No Born Criminals

FFDA submits alternate report to UN ESCR on DNTs

2008-04-05T10:20:00.000-07:00

FFDA submitted its alternate report to UN Committee on Economic Social Cultural Rights along with other alliance partners.

The full text of the report can be downloaded from FFDA and UN

Starving ‘Gangsters’

2008-02-15T22:38:00.000-08:00

In a state administered by a Dalit, the most oppressed of the Dalits have been arrested under the Gangsters Act, says VB RAWAT

THE UTTAR PRADESH Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act is one of the most potent weapons in the arsenal of the state police. Strangely, three Dalit activists of the Musahar community — Ram Chander, Prasad and Kailash — were arrested under this Act on January 27, 2008. They were members of the Social Development Foundation. The charge was that they were caught “redhanded” brewing illicit liquor. The police claimed to have recovered three drums of illicit liquor from the Malwabar Musahar colony in Baghauchghat village, Deoria district.
Extreme impoverishment forces the Musahars — a community that has unfortunately come to be known as the “rat-eaters” — to resort to become labourers in this trade. However, the illicit liquor trade is not managed by the poor Dalit labourers but by the influential brick-kiln owners who wield political clout. Many Musahar families are bonded labourers at brick kilns and are forced into brewing liquor by their masters. The traditional occupation of the Musahars was hunting out rats from burrows in the fields. In return, they were allowed to keep the grain and chaff recovered from the holes. In times of scarcity, the Musahars would resort to eating rats. Why is the Gangsters Act being invoked against the most discriminated among the discriminated? That it happens in a state governed by BSP leader and Dalit icon Mayawati makes a mockery of democracy.
In June 2007, passing through this Musahar basti, I found that more than 200 children in the village had no access to either formal or informal education. Electricity poles had been erected here more than 10 years ago, but the village remains in the dark. The community owned no land. During the colonial period, the police would arrest them for petty thefts and they were listed as a Criminal Tribe. Despite denotification, the police mindset has not changed and they treat Musahars as criminals. Even the administration continues to use Musahars for unpaid work.
With no job opportunities, Musahars do not have the numbers to influence the political climate of their village, leave alone the state. Their “votes” have rarely mattered. Members of the community have also not been receiving any benefit from the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS).
The Social Development Foundation started an informal school in the area last year. More than 225 children attend the school, including some older girls who have been abandoned by their husbands. During summers, one could see even children of the community asking for toddy. Seeing their enthusiasm for education and their subhuman conditions, an NGO, MCKS Food for the Hungry Foundation, decided to provide a mid-day meal to the children in SDF’s informal school. This scheme is being run by the elders in the Musahar community and women help in the cooking and feeding. The Musahar children remain hungry in spite of the world’s largest feeding programme for schoolchildren. Often the mid-day meal offered in the school is the only meal that the Musahar children get to eat all day.
It was at this juncture — when the SDF began changing the situation with the active participation of village elders — that news of the arrest came in. Ramrati, an elderly widow, had been mobilising the community to give up making illicit liquor. Participating in many SDF programmes, Ramrati was keen to ensure the children studied and moved ahead.
HER HAPPINESS was short-lived, since the police arrested her only son Ram Chander, aged 45. Ram Chander has four children aged eight, five, three and two. He was a day labourer and his family was dependent on him. The other person arrested was Prasad, aged 20, also the sole breadwinner of his family of a mother, two children and a wife. The third arrested, Kailash, 28, is similarly placed. The fact that Musahar children were seeking to move out of traditional occupations forced upon them was not acceptable to the local administration. The men of the community are constantly lured back to brew illicit liquor.
It is obvious that the Musahars do not have the resources to brew illicit liquor for sale. Most Musahars do not even have a small hut to live in. While governments across the country are inviting liquor companies to invest in their states, the Musahars have been branded gangsters for no fault of theirs.

Source: The Tehelka

Pardhis in Vidarbha

2008-01-12T03:50:00.000-08:00

Christmas Gift for the Homeless

2008-01-11T09:28:00.000-08:00

Thursday, 20 December 2007, 9:50 am

One of the world’s most persecuted indigenous tribes will receive nearly one thousand pieces of Kiwi clothing for Christmas.
For over eighty years under British rule in India, the entire Pardhi tribe were classified ‘criminal’ based on anecdotal evidence from corrupt police. Despite removing the label in the 1950s, Pardhi still face widespread discrimination and harassment by authorities.
Today, around 60,000 Pardhi live on the streets in Mumbai. Less than two per cent are literate and nearly one in five is a child beggar.

