Monday, June 30, 2008

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  • 00:17 N. D. T. V. Is going the telecast about the pvchr activist ms. Sushila under the women achiever between 9.40 pm of sunday Lenin,www.pv ...

Thursday, June 26, 2008

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  • 00:41 District administration found 106 children with malnutrion at dhannipur. Lenin,www.pvchr.blogspot.com
  • 00:49 District administration found 106 children with malnutrion at dhannipur.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Govt's anti-TB programme in tatters

http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080049499

Sutapa Deb
Sunday, May 11, 2008 (Varanasi)
Health Minister Ramadoss' penchant for flirting with controversy is well known. But it often sidelines the really important issues that demand his attention.

In Varanasi in the last two months, 15 people have died of tuberculosis - a curable disease. It's a story of failure of the government's much hyped anti-TB programme and its health system.

The disease is curable if treated with medicines and nutritious food. But 14-year-old TB patient Iqbal, was not able to get proper care and food due to abject poverty. And this resulted in his death.

''We are only able to eat one meal in the evenings. This is the way we have to live,'' Iqbal's aunt says.

And ironically, the family is not officially classified as poor and is not entitled to government welfare schemes.

The decline in the weaving industry is linked to the sharp increase in the number of families who have fallen victim to TB. Fifteen people have died in the last two months.

Another TB patient Rahmat Ali is consumed from within, with a bloody cough, fever and wasting. His wife Asghari too has TB. Their 10-year-old son sits on the loom each day and earns Rs 150 a month.

Their main concern is where to get money for the treatment.

If left untreated, each person with active TB disease will infect between 10 and 15 people every year on an average.

Patients like Meera, who has been suffering from TB for three years, is worried about the dangerous strain of multi-drug resistant TB. And she is concerned about the non-availability of nutritious food.

The Centre's TB control programme is 11 years old. And it provides patients free anti-TB drugs. But weavers tell us that the treatment costs them money, since they have to pay for supportive medicines for pan, gastritis and bronchitis.

The government's failure to fill the gaps in the programme has led to drug defaulters. A number of lives are at risk from hunger and TB.

It appears that policymakers have no mechanism to address the crisis of livelihoods, malnutrition and rampant TB.

Story Finder 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002

Monday, June 23, 2008

INDIA: Shed a tear for Varanasi’s famed handloom weavers

http://www.ahrchk.net/ahrc-in-news/mainfile.php/2008ahrcinnews/2077/

http://www.indiaenews.com/business/20080622/126796.htm

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/shed-a-tear-for-varanasis-famed-handloom-weavers-feature_10062966.html

INDIA: Shed a tear for Varanasi’s famed handloom weavers [Thaindian News/India eNews]

By Darshan Desai

Varanasi, June 20 (IANS) At the age of two, Shaheena looks just a few months old and weighs an apologetic three kilogram. She lives in a dark, cave-like room in the Dhannipur area of this pilgrim town. There are at least 12 other children like her in the area, all of them hungry and appearing to be waiting for death. They are the children of weavers whose handlooms once used to churn out shimmering Benarasi silk saris.

Some 300,000 such weavers in Varanasi, along with their families, are struggling hard to make ends meet as the handloom industry struggles to survive.

Shaheena’s 30-year-old father Mohammad Rustam, for instance, lives in utter penury. The handloom at his house - a self-made room of bricks - lies still for most days and the work he gets can earn him a maximum of Rs.1,300.

“Food? On some days we eat lunch and on some days dinner. I don’t remember exactly when we had two square meals a day,” says Zahira Mohammad, his wife.

The assault by cheaper, fine polyester passed off as silk from Surat in south Gujarat, Bangalore in south India and China has spelt doom for these handloom weavers who hardly average a monthly income of Rs.1,200.

“With the abolition of quantitative restrictions and falling import duties in the wake of the economic liberalisation since the 1990s, the Varanasi silk sari weavers are facing stiff competition from cheap fabric, especially from China,” Siddique Hassan, convenor of the Bunkar Dastkar Adhikar Manch, told IANS.

The Adhikar Manch is an organisation to fight for the rights of weavers.

Hassan says little concrete assistance has come by from the Uttar Pradesh government, in terms of marketing support.

