at the mandatory village council meeting under Panchayat Extension of Schedule Area Act, 1996.(PESA) Villagers protests is crushed with heavy hand. Sushil Lakra has been killed in a recent incident by the security staff of the Cement company at Lanjiberna. Within the closed door under lock and key so called village council meeting is held at Kutunia grossly in violation to PESA, police remains a silent spectator to the misdeeds. 12 year old tribal boy is tortured third degree including pouring petrol to his anus by Ragunathpalli PS, forcing him to confess a crime he never committed or the custodial few months before at Brahmani tarang PS; Assault by a petty BJD leader on tribals at Vedvyas few days back, dumping of solid waste on the farm lands and unbearable pollution by a series of sponge iron plants are some of the matters that are mentioned here. The list is long. If this is the story of one district only, it is any body's imagination what could be the story of the entire state.

The dual face of the police stands well exposed at Kalinga Nagar where nine contingents of armed police swung in to actions; unleashed brutalities killing 13 tribals and injuring many in January, 2006 but no case is registered against Tata Steel on whose soil light intensity land mines injured few tribals.

The need is for complete transformation of the police department to make it efficient and accountable force; restrict duty hours from 24 x 7 to 8 to 10 hours on 6 days a week; create an environment that enables them to discharge their duties honestly and with full sincerity without coming under any political interference and also substantial increase in the budgetary support.

The author is director, Tribal Welfare Society. He is reachable at tribalwelfare@gmail.com

Odisha govt must revisit R&R policy to avert further unrest in the State

2009-01-27T08:37:00.000-08:00

K. Anuradha Mohanty & Bidyut Mohanty

After the introduction of the new economic policy in 1991, the trend of acquiring land, as an integral part of the liberalisation policy, is evident in Odisha. The overall effort of the state government was to acquire more land for the different private ventures including Posco and Vedanta.
Once again, Odisha is much in news but for the different reasons. In the 1980's, Odisha got the attention of the world when media exposed the incidences of large-scale starvation deaths and selling of children in Kalahandi and other districts. Although such incidents are also still taking place but the attention has now shifted from these human stories to the financial matters. In Odisha, "foreign investments", "export promotion" and "privatization" are the new buzz word.
In 1990s, the state announced new power, infrastructure and mining policies to woo foreign and domestic private investments. During 1995-96, Orissa received the largest amount of private investments in India, both foreign and domestic. In the post-liberalisation period, Odisha ranks sixth in foreign investment in the country. Between 1992 to 1997, Odisha has attracted Rs. 97,300 crore of investments. Majority of investments are in heavy industries consisting of steel, alumina and power projects.
All the new projects are solely attracted due to the natural resources of Odisha. The big business houses are eying at the mineral resources as Odisha has 90 percent of India's chrome ore and nickle reserves, 70 percent of bauxite and 24 percent of coal reserves. Besides, the state government is offering exceptionally huge subsidies to investors and there is abundance of cheap labour further makes it investor-friendly state.

Role of International Finance

The new investments are backed by a number of loans and aided projects by the World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB) and G-7 countries to facilitate the entry of international capital in Odisha. According to IPS study, the World Bank is providing loan guarantees and low-interest loans to a number of projects in Odisha. The World Bank's financed projects include coal sector rehabilitation project, power sector restructuring, Ib valley coal-fired plants, and Talcher coal-fired power project. The World Bank is expected to finance super-highway between Talcher and Gopalpur and four-lane road from
Rourkela to Sambalpur. The Balasore-Kharagpur highway is also financed by the World Bank. The ADB is supporting Paradeep port expansion, Orissa power sector restructuring and AES/Ib valley power project. These investments are between 1992 to 1997 in the state. After that many more international finance institutions and MNCs came forward with new investment plan in the state. All the investments and the proposals are solely attracted by the mineral resource wealth of Odisha and offering of huge subsidies to investors by the state Govt.
Odisha government has promptly and proactively taken several steps for the investment, industries and land acquisition but very slow and inactive towards problem of displacement and R & R.
Odisha R and R of projects – affected person policy 1994
In 1994, the department of water resources, GOO, in consultation with NGOs and the world bank, came up with the Odisha R and R of projects- affected persons policy vide the dept resolution no 25296 dated august 27 1994.
Certain guidelines were prepared by the revenue and excise dept, GOO. ( GOO. 1989). Nalco is the first ever-industrial projects in the state to formulate a policy for rehabilitating both locally displaced persons and substantially affected persons. Between 1994 to till to the year 2005 the govt just ignored the issues of displacement and R & R of the people.
During the draft period of 2005, many suggestions from different Civil Society Organizations were brought into the notice of UNDP. Among them CSOs Displace People's Forum of Koraput suggested many important points in the draft policy. They had also demonstration and rally before the state assembly in March 2005 and submitted a memorandum with suggestions to the Honourable Governor, Chief Minister and other higher officials for action.
However, some of the suggestions were included in the final draft of 2005 which was submitted by the UNDP to Odisha government on June 4, 2005.But due to the pressure from the industrial houses and companies the government sat over the policy and did not place before the assembly.
The Kalinga Nagar massacre happened in the January 2, 2006. The police gunned down 12 of them who opposed the construction of a boundary wall for the proposed steel plant of Tata Steel. After the tragic incidence and subsequent blockade of road by the tribals, the government woke up from the deep slumber and announced that a committee headed by revenue minister Biswabhushan Harichandan will study the R & R draft policy that was pending with it since August last. The committee was formed with a group of ministers. Instead of consulting the displaced people and the civil society members the government send some of the ministers to other states like, AP and Karnataka to study their R & R Policy.
The committee drafted a policy ignoring the previous positive points from the R & R draft of UNDP. In a hurry, the R & R policy was finalised and got the cabinet approval and gazetted on May 14, 2006, by passing the Assembly. The policy was also not placed for comments in the public domain. The said R & R policy is made in favour of industries and before finalization the industrial houses were consulted and they dictated it. Delivering the valedictory address at a two-days seminar on " corporate sector responsibility in 21st century" at the Business Administration Department of Sambalpur University, Odisha's former Minister for Revenue, food and Civil Supplies, Mr. Manmohan Samal said that " The ministers were deliberating on the possible changes in R & R policy of Odisha and industries would soon be invited for their views before the policy was given a final shape" But the consultation with the Industrial houses was done in closed door and it was never done public.

R & R policy of the 2006 : Contradictions and pseudo-ism

As mentioned earlier that the government is very fast and enlightened to help and support the foreign investment and the big companies. In this light, it is also facing many tragic incidents like Kalinganagar, Maikanch, lower Suktel and several unrests and protests in the recent past. So, it has created a myth, that there is a strong desire of the government to develop the displace people as a result of which policy has taken birth. And it is claiming its policy to be the best in the country.