Sister Rosamma says that despite working with the destitute for over 25 years, the Pardhi are her toughest challenge yet.
“Years of oppression by the government has resulted in thousands of homeless. The caste system in India means that Pardhi are not allowed to attend school, own land, and if they are dying, you can’t call an ambulance. With no running water or toilet facilities for the homeless, it’s not surprising that most Pardhi suffer from extremely poor health. They give birth on polluted pavements and after a lifetime of begging and struggling, most of them die on the streets.
Sister Rosamma started the Tejaswi Trust in Mumbai five years ago to raise money for street-schools for the Pardhi children.
“We started off by holding informal street-based classes near Pardhi street-communities and the children love it. It gives them a chance to learn the alphabet, sing songs, draw, and paint but also gives them a chance to be listened to, which in a harsh environment is very important.”
JK Kids Clothing founder Ben Sproat was delighted to help Sister Rosamma by giving her nearly $15,000 worth of clothing to take back to Mumbai.

“Every year we donate hundreds of pieces of clothing to local organisations but this was the first time we’d had a request from an international charity. We were just in the process of clearing out our stock rooms so it was perfect timing.”
Sister Rosamma says the clothing will go to the local missions that she begs into housing her Pardhi street kids.
“It’s hard enough finding places for the children to live, let alone money to feed them, so to receive such beautiful clothing for the children is truly amazing. This Christmas present will mean so much to the families and orphans that have nothing.”
Pardhi Tribe Background
In 1871, the British passed the Criminal Tribes Act, meaning that just being born into the Pardhi Tribe made you a criminal. Police were given sweeping powers to arrest them and watch over their movements.
The British felt that branding tribes criminal was the only way to guarantee ‘public peace’ and made their decisions based on anecdotal evidence from police. By the late nineteenth century, these so-called criminal tribes became convenient scapegoats. By acting against them, the state could keep up the pretence of law enforcement, even if a lot more crime occurred and remained unpunished.
Unfortunately, negative attitudes towards Pardhi have long outlived the British administration in India, even though a newly independent India repealed the Criminal Tribes Act in 1952. Pardhis continue to be referred to as criminal by government officials and reporters. The police continue to round them up every time there is a crime in the area and too often police harassment results in death.
Without doubt, there are Pardhis who commit crimes. In fact, part of the blame lies in the fact that years of oppression mean that simply having a normal life is just not an option. Many Pardhis say that local schools do not allow their children to attend classes. If they do manage to get into a school and graduate, jobs are almost impossible to get. For Pardhis there is little hope they will ever be seen as ordinary Indians.

Source: Scoop Independent News

CID forest cell looks for MP poacher

2008-01-11T09:22:00.000-08:00

Jan 8, 2008
BANGALORE: He would take a pup deep into the forest, slit its ears and put salt or lime on the wound. Leaving the screaming pup on the ground, he'd take up position to shoot the big cats which would come to prey on the pup. On one day, in less than 12 hours, wildlife poacher Durra (21) shot six adult leopards using his 'puppy bait'. A special squad of the CID forest cell has been sent to Madhya Pradesh to nab Durra, a Pardhi tribe member staying at Birahuli village in Rithi police limits, for leopard poaching in Haliyal and Dandeli. The inter-state link came to light after the CID forest cell took over the Haliyal wildlife trade case and interrogated the main accused Prabhakar Keshav Dajakosh. He spilled the beans on the inter-state links among poachers and traders in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharastra and Gujarat. Durra is also wanted by the Gujarat and MP police for his involvement in Gir lion poaching, as well as killing tigers and leopards in Madhya Pradesh. Last month, the state CID forest cell sleuths arrested four people in Haliyal and Old Hubli to recover 43 otter pelts, one tiger pelt and 23 leopard pelts. "The missing links in the recent recovery of pelts and poaching of big cats across the country will be established once Durra is in police custody. Preliminary investigation revealed the international links in wildlife trade," forest cell IGP K S N Chikkerur said. It's the first time that otter skins have been recovered in such a large quantity in the state. Otters are largely found at the Cauvery basin and poached for their pelt to make coats in the Himalayan and Tibetan regions. While tiger and leopard pelts are in great demand, the demand for sloth bear skin and its vital organs has gone up tremendously in the past few years. An otter poached in Karnataka reaches Kashmir and its coat is in great demand in China and Nepal. "Leopard skins are in great demand. They are often smuggled to Tibet and China through Nepal. An inter-state gang is operating in collusion with international traders and it could wipe out the wildlife here systematically," the officer added. Fortunately, Karnataka is the only state where the cases in wildlife crime have more than 50% detection rate. "One cannot rest on statistics. Big cats from South India are preferred by poachers for their unique colour combinations. Tigers or leopards dwelling in south Indian habitats are more beautiful than their counterparts from the deserts or snowy region," explained Chikkerur.

