South Asia Citizens Web

We are profoundly disturbed by the massive Central and state armed police operation in Lalgarh-Jangalmahal in West Bengal. This was launched without exploring a negotiated settlement of genuine popular grievances and by blurring the crucial distinction between violent Maoists and peace-minded civilians. The operation is taking an unacceptable toll of civilian life and safety in an extremely backward area with sub-human living conditions and absence of public services and social opportunity worsened by unremitting police atrocities.

As women activists and women’s groups who have for long fought for women’s rights and their place in Indian society, we wish to register our strong protest on the incidents at Shopian and extend our solidarity and friendship to the women of Kashmir in the struggle for justice and the rule of law, and for an end to all forms of immunity that obstruct the prosecution of the guilty

Every day more than 90m domestic workers oil the wheels of contemporary India. They clean, fetch, tend, serve and make it possible for many upwardly mobile women to pursue their careers without worrying about domestic chores. Yet this work is referred to as the ’informal sector’ as if it were scarcely work at all.

For almost a century, Jharia coal fields have been on fire in the Indian state of Jharkhand because of poor mining techniques. Many of the people who live on the burning fields survive by collecting coal illegally. The coal is burned and then transported to nearby markets for very little money. A resettlement plan has been put in place, but the area’s residents are reluctant to move to safer grounds because the coal earns them their livelihood.

Bombay Flying Club is an independent audio-visual production house in Denmark consisting of three photojournalists. Their recently-launched Wasteland project is a series of web documentaries about industrial pollution, and the story from Jharia is the first chapter of this ongoing project.

The World Environment Foundation (London) - a dubious racket of incriminating corporations - was set to hand over the Golden Peacock Award for Best Environmental Management to Vedanta Alumina Ltd (Lanjigarh, Orissa). Vedanta has been globally indicted for gross environmental and human rights violation. Its plant in Lanjigarh (which WEF had chosen to honour) has already devastated the lives of at least 15000 adivasis and dalits, polluted a river that is the lifeline of about 40000 people, created untold health hazards for local residents by indiscriminate dumping of toxic waste and unchecked emission, and has unleashed an army of goons to create a reign of terror. It is pretty much apparent that such companies need entities like WEF and vice versa, which helps build a clean image for the former and wealth and shameless reasons for existence for the latter.