The principles on which R & R Policy should be based

In search of a good R & R policy many researchers, affected & displaced people and the civil society members have raised many fundamental questions and suggested alternatives from time to time. The first task in this search is to identify the principle. The basic thinking in this approach was that every citizen of the country has a right to a life with dignity. Some cannot be deprived of their livelihood without their consent, to the benefit of another class, even in the name of national development. The following principles are

1. The consent of the people affected on the nature of public interest.

The land acquisition act 1894 allows people to be displaced without their consent, in the name of public purpose which is yet undefined. Thus it abrogates the democratic rights of the people. The first principle of a law or principle has to be recognition of this right. A developmental process should be based on the rational choice of the people.

2. The need to minimize displacement.

Its first step is to search for non-displacing alternatives while planning the project. The second is while selecting the site, and the third is on various components of the project. Minimization of displacement requires rethinking on many aspects on the LAAct. In attempting the land alienation easy the LAAct does not show much respect to the affected people. The only alternative is to ensure that displacement is avoided and when it is exceptional cases, to ensure that the smallest possible number is deprived of its livelihood.

3. Replacement value for compensation

Even a small number of people deprived of their livelihood have a fundamental right to begin life a new. In more than one case the Supreme court has interpreted article 21 of the constitution as right to life with dignity. None can be deprived of it in the name of common good if it involves sacrificing their livelihood for the good or profit of another class.

4. Rehabilitation as a right.

The principle based on justice that none be displaced without rehabilitation which has to be viewed as a right of those who are paying the price of development. As such it is the integral to the life with dignity under article 21, not a concession from the state or project authorities.

5. Transition to a new life

The project authorities need to ensure that the DPs\PAPs are prepared to face the new life they are pushed into often without their consent. They have to be helped with cultural, economic, psychological and social preparation to adapt themselves to the new life.

6. A caste /tribe and gender perspective.
The tribals, dalits and other service castes are its worst sufferers. Even among them women feel the most negative impact. So special attention has to be paid to the needs of these groups. In other words the policy should have caste\ tribe\gender biasness in looking into special and specific attention.

Recently, the Odisha government is attempting to lift the regulation on tribal land alienation provision to facilitate the easy process for business house to acquire land. Liberalization and globalization demands more land than in past, so greater displacement is likely to result as its impact. When the government is guided by the big business houses, forgetting its constitutional obligations the situation will be worse in next decade.

Conclusion
The very approach of the state government in the whole issue of displacement and R & R is questionable. When it is very active towards declaring many policies for the establishment of industries but have apathetic attitude towards the R & R issues. The earlier development oppressed the poor, tribals, dalits the present one excludes them. It can be inferred from the present R & R policy that the state of Odisha has given a little thought to the rehabilitation of the people. Whenever there is some echo of the tragic incidents, it is coming with a policy starting from the Rengali till to the Kalinga nagar incident. Majority of the displaced and project affected people have rejected the present policy in the state, still government is trying to offer more sops in term cash which is evident in the Kalinga nagar and POSCO area. Unless until the R & R policy is not based on the set of discussed principles people will reject it. At present the trend shows that the Big business houses are pulling the string and the state government is just a puppet.

In the age of globalisation, the national and multinational capitalist companies are eyeing for the land and other resources in the hands of the people. This, in collaboration with the state and bureaucracy, is sought to be achieved through the changes in relevant laws and policies. The Union government has recently introduced changes in Land Acquisition Act, has prepared number of Draft Policies for Resettlement and Rehabilitation.The Union Water Resources Ministry and National Thermal Power Corporation have also proposed different drafts of rehabilitation. Suddenly, these agencies have felt the need to talk about the resettlement that to in their term. The large-scale displacement, therefore, is in offing which needs to be debated at length.

K. Anuradha Mohanty is a research scholar in Utkal University and Bidyut Mohanty works with the land related issues in Odisha.

World Bank-DFID's shadow still persists on Odisha's education sector

2009-01-27T08:32:00.000-08:00

By Anil Pradhan

It is known to all that India had faced the balance of payment problem in 1990. Odisha too faced the problem of over draft situation. The state government sought financial support from World Bank and DFID to over come this problem. These international agencies have got chance to dictate terms and conditions to the weak state government.
Odisha government has started pushing fiscal reforms since 1999 and taken several steps like freezing grants-in-aid to the education sector on the dictates of World Bank and DFID.
A meeting was held between the Union and state governments on April 15, 1999
to discuss various fiscal measures in the state. It was decided that the state will take immediate steps to determine user charges for other social and economic services such as school, college and university fees, water charges, health care fees, veterinary services, and irrigation rents. The state will issue government orders for raising the user charges for secondary and college education by July 1999.
This was reflected when government presented a White paper on state finances in the state assembly in 2000. The white paper clearly stated, "The expenditure on general education was Rs.177.95 crores in the year 1984-85. It was 21.60% of the revenue receipt and 20.23% of the total revenue expenditure of the year 1984-85. The expenditure reached the level of Rs.1166.67 crores in the year 1997-98, accounted for 25.18% of the total revenue receipt and 21.07% of the total revenue expenditure on the year 1997-98. A single item of expenditure soaks one fourth of the revenue receipts of the state government. While three fourths of the receipt fails to absorb all other items of expenditure of all other departments. So, the revenue expenditure overflows the limit of revenue receipt. The expenditure on education therefore requires to be capped. ----"The state government's policy with regard to the salary structure of the non-Govt. Aided educational institutions and the policy directives concerning establishment of new schools and colleges need an urgent re-look, in view of the huge expenditure in the education sector. Unless the grant-in-aid frozen at a certain level by a change in policy or by legislation, the expenditure on education will devour the entire state revenues in the coming years……."
It will be worthwhile to mention here that " non-governmental aided institutions in the state play a crucial role as they managed 74% secondary schools and 92 percent higher secondary schools in 1993 in Orissa. Non-government aided means here the schools managed by the community and government support them for teacher's salary and other administrative expenses".
Consequently, World Bank and DFID started restructuring Odisha's administration and Odisha government accepted their terms and conditions unconditionally with the hopes that they will get a loan from the WB. With the help of DFID consultants, Odisha government prepared strategy documents to carry out structural adjustment programme in Odisha.
The Joint Technical Economic Mission of World Bank and DFID directed Odisha government in its AIDE MEMOIARE from May 8-13, 2000.
"One of the key fiscal issues in the education sector is the provision of grant-in-aid for salary payments to private schools (primary, secondary and Tertiary). After raising steeply in the early nineties, these were effectively capped in the mid-nineties by refusing to pay grants to any eligible schools not already receiving funds. However, in the last few years, these grant-in-aids have risen again on account of salary increases. These educational grants are unaffordable and inequitable, at least for secondary and tertiary education. There are three measures government could take to control grants:
Limit the potential liability by capping the number of schools and colleges eligible for grants.
Reduce the budgetary burden by capping grants to individual schools and colleges at their current nominal level.
Enforce current regulations to remove aid from poorly performing schools and colleges receiving grants. The first two measures will likely require legislative action. A cabinet sub-committee on education has prepared draft legislation for consideration."
If we analyse the functioning of Odisha government since 2000, it has been carrying out the instruction of joint technical economic mission of World Bank and DFID.
Again from September 24-30, 2000, Joint technical mission in its AIDE MENOIRE said that "----- Hence measures should be considered to adopt criteria for screening the qualification of grant-in-aid institutions for continued support and measures be considered for eliminating support where quality educational services were not being provided while protecting support for high quality and deserving institutions."
One should note that the performance of many schools is poor due to the shortage of teachers, in accessibility, poor monitoring and various socio-economic reasons. If government will close these schools because the performance of these schools are poor, then the poor will be again deprived from educational rights?
Odisha faces a number of challenges in the education sector that have become more pronounced due to the state's fiscal problems. While it is important to put the grant-in aid policy to private institutions accounts for less than 10% of the education budget (Rs 150 crores out of Rs 1700 crores, approximately). In particular, even during the period of fiscal adjustment, the priority that has been given in recent years to expand coverage and improve quality in primary education should not be undermined.
In the context of Odisha's fiscal problems, it would be extremely important to pay attention to measures to reduce unit costs across all levels of education. The government is considering measures such as the use of alternative schools (which have lower unit recurrent costs than formal schools) and para-teachers in elementary education…..
"….. the Government is considering various options for increasing user fees in education, the rates for which have not been adjusted in for over forty years and constitute a negligible source to financing. Recent experience with the self financing course in Orissa has demonstrated the willingness of students to pay very high fees provided they feel that quality services are provided in return ……".
Here, several questions arises like who will be beneficiary of self –financing course ? 47% of people live in below poverty line in Orissa.
The other recommendations of them for reducing financial burden are as follow:
…. to prevent any new institutions from receiving grants and to gradually take posts that fall vacant off the list of positions that are eligible for grants…. among other measures to reduce costs, the government should consider the rationalisation of school education (specially avoiding setting up schools … "the redeployment of teachers" ….)
From this one can understand the role of World Bank and DFID in the education of Odisha. On the one hand, they talk about Education for All and Million Development Goal (MGD) and on the other hand, they dictate state government for freezing grants-in-aids in education.
A good education system is necessary as it plays a major role in the development of the society and state. A public debate is necessary to prepare a blue print for the education sector in Odisha.

