We are trying to brief you regarding the real picture of the Gujarat which is quite different than the Gujarat propagated by Government of Gujarat.
It is painful that the activists of Gujarat have to explain the realities because people outside Gujarat are hypnotized by the fake propaganda of the Government of Gujarat.
Rohit Prajapati & Trupti Shah
Activists of Gujarat
Some Major Facts at Glance about Gujarat.
We would like to clarify one point from the very beginning that when we are talking about the condition of the ordinary people of Gujarat is alarming that does not mean that we are trying to say that the condition of the ordinary people is good out side the Gujarat.
The Chief Minister of Gujarat is manufacturing mega events by spending cores of rupees to propagate his so called achievements. Like an echo of the highly proclaimed ‘Indira is India and India is Indira’, Mr. Modi, the Chief Minister of Gujarat is also trying to replicate it that ‘Modi is Gujarat and Gujarat is Modi’ and now he is crossing all limits by attempts to extend it that ‘Modi is India and India is Modi’ with clear-cut fascist tendency.
The overwhelming majority of the Fact-Finding Reports, about Carnage 2002 including that of the NHRC, were careful to place the blame of Gujarat Carnage on the Government of Gujarat, the state machinery and specific rightwing groups and not on the people of Gujarat in general. The Supreme Court’s various remarks in the various cases of carnage 2002 clearly condemn the state machinery, Government of Gujarat and religious fanatics groups. The Gujarati Community as a whole is not identified as the culprit in any reports, editorials or articles. Yet Mr. Modi constantly propagate that they have tarnished the image of Gujarat and all Guiaratis. He is taking personal credit when any one praise Gujarat but subtlety shift the blame of his crimes on the 5 crores Gujaratis to divert the point of view of the criticism.
In the midst of the euphoria created by the investment flooding in to Gujarat and lakhs of new jobs likely to be created we would like to draw the attention that this is only one side of the story. Any civil society should have ‘land use’ policy because land can not be produced and you can not produce grains and vegetables without land.
The success story of the two digit growth has masked the several digit realities of loss of livelihood, land acquisition, displacement and permanent loss of natural resources, which are treated as free goods in this process. The investment figure without the displacement and depletion of natural resources figure and the employment figure without loss of livelihood does not make sense. No wise person would talk about the income without talking the cost of acquiring that income or wealth.
The following facts expose the fake claims about the so called development in Gujarat.
Critical pollutants in the Critically polluted talukas |
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Critically polluted talukas |
Critical pollutants |
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Golden Corridor |
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Ahmedabad |
COD, Cd |
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Daskroi |
COD, Hg |
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Mehmedavad |
Colour, TDS, COD, Total coliforms, E. coli, Hg |
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Vadodara |
Colour, Hardness, NO3, Total coliforms, E. coli, Cr, Fe, Pb |
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Ankleshwar |
Colour, TDS, Hardness, Cd, Cu, Pb, Mn, Hg, POP |
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Bardoli |
TDS, Hardness, Total coliforms, E. coli, Cr |
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Choryasi |
TDS, Hardness, Cl, Total coliforms, E. coli, Cr, Fe, Mn |
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Kamrej, Mangrol, Valod |
TDS, Hardness, Total coliforms, E. coli, Cr |
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Olpad |
TDS, Hardness, Cl, Total coliforms, E. coli, Cr, Mn |
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Palsana |
TDS, Hardness, DO, Total coliforms, E. coli, Fe |
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Vyara |
Total coliforms, E. coli, Cr |
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Navsari |
COD, Total coliforms, E. coli, Cr |
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Pardi |
Hardness, COD, Total coliforms, E. coli, Hg |
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Other areas |
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Sanand |
TDS, COD, Total coliforms, E. coli |
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Dhoraji |
TDS, Hardness, Cl, COD |
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Jetpur |
Colour, TDS, Hardness, COD, Cu, Pb |
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Okha mandal |
COD, Salinity |
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Lakhpat |
Salinity |
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Moderately polluted talukas |
Critical pollutants |
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Amreli, Jambusar, Junagad, Kalol, Morvi, Upleta, Dhangadhar, Limdi, Bansda |
COD |
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Mahuva |
COD, Hardness |
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Chotila |
NO3, COD |
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Unnatural deaths of women have increase from 4,709 in 2001 to 5,318 in 2008 i.e. 15 women die unnaturally every day in Gujarat. Total 6,093 women have registered complaints with police during 2008 i.e. 17 women are mentally and / or physically harassed every day in Gujarat.