Industrialist Ashok Kapur points out: “The sari is going out of fashion and being replaced by dresses.

“Besides this, there is more demand for polyester and ready silk like the one which comes from China. Trends are changing, there are few who wish to wait for a Rs.3,000 worth of pure silk sari that would take some time to produce at a handloom.”

It’s a vicious cycle. Most of the weavers today operate through middlemen, instead of selling directly to shopkeepers. So while a weaver gets paid about Rs.300 per sari, the same sells in the market for nothing less than Rs.2,000.
But a shrinking market doesn’t give them enough contracts.

The case of Shahbuddin, the two-year-old son of weaver Mohammad Idris who died last month, is striking. He too was suffering from malnutrition and weighed six kg when he died.

On May 14, volunteers of the Varanasi-based People’s Vigilance Committee on Human Rights (PVCHR) took Shahbuddin to Renuka Srivastava, associated with the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), who diagnosed him as suffering from severe malnutrition.

“We immediately took him to the district hospital and one of our volunteers also donated blood to Shahbuddin but it was too late. He died. All our pleas to the government authorities fall on deaf ears,” said Lenin Raghuvanshi, who heads PVCHR.

IANS has the medical reports of the 13 other children in Dhannipur who have been certified as severely malnourished by ICDS officials. The parents of these children went to meet the Varanasi district magistrate May 24, but to no avail.

“The government would never agree to a hunger death,” said Raghuvanshi.

Mohammad Idris makes some Rs.1,000 a month from whatever weaving work he gets. He has another son, nine-year-old Mainuddin, who helps him with some additional money - Rs.150 a month, doing embroidery on saris. He also looks weak and obviously ill fed. His sister Rubina, at four, barely looks two years old.

“The government has a convenient tool to dismiss a hunger death as one caused by disease,” says Raghuvanshi, who claims to have reported 42 starvation deaths of weavers in Varanasi district over the past few years.

“I have reported these deaths to the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission as I see little hope in the state government taking a holistic view of the issue,” he says.

Most of the expert artisans of handloom and embroidery have either migrated to cities like Bangalore, Surat, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Delhi or shifted to other unskilled professions.

“Not less than 40 percent have migrated, those who have stayed back don’t have the money to travel to any of these places and do sundry jobs,” says Siddique Hassan.

Mohammad Naseem’s is a case in point. A skilled artisan, he used to make Rs.75 a day till his income plummeted to less than half and he had to look for better avenues.

He became a rickshaw-puller and now takes home Rs.75 or more every evening. He is not the only one - hundreds of weavers like him have turned to rickshaw-pulling.

(Darshan Desai can be contacted at darshan.d@ians.in)

Saturday, June 21, 2008

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  • 18:41 Police station cantt filed fir under ipc 504,506 as crime no. 525/0 8 in the case of death threat. Lenin Lenin,www.pvchr.blogspot.com

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Uttar Pradesh: Rule of law or rule of feudal

http://www.mynews.in/fullstory.aspx?storyid=6195#


Uttar Pradesh: Rule of law or rule of feudal

Shruti Nagvanshi/Shabana Khan 18/6/2008 6:38:52 PM(IST)


Thirteen Mushar tribe families are residing in Chaturpur, Benipur and Lagdharpur village Block Rampur under jurisdiction Newariya in Jaunpur district of Uttar Pradesh are compressed to work as a bonded labour by Mr. Alam Singh son of Gajraj Singh in the neighbor village Kadihad of same jurisdiction.

Mr. Alam Singh is owner of cowshed and field. Alam Singh often comes with gun in Mushars hamlet to search children for work. When Mushars women protest to send their children and husband Alam Singh went inside their house where Mushar women’s are sleeping. Alam Singh search children and adult male by taking off clothes from women body When he did not find children he starts beating women and doing vulgar activities which are a heinous work to hit the dignity of the women. Alam Singh forcefully took and brutally beat children to work in cowshed. .

Asha Mushar wife of Bechu Mushar said we are defamed with the day to day brutal behavior of Alam Singh and nobody is ready to marry with our son. Even Alam Singh also beat my son in law and forcefully took him to work and many other people are working in Alam Singh cowshed like Halchal 17 year old son of Lalji from last year is working in Alam Singh cowshed earn only 20 Rupees per day.