The author works in the field of education. He has written this paper based on the research work done by Prof Abani Kumar Baral on the state education sector. Please feel free to send your comments and suggestions at janatavikasmanch@gmail.com and visit
www.janatavikasmanch.blogspot.com for more details.

Industrialisation in the poor literate Odisha may not help people

2009-01-27T08:08:00.000-08:00

By Anil Pradhan
Odisha has been witnessing an inverse fund flow into the industry and primary education sector in the post-liberalisation period. The state government has claimed that it has signed more than sixty MoUs with a cumulative investment of Rs 4 lakh crore. On the contrary, the available data shows that the government has drastically cut the expenditure in the primary education since 1994.
Odisha is one of the backward states on all the parameters. The Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes constitute around 22.13 % and 16.53% respectively of the total population. There are 62 tribal groups in Odisha and 13 of them have been identified as primitive tribes. The literacy among scheduled tribes is low (37.4%) in comparison to the general literacy (63.63%) in the state. Out of the thirty districts, 14 of them have literacy percentage below the state average of 63.61% (2001). Female literacy is also very low - 21.02 % in Nabarangapur, 21.28% in Malkanagiri and 24.81% in Koraput.
Hence, Odisha should be treated separately. Our Prime Minister has rightly emphasised that the real challenge before India is to make the “growth process more socially inclusive and regionally balanced”(The Hindu) . Unless special attention is given to the underdeveloped states like Odisha, India can not develop.
Odisha government does not give preference to education. The state government has no plan for appointing permanent teachers in the elementary schools. The government has recently announced that the teachers will be appointed under contractual basis with a remuneration of Rs. 1,500/- to 2,000/-.
According to the available data, Odisha Government’s expenditure on the elementary education is decreasing:
Year
%of total budget
1994-95
17.41%
1995-96
18.05%
1996-97
17.79%
1997-98
18.69%
1998-99
18.20%
1999-00
20.67%
2000-01
16.06%
2001-02
10.29%
2002-03
12.35%
2003-04
11.83%
2004-05
9.74%
2005-06
8.18%
2006-07
7.49%
(Sikshara Sthiti O’ Dusthiti by Abani Baral, 2007)
With this background of a weak social infrastructure, Odisha government has already signed more than sixty MoUs with the MNCs and mega players. One can imagine the fate of the illiterate people in this process of industrialisation.
Unless government expenditure rises on elementary education, we cannot expect to improve the situation of education in Odisha. However, money alone can not improve the situation of elementary education. Addressing administrative, personnel and other issues alongside accountability system could help us to change the situation.

Community participation, Panchayat Raj institutions and accountability:

If we analyze community participation in education in Odishat, we will find that historically most of the schools and colleges were set up by the community. When community members had a role in the management of the schools, schools were showing better results. However, in some cases, the management was harsh towards teachers. In 1998, all teachers of primary schools and upper primary schools were declared as government servants. During the ninth plan period, 2929 fully-aided secondary schools were taken over by the government. With effect from June 7, 1994, all the fully aided secondary schools have become government schools. After the community became less involved in managing the schools, the performance of the schools began deteriorating day by day. Government has introduced VEC to ensure community participation in school management, but once again it is government driven. It is the head master of the school who decides who will become members of the committee.

The Government of Orissa has transferred 28 items of responsibilities to Gram Panchayats, which include elementary education. As per the law, Gram Panchayat can recommend actions in case of any indiscipline on the part of teachers to the block level committee, but cannot take any action. What is then the use of transferring responsibilities to the Gram Panchayats?

Impact of Sarva Siksha Abhijan

Under Sarva Siksha Abhijan a lot of money is being spent on infrastructure development, teaching learning materials, teachers’ training, surveys and Management Information System. However if there are not appropriate numbers of well motivated teachers in schools, who will translate these concepts in to reality? All district level education officers are administrative officers. They do not take interest in education; rather they are more interested in construction of infrastructure.

Schemes such as DPEP and SSA have done more harm than the good. Teachers are now responsible for handling a lot of money and looking after construction activities, additional responsibilities that came with the implementation of these programmes. People are unaware that the work order is being done in the name of VECs, but in practice, teachers do everything

If the administrative structure will not be changed, accountability will not be ensured at all levels, as spending money through already existing structure which is outdated and rotten is meaning less. Administrative reforms should be a part of planning. People’s capacity should be developed so that they can manage their own affairs including schools.

Quality Education is a myth.

