Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Monday, November 15, 2010
CHINA:THE ERADICATION OF POVERTY - M K Pandhe
THE elimination of poverty is an essential requirement of a socialist system. Poverty is an essential concomitant of a capitalist system. So long as the capitalist society exists in a country, poverty will never be abolished. The slogan of ‘Garibi Hatao’ given in a capitalist system is only an election gimmick. Child labour as a product of poverty will continue to exist so long as poverty exists in a society.
Even in the richest capitalist country, the USA, millions of people continue to be poor and find it difficult to get elementary requirements of human existence.
Even the millennium goal of reduction of poverty by 50 per cent by 2012 is not going to be achieved all over the world.
The world hunger report 2009 clearly points out that a large number of human population in the world continue to remain hungry while growing prices of food products will make the task of providing food for all, more difficult.
The United Nations’ international agencies are paying lip sympathy to the task of elimination of poverty. They claim that the present high rate of hunger is unacceptable to them but they in practice accept it and no concrete steps are being taken to provide food for all.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares that every human shall have the right to enjoy the living standard required to maintain health and welfare of himself and his family members including food, clothing, housing, medical service and necessary social services. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, expressly specifies that every human shall be entitled to obtain a certain living standard for himself and family including sufficient foods, clothing and housing and keep improving the living conditions.
The Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action adopted by the world conference on Human Rights in 1993 specifies that all the human rights are Universal, inseparable, interdependent and interrelated.
The 47th United Nations General Assembly decided on December 22, 1992 to make every October 17, the international day for the eradication of poverty. As noted earlier, at the United Nations Millennium Summit in September 2000, the leaders of various countries in the world identified the clearly defined objectives and indicators known as the millennium development goals, with regard to the issues of the eradication of poverty, hunger, disease and illiteracy. The goals specify that the proportion of the population living on less than one dollar everyday will be cut down by half by 2015 and the proportion of population threatened with hunger will also be reduced by half. Specifically speaking, the population living on less than one dollar will be slashed from 1.25 billion in 1970 to below 625 million in 2015.
According to the World Bank, a person having an income of less than two dollars per day can be considered as poor while a person having an income of less than one dollar per day is considered to be suffering from acute poverty!
In spite of global lip sympathy towards the starving population in the world, the stark poverty levels continue to dog the world. The recent global economic crisis has only aggravated the situation with large number of unemployed people trying their best to some how or the other keep themselves alive. The bailout packages of various capitalist countries have only brought additional miseries for the common people. The exploitation of the working class and the people all over the world had only added to the poverty conditions of the vast masses of the society. Naturally, the global documents and declarations however much they express noble intentions, but in reality poverty at the global level only gets aggravated with rise in assets of the big business houses and their speculative gains in the share market, adding to the continuously growing inequality and gulf between rich and the poor all over the world.
According to the 2008 World Bank report, the people living in acute poverty conditions have declined from 1.8 billion in 1990 to 1.4 in 2005. However, much of the reduction was due to reduced poverty conditions in China. The extremely impoverished population in sub-Saharan Africa increased by 100 million in 2005. In 2009, the population living in the extreme poverty is estimated to grow from 55 million to 90 million compared to that before the global economic crisis.
NO UNIFORMDEFINITION
The definition of poverty in developing and developed countries is not uniform. According to the poverty line determined by the American government the proportion of the impoverished population in America is usually 10 per cent. However, in 2009 the impoverished population was 35-80 million ie, 13.3 per cent of the total population. The impoverished population represented 12.5 per cent of American total population in 2004. The poverty rate was likely to reach 12.7 per cent in 2008. The data clearly underlined how the richest capitalist country in the world is showing growing incidence of poverty conditions. The tall talk of superiority of capitalist system is exposed by the official data in America. The Federal statistics office of Germany data shows a 14.9 per cent poverty rate in the country in 2009. The poverty rate in France stands at 13.4 per cent in 2009.
The government of India has been claiming reduction in poverty levels in the country since the advent of globalisation in 1990. However, it was due to manipulation of data and keeping the poverty level so low at Rs 13 per day of per capita consumption. The controversy relating to BPL and APL has only exposed the hollowness of the government’s argument. Arjun Sen Gupta Committee’s report said that 77 per cent of our population is living below Rs 20 per day. The government of India is not even prepared to take into account the World Bank’s calculation of poverty levels in the world! The World Hunger Report observed that the largest number of hungry people in the world are from India. Its condition was considered worst that among the most backward countries of Sudan in sub-saharan Africa.
The official data reported by the World Bank has clearly shown the bankruptcy of the capitalist system in its utter failure to eliminate poverty from the globe.