Economic Growth versus Human Development and Social indicators
In spite of ‘above average economic growth’ in terms of State Domestic Product only 48 % of the Human Development goals are achieved. The expenditure for social sector by 18 large States of India, Gujarat stands 17th. (Monthly Bulleting of Reserve Bank of India, February 2007)
Between 1996 to 2006 Gujarat is legged behind in Health and Education indicators from 6th rank to 8th and 10 ranks respectively. (www.indianexpress.com/.../modis-development-hype-hits-ngos-as-funds.../432592/)
Gujarat stands 14th in Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) for 0-1 year and 13th for 0-5 years. 47% malnourishment among 0-5 years old children, 42% children reported low height than normal and 47.4% reported low weight due to malnourishment. (National Family Health Survey III 2007.)
About 67% women are anaemic and of them 80.1% of girls aged between 6 to 35 months are anaemic.
Global index on hunger reports India with 66th rank, Gujarat is ranking 69th, which is actually as low as Haiti in Africa (International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), 2008. see www.ifpri.org)
From the students of class 5 only 59.6% Students could read textbook of class 1, 40% could read the time in the clock and 61% could count money in rural Gujarat. This is lower than Orissa, Bihar and Rajasthan. (Annual Status of Education Report 2008 (ASER)).
Gujarat ranks the lowest on environment sustainability index, i.e. 27th; 14 out 19 districts, 14 districts have reported serious pollution level in ground water. (Environment Sustainability Index for Indian States, 2007, Centre for Development Finance Institute for Financial Management & Research, Chennai)
Gujarat ranks 14th in gender equality and 11th on patriarchal attitudes and behaviour. (Hirway Indira and Darshini Mahadevia, 2004. Gujarat Human Development Report, Gandhi Labour Institute.)
Now we do not have declared emergency but undeclared permanent emergency.
The wider the process of economic globalisation, the narrower the circle of those who benefit from it. The free, global market has begun to appear less and less free. Both trade and investment seem to be governed by more and more complicated laws and procedures in favour of monstrously rich economic and financial corporations – the real beneficiaries of the free global market. With the passing of each day, these unaccountable corporations, with unlimited life, size and power, are taking ever- increasing control over economies – largely to the detriment of the individual consumer, worker, neighbor and citizen. One can find much evidence that corporate- led globalisation negatively affects the environment, financial stability, equity, security, food safety, health and cultural diversity of millions of people.
The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) wishes to highlight its continuing concerns about the widespread violation of women’s rights and cases of serious violence against women, including sexual violence, in Pakistan.
The ALRC recalls that Pakistan acceded to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) on 12 Mar 1996. Furthermore, during the country’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) on May 8, 2008, the government accepted several recommendations concerning women’s rights and violence against women. Despite this, as will be seen below, violence and discrimination against women remains a critical issue in the country and the authorities are not taking credible or effective action to address the many grave cases of abuse that continue to take place with impunity.
Key accepted UPR recommendations made to the government of Pakistan include the following:
Ilina Sen
from http://www.freebinayaksen.org/?p=2328
The case of Binayak Sen (by this I mean the legal case as well as the whole body of civil society reaction across national and social boundaries) is in many ways a landmark in Indian jurisprudence. Apart from the personal pain and agony that I have gone through, in being witness to Binayak’s uncalled for incarceration and unjust conviction, the case has also intellectually challenged me along with many other citizens of my country and forced so many of us to look critically at the laws and statutes that govern our lives.
It has brought into the limelight the outdated provisions of the sedition law in India, and today our Law minister has gone on record as saying that this law needs urgent revision if not scrapping, in keeping with the spirit of the times. Many of us who are not legal professionals have looked into our statute books and discovered horror chambers in sections penalizing thought / action against ‘any Asiatic Power’ in alliance with the government of India. This particular statute obviously dates from the time when the British crown and the crown in Moscow were locked into the ‘great game’ over the control of Afghanistan, and reminds us that the Afghan people have been pawned in many games but that no game player has historically succeeded in selling them down the river.
We have also been forced to look at the way our lower courts function – at the way the police and the prosecution work in tandem, at the way in which the established law of evidence is disregared, at bizarre new interpretations of established legal interpretations and positions. One’s mind begins to form a sneaking question whether the mandate of the court at this level is to support the police in keeping anyone labeled as guilty in custody for some years, and leave the finer points of the law of the land to higher courts of appeal.