People think that quality education can be ensured if there will be a lot of teaching and learning materials, good pucca building, appointment of permanent teachers, etc. First of all government is not giving any importance to appointing permanent teachers. Secondly, whatever good teachers were there, they are now working as Co-coordinators, BRC and CRC and many have already been corrupted, due to heavy channelling of money under Sarva Siksha Abhijan through them. Teacher and students ratio decreases day by day. Although, various commissions and report have been given much importance on decentralization in developing course curriculum and course materials, nothing has been done to date. Under such circumstances, an expectation of quality education from the government stream is a day dream.

The Important Problems of elementary education can be summarised as follow:
Absence of Education Policy: There is an absence of education policy in many states of India. Educational administration functions chiefly through circulars. Circulars can be changed and altered at any point of time depending on the whims of the ministers and educational administrators concerned. Therefore, there is little accountability at all levels.
Inequalities in Public Spending: There are inequalities in public spending even within a district, between blocks, and within a block between schools, when measured in terms of staff strength and other instructional and infrastructural resources. For example, there appears to be an ironic situation: in urban and semi- urban areas some government schools have too many teachers and too few students; in the less privileged areas/neighbourhoods, in contrast, often one or two teachers have to manage single –or double-headedly large classes and other school related responsibilities. This happens due to lack of a clear-cut policy in the education sector.
Appointment of Teachers: We cannot ignore the role of teacher in ensuring quality education. Education is a low priority area for many state governments. Appointment of teachers is a problem in many states. In almost all cases, state governments are not appointing permanent teachers for primary schools. In case of Orissa, the state government has already appointed thirty thousand teachers on a contractual basis. On October 12th 2006, a notification was issued stating that an additional fifty thousand teachers would be appointed on a contractual basis with remuneration of Rs.2000/- per month. In this context, if pressure will not be built from below, we cannot bring out any qualitative changes in the education sector.
A lot of changes need to be brought about in the selection of teachers, and teachers’ training. In the present context, while selecting candidates for teachers’ training consists of only academic qualifications (not attitude and aptitude) is taken into consideration. This causes serious problems in ensuring quality education.
Education is under the Concurrent List: The 86th constitutional amendment (2002) has declared primary education as a fundamental right. To ensure the fundamental right to education for every child, BJP led NDA government formulated a draft bill titled Free and Compulsory education Bill, 2003. There were a lot of debates over it. When the UPA government was formed at the centre, they brought out many changes in the Free and Compulsory Education bill and renamed it as Right to Education Bill 2005. Again a lot of discussion took place. Finally, during the last parliament session, the UPA government forwarded the draft of Right to Education Bill to all state governments asking them to implement it at their own level. The central Government did not want to shoulder the responsibility of implementing the bill. This will create problems for underdeveloped states like Orissa, Bihar, and Jharkhand etc.
Furthermore since education is under the Concurrent List, it is the shared responsibility of both centre and states. Here, the state governments are not bound to obey the centre’s directives. Therefore, to translate intention into reality, with regard to the National Curriculum Framework prepared by NCERT, is very difficult in the present set up. Unless there is a constitutional amendment that addresses 73rd amendment (Each state government was forced to bring on amendment in their respective Panchayat Raj Act in the light of central act.), it will be extremely difficult to implement the national curriculum framework in the field.

Experience from the field

The state of education in tribal areas is in a deplorable condition. Although, many commissions have been set-up at central level as well as the formulation of many plans and programmes, there is still a vast lacuna in educating tribal people. I have identified certain problems on tribal education as follows:

There is no policy for educating tribal children in Orissa. The Department of Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes run residential schools for tribal children. The number of schools run under this department is like a drop in the ocean. Most of the tribal students depend on schools run by the department of Schools and Mass Education. The Schools and Mass Education department has no policy for educating tribal children. Tribals have their own language, culture and life style. While planning educational activities, these languages, cultures and life styles have to be taken in to account. Both the departments who work for educating tribal children have yet to address these issues.
There is a lot of money being spent for education under Sarva Siksha Abhijan through Orissa Primary Education Authority (OPEPA). OPEPA has developed few primers for tribal children and attitudinal trainings have been conducted for teachers who are working in tribal areas. But, what will be fate of this programme after this Sarva Siksha Abhijan programme? OPEPA activities are planned in the whim of State Project Directors. When the Director changes, priorities also change. For example, when the DPEP programme was initiated, there was a section for tribal education. Tribal coordinators were posted at district levels in few tribal districts. In between, priority of the authority had changed and tribal education section was abolished for a few years. Whatever materials developed (primers, training manual) became null and void. Again there is now a section for tribal education and a lot of work is being done under this section. But if there will be no clear cut policy for tribal education what will happen to this work after this programme is over.
The high schools run under the Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes Department are functioning like any other schools with the exception of adding residential facilities. There is no separate curriculum and activities for tribal children in these schools which will promote and raise their confidence level.
Odisha government should learn from these field experiences and redesign school programmes accordingly for the rural communities. And, the state government should join hands with others state to have an inclusive society with social justice.

The author works in the field of primary education. The comments and suggestions can be sent at janatavikasmanch@gmail.com or more information visit www.janatavikasmanch.blogspot.com

Rapid industrialisation puts tribal-poor farmers at receiving end

2009-01-17T04:54:00.000-08:00

Govt needs to create a win-win situation in an atmosphere of increasing confrontation
By Pravin Patel