SITUATION IN CHINA
In the six decades of establishment of socialism, China has been trying to abolish poverty.
There was some progress in the direction of reduction in poverty prior to the cultural revolution and remarkable improvement in the standard of living of the people had taken place. However, during the cultural revolution period, there were some problems. By the year 1978, there were 250 million people in China facing poverty levels.
Since 1978, the Chinese government adopted a policy of economic reforms which paid special attention to faster economic development and eradication of poverty. According to a statement by the state council of China in 2008, “In the past 50 years since the founding of New China especially since the initiation of reform and opening up to the outside world, the Chinese government has always put the people’s right to subsistence and development first, focused on economic construction and made efforts to develop social productivity. Consequently, China’s economy and society have advanced by leaps and bounds, its comprehensive national strength has been raised and the people’s livelihood has improved by a huge margin thereby realising two historic leaps bringing the people from poverty to having enough to eat and wear and then to living a better life”.
During 1980 and 2010 the per capita real standard of living of the entire population increased eight times bringing a large section of the poverty stricken people towards a decent living standard. In the year 1980, more than four billion Yuan were allotted to poverty eradication programmes . Thus from 1978 to 1986, the people below the poverty line came down from 250 million to 120 million.
In 1986 during the seventh five year plan poverty alleviation was given a top priority. People were given tax concession and other facilities. From 1986 to 1993 the impoverished people nationwide were reduced from 120 million to 80 million. Poverty was thus reduced by 6.4 million per year.
Sustained efforts to improve the standard of living of people and quality of life had a very important role to play in poverty eradication programme. More job creation was a crucial measure taken up by the government. In three decades since 1978, 37 crore jobs were created by the government of China. Nine year compulsory education was introduced and in 2008 the rate of enrolment stood at 99.5 per cent and junior middle schools reached 98.5 per cent. Due to improved health care and social security measures the life expectancy increased since 1978 by five years to reach 73 years! Over 1978 infant mortality rate declines by 56 per cent reaching 15.3 per cent, while the maternity mortality rate dropped by 60 per cent since 1978. All these measures had a positive impact on reducing overall poverty levels of the Chinese population.
One of the different problems China is facing today in the task of elimination of poverty is that a large part of the impoverished population belongs to ethnic minorities. They live in remote backward areas like Dingri, Gansu, Ningxia, Guaxi, Yunan, Guizov, Sichwan and Tibet. They were victims of century’s old feudal exploitation, slavery, primitive society and serfdom. People from inner Mangolia also to some extent come in this category. In 2007, the incidence of people in absolute poverty in autonomous areas of minorities in China was 6.4 per cent - 4.8 percentage points higher than the country’s average of 1.6 per cent. Their number stood 77.4 lakhs accounting for 52.3 per cent of the country’s total of one crore forty seven lakhs and nine thousand poor people. However, available statistics show that in 2007, a total of 18.5 lakh people came back to absolute poverty due to natural calamities. The government of China has prepared a special package to overcome the problem.
A section of the ethnic minorities oppose economic reform, which is also an obstacle in this task. In Tibet, every step taken by the government to reduce poverty is considered as a step towards destroying Tibetan culture by Dalai Lama whose thinking practically means continuation of poverty and backwardness is preserving age-long Tibetan culture.
The government of China is taking steps to develop road and railway network, airports to extricate Tibet from the poverty conditions. Indian press backed by US imperialist agencies has been making stories that the economic developments in Tibet have security concerns for India.
In Xinjiang, with 16 lakh 59 meters area in 1978, there were 53.2 lakh people living without enough food and clothing. However, due to huge spending by the Chinese government, by 2000 the problem of basic subsistence was solved satisfactorily. Social security benefits were also provided to the vast masses of the people.
Since 1994, the Chinese government increased investment in poverty alleviation programmes, three times in comparison with the investments made between 1986 to 1993. As a result of this the absolute poverty declined by an average of over 60 lakh per year. During 2000-2003, the poverty was reduced by over 30 lakhs.
The global economic recession however slowed down the poverty alleviation programme. However, at the end of 2008 the impoverished population in rural areas was reduced to four crore! As the number of impoverished people is declining the task is becoming more and more difficult, since it is concentrated in remote areas where developmental needs are more and more complex. Yet efforts are being made by the Chinese government to provide funds for poverty alleviation programmes.
The Chinese twelfth five year plan which is under consideration of the government is likely to emphasise faster economic growth of less developed regions and give special emphasis on eradication of the vestiges of poverty prevailing in the country. The plan (2010-2015) will further reduce the extent of poverty in the country and will pave the way for accelerating the economic growth of the country.