One has seen countless cases of miscarriage of justice as well as the horrendous conditions in Indian jails at first hand.
However, Binayak’s case also stands as an example where the people of the world have stood up and said to governments ( their own as well those of their neighbours) that the state cannot get away with heavy handed authoritarianism and have the people accept that lying down. Ordinary citizens are never lawless people and appreciate the fact systems and legal structures keep us safe, yet when these same laws become instruments of injustice rather than justice , we all feel it is time for us to stand up and make our concern felt. Civilized democratic societies and established political structures are all products of a social contract between the people and the structures of governance, with the ultimate power resting in the will of the people. Here we have seen how in city after city – In India, Asia, Europe, Australia and America- people have stood up and said that is unacceptable for governments to exercise the power we give them in this way. I see this as a step in the re negotiation of the social and political contacts of governance, of which there are many other manifestations in our times. For me this has been the most important learning, the most important outcome of the case.
Binayak joins me in greeting all of you, many friends whom we have met, and many others whom we have not, yet who are together with us in a spirit of common good.
Sent for presentation at the UK Seminar on “‘Dr Binayak Sen and the use of ‘Sedition’ Laws to Persecute Human Rights Activists in India” on May 14, 2011.
Physicians for Social Responsibility, a U.S. nonprofit organization of medical experts, has condemned as “unconscionable” the Japanese government’s safety standards on radiation levels at elementary and junior high schools in nuclear disaster-stricken Fukushima Prefecture.
The PSR statement directly challenges Tokyo’s stance that it is safe for schoolchildren to use school playgrounds in the prefecture as long as the dose they are exposed to does not exceed 20 millisieverts over a year.
The PSR view is also in line with that voiced by Toshiso Kosako, who said Friday he would step down as an adviser to Prime Minister Naoto Kan on the Fukushima nuclear crisis in protest. The University of Tokyo professor urged the government to toughen guidelines on upper limits on radiation levels the education ministry recently announced for elementary school playgrounds in Fukushima.
The U.S. group said in a statement released Friday, “Any exposure, including exposure to naturally occurring background radiation, creates an increased risk of cancer.”Children are much more vulnerable than adults to the effects of radiation, and fetuses are even more vulnerable," it said.
The medical experts group is part of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, which won the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize.
“(Twenty millisieverts) for children exposes them to a 1 in 200 risk of getting cancer. And if they are exposed to this dose for two years, the risk is 1 in 100. There is no way that this level of exposure can be considered ’safe’ for children,” the statement said.
The Japan Times
* The Japan Times, Kyodo Tuesday, May 3, 2011:
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-...
Four antinuclear groups demanded Monday that the government withdraw its decision to set the annual radiation limit at 20 millisieverts for schoolchildren in Fukushima Prefecture, saying the standard poses a health risk.
The four groups – Friends of the Earth Japan, Green Action, Fukuro no Kai, and Mihama no Kai – said during meetings with government officials in Tokyo that 20 millisieverts is the upper ceiling of a safety standard set in 2007 by the International Commission on Radiological Protection.
The groups said a safer standard should be adopted for schoolchildren.
In 2007, the ICRP recommended the maximum exposure limit be set at a range between 1 and 20 milliserverts per year in the wake of an atomic crisis.
In an emergency, the ICRP recommends the maximum exposure limit be set between 20 to 100 millisieverts.
“I want the government to take measurements which protect children, the treasures of our country”, said Sachiko Sato, one of the activists, at an open Q&A session held with officials from the Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry.
The education ministry announced on April 19 that the annual limit for radiation exposure is 20 millisieverts for children in primary and junior high school. The limit was also approved by Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.
According to Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, however, the government has just set the exposure limit at 3.8 microsieverts per hour for children using a school playground. This means that if a child stayed outside on the playground for 8 hours a day for an entire year, the child’s exposure could theoretically exceeed 20 millisieverts – a scenario that is unlikely, Edano said at a news conference Saturday.
But Fukushima residents are skeptical.
One resident who did not wish to be identified said the limit is too high.
“The government should take back the radiation limit of 20 millisieverts. I want to bring back Fukushima that is safe for children,” the man said.
By NATSUKO FUKUE, Staff writer, Japan Times
* Japan Times, Tuesday, May 3, 2011:
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-...