The opening of Indian economy since 1991 has widened the gulf between rich and poor. A few, who have access to the corridors of power and know the art of inking MoUs, might have been benefitted from these MoUs in the name of development.Contrary to this, it has hit hard to the poor farmers and tribals. The threat of being displaced is increasing with more and more new areas are being covered in these MoUs that have been signed. No body can deny that there is a raging controversy over diversion of farm land for industrial, mining and other purposes. The need of the hour is to find a please-all solution by addressing the situation in absolute transparent manner by taking the farmers and tribals into confidence. Unfortunately, this is not happening. Land of the poor farmers is inked in the MoUs without taking them into confidence. These poor farmers and tribals come to know of the reality only when the survey team visits them. Forcible land acquisition process has resulted in uniting of the people facing the threat of being displaced.When there is need to ensure that while pursuing the industrialisation, we need to take enough care that no injustice is done, more particularly to the farmers on whose land, the eyes of industrial corporation has fallen. The need is also to have a policy that takes the interest of the land losers and also the industrial corporations. But what happens in reality is that by hook or crook, playing mischief, use of force, committing brutalities, land owners are pushed to the corners. Those who support the genuine demands of the land losers are labelled as anti developmental forces. The people of Odisha have seen bloody scenes in Kashipur and Gopalpur in the past and recently in Kalinga Nagar. One should not be surprised to see newer battle grounds in the future too.A bare look at the MoUs, one will find that the industrial and mining corporations are duty bound to move towards the direction of enriching all segments of the society, but the experience is otherwise. Even there are flaws in the mining as well as industrial policy but in the name of development, it is not being addressed. National Agriculture Policy and also Ministry of Environment says no to the use of farm land for the industrial purpose.Even two most important legal provisions of the Panchayat (Extension of the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 are crucial. Section 4 (d), it is mentioned that: "The community at the village level in the form of Gram Sabha is competent to manage community resources." Section 4(i) says "The Gram Sabha shall be consulted before the acquisition of land and the rehabilitation of the affected people"The fact is that the average size of landholding is so small, that those poor farmers and tribals can not match to counter the powerful industrial corporations to influence the decision makers. The need is to have a better farm policy keeping this faction in mind to improve the economic status of farmers by improving agricultural productivity. The need is to find a long-term solution before we jump in to address the situation in bit and pieces as is being done currently. We should not force the distressed farmers to keep away from agriculture and shift to manufacturing and services and other non-agricultural pursuits, or even become a daily wage earner, which is being witnessed so far.Similarly, the scenario on the water or environment front needs discussion. Steel, Power plant and other industries require large quantities of water. Even after over sixty years of our independence, we have not done enough to irrigate the farm but when the need for industries is there, it takes no time to divert the water from the river or dams. Why this discrepancy? The problem is that the state government works in favour of private companies as if they are their representatives and by openly bulldozing peaceful public dissent, social consensus and people's aspirations, push the people to a point of no-return.Here, the question arises why the farmers should be made sacrificial goats in the name of development? Is it because he is not in a position to bargain or influence the state authorities, the way industrial corporations are believed to manage to buy favours. Why those who make all this sound in the name of investment be asked to make sacrifices? When government dictates terms on farmers and poor, why it fails to act in a similar manner to the defaulting industrial corporations? 3400 Acres of land lost at Behrampur in the year 1988, neither plant has come up nor any employment is created, but state is silent onlooker. Injustice done to the farmers can not be justified.There is a need to look at the realities in the field of agriculture also. The fifth National Economic Survey has stated the fact that during the year 1998 to 2005, employment opportunities in the non-agriculture sector has increased by 25%, where as the work force increased by only 2%., which during the year 1994 to 2000, it was only 1%. The situation in Odisha is worst. The area of concern is that while 73% of our workforce depends on agriculture sector; it contributes only 21-22% to our GDP. Despite the employment rate grew by 7.3% in the years 1970 to 2000, over 26% of the population of country lives below the poverty line. This establishes the fact that despite the increase in the employment opportunities in agro sector, income of the individual or the family has not risen, rather suicides of the farmers has proved that in fact, their economic conditions has worsened. Investment policies have been framed keeping the interest of Capitalists. Despite the net Gross Domestic Product is increasing at the rate of 5% but the rate of employment has gone down to 1.97% but still industrialisation is glorified in the name of creating employment opportunities. After speedy industrialization and rapid economic growth, we have entered in to the era of global recession. Lay offs and job cuts are on increase. We are in a situation where we see ill effects of the neglect of farm sector. The liberalised economy and rapid rate of growth of our economy has failed to address the unemployment problem. With more and more automation and new technologies that drastically reduces man power requirements, we are all set to be trapped in a situation looks dangerous. Considering the preset rate of employment, neglect of our farm sector and looking at 2001 Census, there will be huge battalion of about 20 million unemployed youth in the country by the year 2018. What will happen at that point of time is shear imagination.Situation of Orissa can be worst, as we have large areas of land where there is no irrigation facilities, farmers are in the clutches of illegally operating private money lenders as the banking network in the State is much below the benchmark. The gap between the rich and poor will increase may lead to chaos all around. With proposed labour law reforms, pursued by the industrial lobby that advocates hire and fire policy will add fuel to the fire. All this happening and likely to happen in future too, in a state which is gifted with immense natural wealth. Corruption, inefficiency and political interference have demoralized the honest administrative officers. Author of Orissa's economic growth have failed to improve the plight of the farmers who are also suffering from repeated draughts due to lack of proper irrigation facilities despite huge Dams have been constructed by acquiring land of the poor in the name of providing irrigation and power generation. The water and power in the state is being diverted to the Industrial houses.Agriculture is the way of life for the majority of people in Odisha. Land is fundamental asset and it is a primary source of income, security, status and dignity. Without land, tribals can not survive with dignity. For tribals, land is like their Mother. There are provisions in the Constitution of India that protects the land ownership rights of tribals.Fifth and Sixth Schedule of the Constitution are significant in this regard. Attempts are needed to ensure that traditional command of the Adivasi community over resources is honoured; Development in the tribal area takes place with focus on the quality of the life of the Adivasis and development with equity. It is an irony that in the hurry for the so called development, powerful, wealthy and those who can influence the government machinery, systematically but surely have laid their hands on the natural wealth of the state. It is the duty of the state government to practice policies for the welfare of its people and not to behave as the representative of the powerful industrial and mining corporations.There is a crying need to have a state-wide political discussion and debate on the neglect of agriculture sector and formulate policies for a holistic development of Odisha with an equity for all.
The author actively works for the tribal development