On 7th May, 2008 Alam Singh took Atala 8 year’s old child of Ramashray Mushar , Somara eight year and Rajesh seven year old child of Bindu Mushar, Subhash son of Sama Mushar took these children to work in cowshed..

On 6th May, 2008 Vikas eight year son of Sama Mushar was taken to work in a cowshed.

Parmila wife of Sama Mushars, Phul Dei wife of Late Bechu Mushar and Bechu Lal son of Basanta and Bindu son of Babau Mushar Murat Mushar son of Ishwar these people state that they are having difficulty in managing need of the family in 20 Rupees. Those people who have card are not getting ration in appropriate weight. Eight family of Mushar are still cardless.

Alam Singh father Gajraj Singh is also much influenced person and earlier he was also accused of dalits torture case.

On 7th May, 2008 Mushars protest in front of commissioner office when he denied to take their demand and direct them to go to police station. Then Mushars send letter to Commissioner and on 13th May, 2008 letter was sent to Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, National Human Rights Commission and National Child Commission, National Sc/St Commission.

On 6th June, 2008 Assistant Registar (Law) National Human Right Commission send letter to District Magistrate of Jaunpur and copied to Principal Secretary of Government of Uttar Pradesh and to Dr. Lenin Convener of Uttar Pradesh.

D.M, Jaunpur U.P is directed to depute a competent officer for enquiry at the spot and identification of bonded labour, if any if any bonded labour is founded immediate steps be taken for his release. D.M Jaunpur is also directed to take necessary steps on the other grievances mentioned in the complaint.

An action taken report be submitted to the commission within two weeks positively.

Accordingly, I am forwarding here a copy of the complaint for taking appropriate action in the matter as per the directions of the commission. It is requested that an action taken report be sent to the commission within 2 weeks from the date of receipt of this letter.

After this order Mr. Alam Singh are continuously coming and beating and threating these Mushars people.

www.pvchr.blogspot.com

www.nhrc.nic.in

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Twitter

  • 23:02 There is any meeting of rozagar haq abhiyan on 7 july ? Lenin,www.pvchr.blogspot.com

Monday, June 16, 2008

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  • 14:55 S. H. O. Phulpur of varanasi transfered to other district. He filed the case against us. Lenin,www.pvchr.blogspot.com

Monday, June 02, 2008

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  • 14:31 P. V. C. H. R activists are going to beg at kabirchaura hospital for support of malnutrition children Lenin,www.pvchr.blogspot.com

Malnutritional death of child and drama of so-called democratic state

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/UP_Two-year-old_dies_of_malnutrition/articleshow/3091617.cms

http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/mainfile.php/2008/2880/

From: Lenin Raghuvanshi
Date: Jun 1, 2008 1:41 PM
Subject: Uttar Pradesh: Somalia and Kalahandi inside Varanasi!
To: Bijo Francis , Basil Fernando , Prashant , presidentofindia@rb.nic.in, cmup@up.nic.in, csup@up.nic.in, kanishkasingh@gmail.com, "Smt. Sonia Gandhi" , Delhi-Prime Minister's Offi , Syeda Hameed , Syeda Hameed , Parul Sharma , Voice of People , urgent-action@ohchr.org, sapa_sa@googlegroups.com, 518 Foundation , "pdaigle@dd-rd.ca" , absloane@nyc.rr.com, Molly Hickok , mayawati@sansad.nic.in, David Martin , commissioners , Harsh Mander , Arundhati Dhuru


I am frustated that Local Self Governance and district administartion are doing nothing after complain and media covergae. PVCHR supported with help of care house foundation and our managing trustee Shruti gave blood.But no support by so-called democratic Government.Shame.................

Other 13 children are also suffering with malnutrition in same village. PVCHR declared that our beloved Shahabuddin is matryas against malnutrition. State Government wants to silence the voice of marginalized.But PVCHR is not going to stop struggle against hunger,malnutrition and exploitation.

with warm regards,
Lenin

http://www.mynews.in/fullstory.aspx?storyid=5403#

Sunday, June 01, 2008

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  • 21:38 Shahabuddin died. Shruti gave blood to him. Lenin,www.pvchr.blogspot.com

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