Source: The Times of India

Pardhi tribe termed the biggest threat to wildlife

2008-01-11T09:09:00.000-08:00

Press Trust of India
Posted online: Monday, January 07, 2008 at 0000 hrs IST

New Delhi, January 6Authorities have termed the Pardhi tribes as the “number one threat” to the country’s wildlife population in the wake of poaching of eight lions in the Gir Forest lately “They are the most skilled of all the poachers. And as the lions are extremely and critically endangered, the Pardhis strike should be seen as a huge and big threat to them,” said Belinda Wright, Executive Director of the Wildlife Protection Society of India.

It is not only the lions in Gir, even tigers in the neighbouring state of Madhya Pradesh are not safe from the Pardhis
“They are the number one threat to wildlife as well as to the tiger population in MP. They are traditional hunters and there are numerous wildlife offences registered against them in the state,” said Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) of Madhya Pradesh, H S Pabla.

Wildlife experts attribute hundreds of tiger deaths to the Pardhis over the years and say that as these tribesmen are active across the country, there is no collated data regarding them with any anti-poaching agency, like the forest department, police or NGOs.

Wright pointed out that unlike the tigers, which are found in various parts of the country, the lions have their only natural habitat in the Gir forests.

Recounting the deadly might of the Pardhis, Wright said, “Once they laid four steel-traps in the forests in the afternoon and by evening they had poached three Lions.”

The Pardhis, who have sub-tribes like Bawadiya, Mogia, Chidimar and Bahelia, were branded as “criminal” tribes in 1871 by the British for their hunting and poaching activities. In 1952, the tribe was denotified as “criminal” and named a nomadic tribe.

“The Pardhis are present in the Reethi forest range, Vimalkheri, Barhi, Bihrauli and other places. They are traditionally into poaching as they are habitual non-vegetarians,” said K P Tripathi, Range Forest Officer (RFO) of Vijayraghogarh forest range in Katni district of Madhya Pradesh.

“They initially hunted wild animals for eating but with time they have become ‘specialists’ in tiger poaching. They poach cruelly and are a hard nut to crack once we start the investigations,” Tripathi added.

Manjula Srivastava, an advocate who has represented the Madhya Pradesh state forest department in various poaching cases related to Pardhis, said, “They have done it all — be it tigers, leopards or wild boars. They are a tough game for the Forest Department as they are always armed.”

She added that many Pardhis are known to have voter ID cards, bank balance, television sets and luxury cars too.
Experts opine that lack of education and their laid-back attitude towards work make them an easy pawn at the hands of politicians and mafia gangs. However, the Forest Department is trying to bring them into the mainstream.

“They are expert net makers and can do small business.
We are trying to impart training to the elders and education to their children with the help of the Tribals Department,” said Additional PCCF Pabla.

Source: The Indian Express

Gujjar- A denotified tribe?

2008-01-01T11:21:00.000-08:00

The five criteria were evolved by the Lokur Committee and on that basis, 700 communities were classified as S.Ts. According to the Chopra Committee, Gujjars did not fulfil the criteria all over the State. Gujjar representatives maintained that nine of the S.T. groups, excepting Sahariyas, fulfilled the basic criterion of having “primitive traits”. They also argued that in the original list of denotified tribes, Gujjars were listed at number 14 and Meenas at 22. That was history and maybe such historical injustice cannot be undone. The fact is that the majority of Gujjars in the State are not well-off and neither are they represented adequately in government (Frontline, June 16, 2007).

Chhattisgarh Government withdrawn charges against 15000 tribes

2007-12-22T12:34:00.000-08:00