Indian railways step-motherly treatment responsible for Odisha's backwardness

2009-01-17T04:42:00.000-08:00

By Er. Lalit Patnaik

Odisha has been in news globally for the wrong reasons. Both national and international media has given a wide coverage to the recent Hindu-Christian violence in Kandhamal. But, hardly any news report has drawn the attention of the people that the lack of railway connectivity in this backward region is also one of the main reasons for the intense communal clash. .
The poor tribals and deprived people of Khandhamal have been isolated from the main stream of Odisha because of the lack of connectivity. The district is full of hills and does not have multiple entries and the railway link is absent.
It is important to note that Railways have always played an important role in economic development and rapid social transformation across the globe as it is the cheapest mode of transportation.
However, it is most unfortunate that in a poor and backward state like Odisha, development of rail network has received much less attention by Union Government in the post- Independence period. This is one of the main reasons for the backwardness of adivasis and other areas of Odisha who are backward partly because of the lack of connectivity and such neglect continue to keep them backward and prevent them from catching up from the mainstream.
Due to lack of connectivity, the locals could not intermingle with out side world and hence the social transformation could not take place. And also their products could not be transported easily and hence got less value for the same. Only the traders from out side world went inside Khandhamal and looted the tribal's of their produce at much less market price. In Khandhamal, the tribal population is 51.51 % and the scheduled caste is 18.21 %.
Therefore, the demand is gaining momentum for a rail line connecting Lanjigarah to Phulabani to Angul that will bisect Khandhamal region & also the up coming Khurdha – Bolangir rail line so as to serve as a bypass link between Bhubaneswar to Koraput zone. And people inside Khandhamal will have access to Indian rail network. The rate of return (RoR) from this rail line will be much more than 14 %, which is required by Railway Board to sanction a new rail line. The rail link will shorten the distance between the coal center in Angul and Bauxite Mine center in Koraput by more than 100 KM. The largest aluminum company NALCO at Angul sends coal to it's refinery plant in Koraput and brings back alumina to Angul and this shortening of distance will reduce the time consumed for the transportation and will enhance it's ROR. Other aluminum company like RSB, Vedanta and Hindalco will follow the suite and the new line via Khandhamal will earn more than 20 % of RoR.
Besides transportation by the major industries, other goods to Raygada, Koraput,Malkangiri, Kalahandi, Nuapada will pass through this line via Khurdha as it will be shorter by more than 200 KM than the rail link through Andhra Pradesh.
Blue print on railway network expansion in Odisha
Prof Chitta Baral of Arizona University ( USA) has done an extensive-intensive study on the need of the expansion of the rail network in Odisha. He has been educating policy makers and public in general about the importance of a good rail network. He has documented the current railway scenario in Odisha and prepared a blueprint for its expansion in the state which is mentioned in detail in the following paragraphs.
According to Prof Chitta Baral, the map of India clearly shows that the Odisha has a low rail density. A big part of the low density region in Odisha is located in KBK and Kandhamal districts.
The question arises why rail connectivity is important for any region? The Planning Commission addresses this as follows:
"Railways have always played an important role in economic development and rapid social transformation in all parts of the globe. It is one of the key economic infrastructures. However, it is most unfortunate that in a poor and backward state like Orissa, development of rail networks has received much less attention of the Central Government in the post-independence period. There are as many as seven districts like Boudh, Kandhamal, Deogarh, Nayagarh, Kendrapara, Malkangiri and Nabarangpur out of the 30 districts of the state, which do not have any railway line passing through them. In the year 1998-99, the density of railway route length per 1000 sq. km of area in Orissa was only 15.03 km as against 42.66 km in West Bengal and 19.11 km. at all-India level".
Consistent with the above report, the KBK and Kandhamala districts are among the most backward districts of the country. They are also Naxalite infested, have high tribal population and lack connectivity. In essence, they are another frontier of India like Jammum & Kashmir and the Northeast. It is very unfortunately that they are an overlooked frontier.
So, if the above is well-known why does not Indian Railways bring connectivity to KBK and Kandhamal. Indian Railways often cite the lack of profitability issue. But Indian Railway does build and plans to build unprofitable lines in J & K and North East. Also, their planned gauge conversion of 12,000 KMs involves a lot of unprofitable lines.
On the other hand Indian Railways makes a lot of profit from its operations in Odisha. The following table shows the profit Indian Railways projects to make from Odisha during 2008-09.

Total
Route kms
Route
Kms in Odisha
Total estimated Profit in 08-09 (in crores)
Odisha's portion of the profit/year –
calculated by proportional method (in crores)
ECOR3
2430
1607
3077.15
2034.97
SECR
1599
51
2529.89
80.69 (would be much more if calculated more accurately, as the 51 kms of SECR in Odisha covers the Ib valley, a major coal mining area)
SER
2577
589
2467.88
564.06 (would be much more if calculated more accurately, as the 589 kms of SER covers a lot of mines in the Keonjhar district)
2247
2679.72 crores
Prof Baral explains that the expansion of the rail connectivity is very important for the development of Odisha. Indian Railways earn lot of revenue and profit from Odisha, mostly by transporting minerals. Yet, rail density is among the lowest in states like Odisha and Chattisgarh. In essence, Indian Railways continue to be an exploiter of Odisha and Chhatisgarh and partly responsible for the backwardness of several districts of Odisha like KBK. This exploitation of Odisha and Chhatisgarh by IR must STOP!
Moreover, Odisha is being left out of several high profile and high budget railway initiatives of the 11th plan such as the first two freight corridors, metros and high speed rail lines.
Thus, it is imperative that Indian Railways add connectivity to the Kandhamala and KBK districts of Odisha on a war footing and in a time bound manner similar to efforts being made in J & K and the Northeast. In particular the following three lines must be completed within five years.
(I) The Kandhamal-KBK line: Bhadrachalam Road (Andhra) – Malkangiri- Jeypore – Junagarh – Lanjigarh Rd – across Kandhamal District –
(II) Khurda Road – Balangir line
(III) Talcher – Bimlagarh
This will lead to the following network structure and the gap in the middle will vanish.
To fund these three and all the other lines in Odisha, all that is needed is that the Railway earns profits from Odisha should be invested in Odisha the next five years. This will come to Rs 12,500 crores in five years, which is 5% of the Rs 2,51,000 crores proposed budget of Indian Railways for the 11th plan.
In response to the above mentioned request, the Railway board chairperson Mr. Kalyan Jena said that one cannot say that the profit from a state should go to that state, as with this logic Mumbai will claim that all the taxes generated from Mumbai go to Mumbai. Then the rest of the country would lose.
We agree with the general principle behind Mr. Jena's argument. Redistribution of resources across various regions of a country is normal and often necessary. But, Mr. Jena should know that in a welfare state the government takes from the rich and gives to the poor. Ironically, in case of Odisha, Indian Railways is doing reverse. Indian Railways is earning from the minerally rich but poor state like Odisha and diverting the same resources to rich metros like Mumbai and New Delhi and other states, where freight corridors, high speed rail and metro rail are being built.
To conclude, Indian Railways should pump more money in developing rail network in the backward regions in Odisha. It can certainly recover its investments and offer profits in the long run. Indian Railways should finish Kandhamal-KBK line and the Khurda Balangir line in the next five years.

The author is active in mobilizing public opinion on the expansion of railway network in Odisha.

