OUR OWN BANANA REPUBLICS!

Illegal mining is acting as a resource pool for Naxals

Illegal mining is nothing new in India. For years, it has been omnipresent wherein a handful of people have been privatising profits at the cost of national resources. The growth of illegal mining can be credited to the latent support it has always received from the power corridors of the nation. Be it the local politicians, businessmen or the smugglers, all are in hand in gloves in this thriving and blatant robbery. By this, not only the resources are getting plundered by a few but also tribals are deprived of their property rights in the regions. What more, rampant extortion, murder, kidnapping and encroachment are integral parts of this illegal mining industry. Banana republics...

Now for the past few years, the new avatar of this illegal mining business has become such a monster that the erstwhile supporters are themselves finding it tough to cope up with. Once seen as an illegal business and funding mechanism for elections campaigns have today emerged as hurdle for the same political motive. Several mines are located in the Naxal-affected areas and are been seen as money minting zone for the Naxal movement. With Naxals now operating as organised criminal groups, attacking with a cluster of more than 100 people loaded with modern weapon — the illegal mining has taken up a new direction. A recent finding revealed that naxalites get a staggering 20-30 per cent cut on each truck of resources illegally taken out of a mine, while the bureaucrats in that region receive 10-15 per cent share. Researches estimate that there are around 60,000 illegal coal mines and about half a million illegal miners in the eastern coal belt of India, and over 7,20,000 tonnes of coal is smuggled every day! The Ministry of Mines estimates that the number of illegal mines for major minerals to be nothing less than 2,400 and that for minor minerals to be more than 28,000!!

In addition, illegal mining adds a high social cost by blatant environment contamination by the illegal miners. In the absence of any checks and balances and no accountability, the waste disposal is arbitrary. As per figures as old as four years back, around two lakh hectares of forest land had been diverted for mining and 1.50 billion tonnes of waste was dumped into the region largely affecting the fertility and the agricultural output. In the given environment and in the absence of any plausible alternatives, the hapless farmers are joining the naxalite movement. And so for the Naxal groups, the illegal mining is not just ensuring a regular income stream which comes in form of taxes that they levy on the illegal miners, but also a happy hunting ground for recruitments of cadres.

The government has recently announced its plan to allocate 26 per cent of profits to the locals and make them shareholders in the mining company and has also announced reward plans for whistle-blowers on illegal mining — which in all respect is appreciable, but something that should have happened long back! It is so hypocritical that till the time the illegal miners were feeding the election campaigns, no one was bothered, but today when the locals — after years of exploitation — have taken up arms against the establishment, the government seems to wake up from its slumber. And so when government decides on such a plan now, it would fail to work, more so as the damage now is too wide and deep. Till the time the locals have their loyalties towards the naxalites, it is almost impossible to make a break through for any government. It is high time we realise that it is we who have created several banana republics and in such republics no plans work!!

63 YEARS AND BONDED LABOUR...

Practice of bonded labours can still be traced across the nation

Like every year, this year too, our honourable Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh during his Independence Day speech touched upon almost all contemporary issues — from Kashmir to internal security, from inflation to poverty to international relations — almost all spheres that is pertinent. The issues, however, were worth pondering. This not only brought a ray of hope amongst people, who are at the receiving end of myriad social and economical malaises, but also made the celebration of I-Day more meaningful. But, there are still sections of society who have failed to break free from the clutches of bondage.

It might sound quite like the feudal age, but there are places in India and outside where such inhuman practices are still going on. The extension of slave era is very evident in various parts of our country. As per the latest data available, government agencies have identified (and released) around 2,82,135 bonded labourers and rehabilitated another 2,60,714 bonded labourers. A similar or more numbers of bonded labourers are estimated to be still working as slaves in various parts of the country.

In India, agriculture sector experiences high incidence of bonded labourers, most of whom are drawn from the lower castes. Going by a report summated to the Supreme Court on bonded labour in Maharashtra, more than 6,00,000 bonded labourers (70 per cent belong to unprivileged castes) are working as bonded labourers in 150 sugarcane factories. Even in states like Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat, many scheduled tribes are employed as bonded labours on the pretext of non-payment of debts. Many a times, even children are found working on behalf of loans taken by their parents. Same trends can be traced in brick kilns, stone quarries, crushers, mines and cotton handlooms. Even construction, gem-cutting, rice mills, bidi factories, weaving units, salt pan units and numerous other manufacturing units indulge in bondage labour. In August this year, a large number of bonded labourers were found working in various brick kilns of Aligarh and Hathras district. As per the recent media reports, the Labour Department of Uttar Pradesh has rescued nearly 600 bonded labourers. Quite shockingly, it is not that this practice is just restricted within the geographical boundaries of the nation. Countries like Mauritania, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon — to name a few — import bonded labour from India under the veil of employment. There are tens of thousands of Indians and Southeast Asian employed as servants in Gulf countries. Many a times, these people who are imported (literally!), on the pretext of employment, find themselves as prisoner doing low-grade household works and also undergo all forms of possible exploitation. Almost all important documents (passports, visas etc) are destroyed or are kept under custody by employers.

So for millions of these Indians, who are being cheated into a lifetime of bondage, either under the pretext of employment or that of a loan, Independence Day is still a misnomer! And no one is responsible for robbing their independence other than the establishment itself. It is not that the local administration at various levels are not aware of the rampant exploitation of labourers, but then their own feudal mindset do not permit them to take any adequate action against the perpetrators! All in all – who said that the ‘days of the raj’ is over? It still flows in our veins, albeit, surreptitiously!

WHO IS MENTALLY ILL??

