Binayak warns of a possible genocide in India

Anil S
Express News Service
First Published : 26 Jul 2010 04:31:47 AM IST
Last Updated : 26 Jul 2010 09:14:26 AM IST

“The country is fast moving towards a genocide-like situation. A major section of society is being deprived of the common property resources like land, water and forest. A section of the population is under chronic starvation. Massive displacement and corporatisation of farming has made survival virtually difficult for the poor. It is high time the country recognised the gravity of the situation and identified the focus areas. Otherwise, a genocide-like situation can occur here in five to ten years,” eminent human rights activist Dr Binayak Sen has said.

Binayak Sen, who was was in prison in Raipur for alleged Maoist links and later freed on bail following widespread protests both in India and abroad, was in Kochi.

Sen told ‘Express’ on Sunday that with about 120 million poor people in India, a possible genocide cannot be written off. Referring to the statistics from the National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau, Binayak Sen said 33 percent of the total adult population across the country suffers from chronic malnutrition.

“The data says 33 percent of the adult population has below 18.5 Body Mass Index (BMI) level. It includes 50 percent of Scheduled Tribes and 60 percent of Scheduled Castes. It has been found that such levels of chronic malnutrition leads to pulmonary tuberculosis and malaria,” Sen, a physician by profession, said.

While there is chronic starvation on one side, there is a decline in consumption on the other. “There has been a major decline in cereal consumption since 1991 in India. If an average family of five consumed around 880 kg of cereals a year in 1991, by 2004 it had declined to around 770 kg (that is a decline of 110 kg). But the cereal consumption is increasing among the rich. Therefore, the decline at the lower level is higher,” he said.

Adding to all these, is the agrarian crisis. People have been forced to abandon their land. Corporatisation of agriculture has led to small farmers abandoning their land. The government is supporting the efforts of multinationals. “These issues are more visible in areas of Maoist infiltration. People are forced to abandon their land.

Not only the Maoists, NGOs and a number of other rainbow organisations have come forward against these issues,” he said.

Dr Sen said there is widespread concern among people on the new developments.

Hardly does the authorities take action to prevent displacement and land grabbing in the name of development. “A major section is being denied its common property resources. We had incidents of genocide in the past. It is time the country identified the imminent threat,” he said.

Raikas demand grazing rights in forest land

JAIPUR: Raikas, the community of herders, have sought the application of Forest Rights Act and the UN Convention on Biological Diversity(CBD) in ensuring grazing rights to their animals in the forest land. The monsoon season is a testing time for these livestock keepers who graze large herds of sheep and goats-- as well as a diminishing number of camels—as crops are sown in the farm lands and the animals can find food only in the forest.

Raikas refer to the Article 8j of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, to which India is a partner, to support their demand. It commits countries to “ …subject to national legislation, respect, preserve and maintain knowledge innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities embodying traditional lifestyles relevant for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity.”

Hundreds of Raikas-- men in their trademark multi-coloured turbans and the women folk in their traditional attires-- took to streets of Sadri, a small town in Rajasthan's Pali district the other day to press for the demand. The immediate cause for their anguish was the Forest Department's decision to impose a levy of Rs.11 per day for each sheep. The amount is unaffordable by the Raikas and even if they pay up, the authorities do not issue a proper receipt.

“It is not the payment for grazing that matters,” points out Dr. Ilse Köhler-Rollefson of the LIFE Network, which promotes community-based conservation and development of indigenous breeds. “They want their grazing rights under the Forest Rights Act and CBD re-instated,” she observes.

Last year, with the help of the NGOs, Raikas developed a Biocultural Protocol in which they establish themselves as a local community whose lifestyle protects biological diversity. In the protocol, they document how they do it: by preventing forest fires, guarding wildlife, and by keeping locally evolved livestock breeds. This document, and the underlying approach, generated much attention nationally and internationally.

Within the country, several other communities --such as the Maldhari in Kutch and a group of Lingayats living in the Bargur forest in Tamil Nadu-- followed suit. Internationally the Raika have shared their protocol with the leaders of African indigenous communities during a meeting in Nairobi and with a working group of the Convention on Biological Diversity held in Montreal last year.

The Raika struggle for grazing rights has a long history. In the year 2003 they took their case to the Supreme Court though matter remained unsettled. With the passage of the Forest Rights Bill in 2007-- which provides rights not only to forest dwellers, but also to seasonal forest users-- the situation changed. But the initial jubilation turned to dismay as the herders found that there was no clear procedure for claiming the rights.

“Raikas are known to be peace-loving people whose main concern is to make sure that their livestock has enough to eat. In fact they are the keepers of the genes and they take upon themselves the duty of taking care of camels,” notes Dr. Kohler-Rollefson who helped the community to get organised under an NGO Lokhit Pashu-Palak Sansthan (LPPS). Both LIFE Network and LPPS helped Raikas to find their voice and link themselves with herders in the rest of the world.

Dailibai Raika, a traditional animal healer, explains that in Germany the local shepherds are paid by the government for conserving the environment. She and Hanwant Singh Rathore, the director of LPPS, visited Germany earlier this year and interacted with parliamentarians.

Both are scheduled to attend the next meeting of the CBD in Japan. A preparatory meeting of Indian and international herders will be held in Kuttupalayam near Coimbatore from August 13 this year.