Meltdown a wake-up call for Odisha to re-strategise its industrial policy

2009-01-17T04:35:00.000-08:00

By Sai Prasan
The global recession has hit hard all the economies. India is also not untouched with this recession which is considered worst than 1929 depression. The slow down in the industrial production and the job-cuts have become order of the day in India too. Even Odisha's finance minister confessed last month in public that the global meltdown is expected to choke the revenue stream of the state.
The role of state is being extensively debated following the financial tsunami in US. After the disintegration of Soviet Union, India had also introduced the new economic policy in 1991 which aimed at minimising the state's participation in the production process. The economic reforms have witnessed the closure of a large number of State-owned PSUs and the private sector including MNCs which have grown up since then.
In this context, the industrial policy of Odisha should be reviewed and renewed to tune itself to meet the challenges of globalization in the year 2009. The 18-year old adolescent economic reforms have impacted the industrial scenario of Odisha too. The high capital and technology intensive based private sector and MNCs have made the State owned PSUs uncompetitive in the state.
According to the state economic survey for the year 2007-08, only 32 state owned companies are working out of the total number of 66. The total work force in the organized sector has come down from 7.98 lakhs in 2000 to 7.41 lakhs in 2006.
It is important to note here that the sub-prime crisis leading to the US financial turmoil has once again stressed the role of the State in the developmental process. The financial services companies like Lehman Brothers have gone bankrupt. And, the financial health of Merrill Lynch, AIG and automobile sector is also in doldrums. The unemployment rate is record high in USA. This economic situation has forced the US government to come out with a bail out package of $ 700 billion dollars (thirty three lakh crore rupees) to save some of these companies. And, the government is contemplating to come out with another round/s of bail out package/s.
This kind of economic downturn can be a good case study for a state like Odisha. This is the right time for both the people and government of Odisha to have an in-depth study whether the proposed 60 MoUs including POSCO, Vedanta and Tata Steel project in Kalinga Nagar will benefit the people of the state or they will be in loss at the end of the day. The Profit and Loss (P&L) account of these projects should be calculated. The state officials conceded recently that the Rs 52,000 crore Posco project may likely to generate 4,000 to 5,000 jobs. However, the officials claim that the allied industries of Posco – small and medium units – have the potential to generate lot of jobs.
However, the people of the state have already registered a violent resistance to these projects as a large number of poor and marginal farmers and tribals have been displaced due to these industrial projects. The tribals of Kalinga Nagar also re-iterated their opposition to the Kalinga Nagar's Tata Steel project early this month.
Here, Odisha can take a leaf from the Enron led DPC project in Maharashtra. The Rs 13,000 crore power project re-negotiated in 1995 faced several challenges. Out of this Rs 13,000 crore, around Rs 6,500 crore was the debt component of Indian financial institutions led by IDBI. The project was offered guarantee and counter-guarantee from Maharashtra government and Centre respectively which had created lot of problems both for Maharashtra government and the Centre.
It was evident that the state bureaucracy could not understand while signing the complex Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) in 1992. The dollar linkages with the total cost of the project and the fuel prices were the two main reasons for making the power project unviable.
The project is now operational with some or other technical operational problems arising now and them.
Hence, it is a challenge for the government to safeguard its own industry from getting further affected due to the opening of the economy. The state government claims to sign 100 MoUs. But, it must be very careful while entering into any MoU with any MNC. The government machinery must take the advice of the professionals in accounting and in legal sector while giving a final shape to the project.
Moreover, the plan outlay of Orissa was only around Rs 7,500 crore for the current financial year. The state should ensure that these MNCs like Posco should not dictate terms to the government. Rather, it should be the other way around.
Way Forward
1. Orissa government may resolve the problems it is facing in projects like Posco, Tata's Kalinga Nagar project and Vedanta on the following lines:
A. It should take the people of the area into confidence and democratically sort out the issues in a transparent manner. It may hold referendum too, if necessary, to seek public opinion in the project effected areas.
B. Only paying the compensation to the people against their land and offering them jobs may not be enough. Apart from this, the state government can explore other options too. The valuation of the land can be done. And, a portion of the value of the cost of the land can be converted into equity which can also make the land owners shareholders / stakeholders in the project. A Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) can be created for this purpose.
C. The government should also ensure a percent (may be 50%) of the jobs across the board to be reserved for the locals of Orissa.
2. The state industrial policy can emphasize on how to attract capital from the people of Odisha origin living outside the state to invest back at home in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) sector for the purpose of employment generation.
3. The state has a lot of scope to develop agro and forest industry. The development of the cold storage and the soft skills like honey-harvesting can be encouraged as a SME sector.
4. Odisha has a long marine /coast line. Fisheries and other similar coast related means can be developed as a SME sector.
5. The use of cycle is still more popular in Odisha compared to any other mode of transport. Hence, cycle industry can also be set up. Similarly, other SME sectors like foot-ware (chappal) industry can be encouraged.
6. Orissa has a natural beauty which is attractive. The tourism sector has the potential to develop it as an industry both for the tourists as well as Bollywood and film industry which can provide employment and generate revenue for the state.
7. Similarly, if Andhra Pradesh government can develop Tirupathi Temple and Maharashtra can focus on Shiradi, then Orissa government can also develop Jagannath Temple on similar lines.
8. The globalization has hit the deprived section of society the most in terms of jobs. The state government should ensure that the SC & ST population consisting of 40% of the population get proper facilities for starting their venture. The government should direct even the private professional institutes to reserve seats for this category and financial arrangement should be made to take care of their fees.
9. Taking a cue from states like Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Punjab, Orissa government, along with the private sector, should educate youth telling that the self-employment is the order of the day. They can also be job-providers by adopting SME model. The educated youth must be motivated to learn English and basics of IT which is a must for the development of the human resources in the state.
10. The people oriented industrialization requires mass education. The Dalits, Tribals, minorities and women should be given proper education so that they can understand how to participate in the industrial-developmental process.
Conclusion Orissa government should take proper steps to develop infrastructure – roads, ports and railways. It should also ask the Union finance ministry and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to expand the banking network which is very important for the development of the industry. The people living in all the 314 blocks should get information on the real time basis, on the lines of Gujarat, Maharashtra and southern states including Andhra Pradesh, on the developmental related issues.
The government can launch an awareness campaign among Odisha people living within and outside the country to invest their money on the Public-Private Partnership (PPA) model for the development of their home-state. They can also be encouraged to invest as an independent entity. A co-ordinated determined action with a five-year time framework can change the face of Odisha.
The author is a senior journalist