India lacks political will to improve lives of mentally deranged

Mental health is not only an under-represented issue in India, but has also failed to attract political attention. Even after 10 long years of Erwadi incident — where 28 mentally-disabled people charred to death on August 06, 2001 — no substantial progress has been made towards improving the conditions of mental patients in the country. Even today, with inrush of infotainment has brought the issue to the forefront, mental patients suffer from the same social stigma and societal exclusion. With advancement in medical research, effective and accessible treatments are available, these scientific developments get largely undermined because of relentless and pervasive stigma against such disorders. Social exclusion and low availability of medical practitioners further discourages families from seeking medical and social help. This prevailing hesitation among mentally ill patients also results in ‘family-rejection’ and suicides. This is also evident from the fact that more than 8,000 mentally ill patients committed suicides in 2008 alone!

In spite of being home for 20 million mentally ill patients, we still lack adequate infrastructure and medical facilities. Going by WHO's survey, there are only 3,500 psychiatrists in India (most of these psychiatrists are based in cities) and have just one bed for every 40,000 patients. Even though there are only 40 government hospitals for the mentally-challenged, which in itself, is abysmally low, on top of that almost all these hospitals are understaffed and lack modern facilities. This makes 80-90 per cent of cases go undiagnosed, and most of the times, these patients are finally found dawdling on the streets. And the negligence flows from the top! Otherwise, how can one justify that when it comes to allocation of funds, less than 1 per cent of total health budget is allocated to mental health compared to 10-20 per cent other countries. Despite of huge hue and cry by social groups and NGOs, not much heed is being given to plan a nationwide awareness. Going by the fact that most of undiagnosed cases take place in rural areas, where family resort to “faith-healers” for treatment, the importance of such awareness camps increases manifolds. These ignored cases of mental illness not only deteriorate social values but also dent the economy of India. A recent media report estimates that mental illnesses pull down India’s GDP by 2-3 per cent every year. Thus, it makes more sense for authorities to plan out structured interventions and also design and develop awareness camps with the help of local panchayats and NGOs.

Further, the next bigger predicament that dispirits family from sending their loved ones to mental hospitals is the horror that patients go through in these centre. A few years back, a survey by the NHRC established a well-known fact that people being treated in mental hospital undergo a series of inhuman physical and mental torture. Even these hospitals lack basic hygiene conditions viz. proper sanitation, clothing, beds, adequate food et al. Patients are seen to live in an atmosphere of fear rather than with a feeling of getting treated. With these hospitals catering to a very special segment of society, it is far more important to make them more “humane” and integrate them with the process mental healthcare from grassroots level to national level. In order to eliminate prevailing social stigma, it is necessary to involve medical community, policy-makers, media, schools etc. De-stigmisation will not only encourage people to come out and seek medical help, but will also make it easy for authorities to make their facility reach every needy.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT!

There is an alternate to every unused & wasted resource

Many a times, the thought crosses my mind that if somehow I can find a way out wherein I can collect the untouched food that are left over after the conspicuous marriages and corporate meetings and distribute the same amongst the scores of people who are forced to sleep in an empty stomach! To sustain this concept, the only challenge is to cover up the logistics cost for pick up and distribution of food. Likewise, there are scores of untouched and unutilized resources that are getting wasted in the absence of real time mobilisation! On the same lines, a recent media report caught my attention. According to the report, the Centre is planning to utilise the unclaimed amounts that are lying idle in the nationalised banks for welfare funds. The reports further reveals that around Rs 700 crore is lying unclaimed, since a decade, with the nationalized banks. Matter of fact, on the death of an account holder, if the account remains unclaimed (most of the times, due to non-mention of nominees), the balance in the account is transferred to ‘dormant’ account mode. Similarly, in the case of non-maintenance of minimum account balance, the account gets blocked and the balance again is transferred to bank’s account. Over and above, there had been many instances wherein the legal heirs aren’t aware of the accounts owned by their parents and thus the account never gets claimed. Due to all this unforeseeable situations, a bank is left with huge corpus at the end of financial year. Most of the times, this money is used by bank itself for their internal development purpose or is transferred to RBI, in some cases.

Now this is just not a discreet case, similar cases also exist with various other institutions. Around Rs 10,000 crore is said to be unclaimed money with Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) as on March 31, 2008. Add to this is Rs 1,188 crore that is lying with Indian banks, across 1.93 crore dormant account, as on December 2008. Even in rural region, banks are sitting on an unclaimed deposits of Rs 1207 crore. Overall, if one calculates the total amount lying as dormant account across India in various financial institutions, it would collectively be around a staggering Rs 15,000 crore. Now, with so much that can be done with this money, it is foolish to keep it unused. If not for anything else, this fund can be utilised to develop proper sanitation for poor people (both urban slums and rural areas). In spite of various development initiatives, still around 65 crore people in India defecate in the open and more than 50 per cent of the people living in rural India have no access to proper sanitation. Knowing that the cost to build a low cost community Sulabh Shauchalaya is merely Rs 18,000, imagine what this fund can do. If utilised properly — Rs 15,000 crore can build more than 80 lakh toilets across India! This will further help in addressing the issue of diseases and infection that is a resultant of open defecation.

That was for an example, to indicate, what this money can do. It can also be used to carry out a campaign on fi nancial inclusion amongst Indians, which is pretty low. Likewise, so much more can be done. In fact, without depending on anybody, the Centre should involve the banks themselves and come together and take up this initiative through their branch network, which are spread across the country. All in all, the idea is to pro-actively locate such unused, undiscovered and wasted resources/opportunities and put them to use on an immediate basis. For a country like ours every bread wasted would leave an empty stomach, somewhere!