Report on an alternative political forum

2008-12-22T21:00:00.000-08:00

The report on an alternative political forum held on November 23, 2008 inBhubaneswar
The one-day meeting on an alternative political forum was held on November 23,2008at Red Cross Bhavan, Bhubaneswar. The meeting held between 11 AMÂ to 5.30PM.Mr Sai Prasan presided over the meeting.Mr Prasan has introduced the background paper on the alternative political forumwhich was prepared after three months of discussion and debate on the subject.The paper was widely circulated. He requested Mr Sudarshan Das, a former studentleader and a columnist, to kick-start the discussion on the alternativepolitical forum. Mr Das said that Orissa lacks political direction. The political class is moreinvolved in the allegations and counter-allegations instead of any constructivedevelopmental work. There was a vacuum within and outside the political parties.The political parties are directionless on issues like Kalinga Nagar.The Left parties also have become weak and the left movements have beenvanished. And, the political student movements are not there.New political formations like Samrudha Orissa, NCP and Samajwadi Party have comeup in the state. An anti-Naveen campaign was being carried by these politicalparties. These political parties should focus on issues. Both political processand electoral process should be carried separately. The political process shouldbe strengthened in the State as it is a long drawn process.Both SC and ST population constitute 40% of the tribal and dalit population. TheBSP is representing dalits in the State who are fighting among themself. Thereare problems like education, health and poverty in the state.There are well meaning people in the state like Kishan Parishad. We need tobring all these people on one platform and unitedly work on the issuesconcerning state. It is a challenging job. We need to evolve a people orientedprogrammes.The alternative political initiative can work on two issues:
1. Evaluate the performance of the Congress led United ProgressiveAlliance (UPA) government at the Centre and BJD-BJP led State government in thelast five years and eight years respectively. Both achievements and failuresshould be critically analysed.
2.And, simultaneously, evolve People's oriented manifesto and programmethrough public debate and discussions.
Taking a cue from Mr Das, Mr Sricharan Behera, a sociologist, said that it isimportant to note how the marginal community are treated. The mindset of castehierarchy of upper caste and lower caste should be dismantled. Both thecaste and land issue should be addressed in the state. In reference toKandhamal, he said that 35% of the total land was acquired by the non-SC-ST inthe area. The attack on Pana caste is one sided. The definition of forged castecertificate should be looked into. The caste certificate issue is not beingaddressed properly. Striking a relationship between poverty and Naxalism, Mr Sujeet Kumar, a policyresearcher, said that an interesting trend has been witnessed in the Kandhamalviolence. Naxalites have taken responsibility of killing Swamiji which has ledto the communal violence. The question here arises that the socio-economicsituation was same in Kandhamal and Kalahandi region. But, what is the reasonthat Naxalism is strong in Kandhamal area and not in Kalahandi? Replying to Mr Sujeet Kumar, Mr Sudarshan Chhotray, a human rights activist,said that 75% of the population in the state are living below poverty line. Itis a fertile ground both for communalism and Naxalism. The Kandhamal issue hasbeen clubbed with the communalism which has been flared up. The resentment hasbeen manifested in the communal form. The political process should continue toaddress these issues. People should speak as they are not speaking. Only astrong people's movement along with a good leadership can solve this kind ofproblem. The Naxalism is strong in Kandhamal as there was an escape route for theNaxalites in these areas as the area was bordering with Andhra Pradesh. Contraryto this, there was no escape route in the Kalahandi area as the area wasbordering with Chattisgarh. He said that the nature of Naxalism is changingÂ over the years. The movement is getting more of armed centric which wasalienating people. Currently, the Naxalism was prevalent in twenty districts.The people's support to Naxals has been reduced. The state needs a politicaldirection. Commenting on the overall situation prevalent in Orissa, Dr Dhanda Mishra, anacademician and educationist, said that the State needs a rigorous and criticalacademic exercise to evolve a people's agenda. The state leadership lacksvision. The state has a capacity which can be utilized in the development of thestate. The political class was involved in the blame game while the Orissa stillfigures at the bottom of the states.Referring to the public funding for the political parties in Australia, he saidthat it was a major issue that needs to be addressed. Alcohol was beingdistributed to woo voters. The money was being collected in the wrong way whichhas a negative impact on the political process. The choosing the right kind ofcandidates was also very important. The backwardness was responsible for therural-urban migration. The integration of policy with the real world was veryimportant. He said that the State has continued to borrow money and createassets; resulting the per capita burden going up. The roads have beenconstructed in the state which was a good asset.With regard to the growing cost of higher education, Dr Mishra said that therewas no problem with the higher education as the self-financing sector can makethe higher education possible.He said that Orissa has several thousands of educated unemployed youth who canbe engaged in a cost effective manner in the primary education. The humanresource development can take place in a better fashion, he said.
Responding to Dr Mishra, Mr Gobinda Ballah Dalai, a youth activist said thatthere were lot of political rebels in the State who were co-opted by the systemin a big way. There wasÂ no role model before the Youth of the state. Theadministration was fully involved in the people's issues in Andhra Pradesh. Theglobalization was having an impact on all the spheres of life.The situation in the state has reached to such a level that one can be booked onany filmsy ground. The democratic process has failed. The formation of apolitical forum wasÂ necessary and not necessarily a political party.
Participating in the debate, Mr Ashok Nanda, a political activist, said that thestate needs a new political formation which strongly believes in socialism. Theparty should explore how the state exchequer can earn from the rich mines. Theparty should ensure compulsory education and health services. The party shouldspend less on election campaigning and each constituency should have a trust tomeet the electoral funding. Endorsing Mr Nanda, Mr Tushar Ray said that the mineral resources is notbenefiting people; only the corporates are getting benefited. The change of thissituation is necessary in the state.He said that it is sad that the politics was confined to elections only. Theadministration is in a bad shape. The functionaries commitment to the Boss ismore important than to the people. It has become public that the bureaucracy wasdoing more politics than the politicians.The political parties do not have any inner democracy. If there is no innerdemocracy in the political parties; than how the democratic process can bepossible outside the party. The transparent functioning was a must for thedevelopment of the state. In similar tone, Mr Prashant, a grass-root youth worker, said that the buildersand mafia leaders are ruling in the politics. The voters are under the threat ofmafia rule. How the democratic process can be possible in this kind ofatmosphere, he asked. In line with Mr Prashant, Mr Sandeep, a youthÂ political leader said that it isan irony that the politics has been confined to voters getting money to vote.The political system has gone awry. The contractor and politicians nexus is verystrong. Only awareness can bring political change in the state. A sudden changeis not possible. The people are facing financial and medical problems in thestate.A new trend is being witnessed among the youth. Youth is getting attractedtowards Naxalism as they are completely disillusioned with the politicalparties. Earlier, the Naxalism was confined to only five districts, but now ithas spread to twenty districts. Another youth activist Mr Pritikant Panda said that there is no stand at theground level as there is a vacuum at every level â€“ social and political. Thefamily system itself got disintegrated.He said that the globalization has developed a negative habit among people.Their savings have come down and the credit has gone up. The NGO led developmentcan not be possible in the state.He said that there are political workers. However, the candidates will be amajor factor. The youth need to be trained politically who can be groomed at theearlier stage of life.With reference to women's role in development, Mr Panda said that women areconsulted for the financial literacy, but they are not consulted whether to havea child or not. On poor condition of women, Ms Annapurna Tripathy, a social activist said thatthe women should be legally and politically empowered in the state. Thewomen should come forward. The political awareness among women was required fortheir participation in the politics. The IT literacy among women in the statewas very weak. The e-literacy can play a vital role in the women's development. Intervening in the debate, Mr Tapan Mahapatra, a child rights activist said thatEnglish plays a vital role in the developmental process of the state. Englishwas also necessary for getting good jobs. The people of the state need to bemade aware. And, a good leadership should lead the alternative political forum.And, all the deliberations taken place at the alternative political forum shouldreach all the 314 blocks in the state. A separate ID should be created forreceiving and communicating information about the new political forum. Among others, Mr Rupak Johnson, Mr A K Paikaray, Mr Devi Prasad Tripathy, Mr Bimal Prasad and Mr Hrushikesh Sarangi also participated in the discussion. Plan of action: Following decisions have been taken in the one-day meeting on an alternativepolitical forum:
1. The members in the meeting have unanimously agreed to name thenew political forum Janata Vikas Manch (JVM).
2. A blog in the name of Janata Vikas Manch will be made online todiscuss and debate on issues related to the alternative political forum.
3. The performance of the Congress led United Progressive Alliance(UPA) government at the Centre and BJD-BJP led State government in the last fiveyears and eight years respectively will be evaluated through public forum -Blog. Both achievements and failures will be critically analysed.
4. And, simultaneolusly, evolve People's oriented manifesto andprogramme through public debate and discussions on Blog.
5. All the discussions carried on the Blog will be conveyed to thepeople through media.
6. An e-mail janatavikasmanch@gmail.com will be operationalised.
7. The organizational framework concerning the JVM will be evolvedin due course of time.

Ends