Source: www.pd.cpim.org
People’s Democracy
Vol. XXXIV, No. 46, November 14, 2010
NAVODAYA TEACHERS DEMAND GRIEVANCE REDRESSAL
THROUGH a memorandum recently submitted to the prime minister, the All India Navodaya Vidyalaya Staff Association (AINVSA) has drawn his attention to certain anomalies in the allowances and leaves due to the Navodaya Vidyalaya teachers and non-teaching staff all over the country.
The AINVSA has sent the copies of its memorandum to the secretary of the government of India’s Department of School Education & Literacy and to the New Delhi based commissioner of the Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti.
The AINVSA memorandum points out that the Department of Personnel & Training had, through an office memorandum (OM) issued on November 11, 2008, restored the facility of 20 days’ half-pay leave to the teachers, principals, headmasters, librarians, laboratory assistants and watermen working in these schools with effect from September 1, 2008. In this regard, the said OM superseded the Office Memorandum dated September 3, 1981 (regarding leave) and the notification dated July 28, 1984. However, as a consequence, the recent OM withdraws with effect from September 1, 2008 the facility of 10 days’ full-pay earned leave provided to the teachers vide the earlier notifications.
The AINVSA memorandum, submitted to the prime minister by its president Jagdish Rai and general secretary L B Reddy, pointed out that prior to September 1, 1981, these affected categories were entitled to 20 days half-pay leave in a year. But they were facing many hardships while availing this leave; for example, they had to produce a medical certificate each time they wanted to avail this leave on full pay. Also, it was not possible to attend to studies, examination and going on outstation tours etc on full pay. They, therefore, demanded earned leave like that available to college and university teachers. However, instead of granting the facility of earned leave in addition to half-pay leave, the central government, after the personal intervention of former prime minister Mrs Indira Gandhi, converted the 20 days of half-pay leave to 10 days of earned leave on full pay with effect from September 1, 1981, as a special case.
The NV teachers are thus deeply anguished over the loss of 10 days earned leave, a facility gained after much deliberations, agitation and only after the personal intervention of late Mrs Indira Gandhi in 1981. The present government has undone the beneficial decision of Mrs Gandhi’s government, while implementing the recommendation of the sixth Central Pay Commission (CPC). The AINVSA memorandum clearly pointed out that the teachers’ demand was for the restoration of half-pay leave on the analogy of university and college teachers in addition to earned leave, and not at the cost of earned leave.
It is also notable that the sixth Central Pay Commission has nowhere recommended a conversion of earned leave into half-pay leave. It is therefore unfortunate and arbitrary that while implementing the recommendation of the sixth CPC, the Department of Personnel & Training did not examine the issue in its right perspective. On the contrary, the department drew its own conclusions and acted in a manner which is against the true spirit behind the recommendation.
Since the department is now in the process of amending the CCS (Leave) Rules 1972, the teachers’ demand is that it must withdraw the OM dated November 11, 2008 and also desist from abolishing the earned leave by amending the CCS (Leave) Rules. It is in this matter that the AINVSA has sought the prime minister’s intervention to get the wrong remedied.
Source: www.pd.cpim.org
People’s Democracy
Vol. XXXIV, No. 46, November 14, 2010
ON 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF HASAN NAASIR’S MARTYRDOM - NARESH ‘NADEEM’
COME November 13 and it will be half a century since the martyrdom of Comrade Hasan Naasir who was brutally tortured to death on this day in 1960, in the Lahore Fort jail of Pakistan. He was only 32 when the Ayub dictatorship deprived him of his right to live and fight.
CONVERSION TO COMMUNISM
Not much is known about the early life of Comrade Shabbir Lashari Hasan Naasir except that he was born in a high aristocratic family of Hyderabad Deccan in 1928. From his mother’s side, he was a great grandson of Nawab Mohsinul-Mulk who was among the founders of the Muslim League in 1906. After his initial education in Hyderabad, he went to the Cambridge University of England for higher studies. Here he came in contact with several fellow students who later became leading figures of the Communist Party of India. It is known that in those days a vibrant group of Indian communist students was very much active on the Cambridge campus. Hasan Naasir’s conversion to communism took place here. His political consciousness further bloomed after he returned to India and came into contact with eminent revolutionary poet Makhdoom Mohiuddin and others. Now we see him fighting in the glorious armed struggle of Telangana peasantry.
After the country’s independence, the second congress of the Communist Party took place in Kolkata in 1948. The congress came to the conclusion that continuation of a single party was not a feasible proposition for the two countries, India and Pakistan. Accordingly, the Communist Party of Pakistan (CPP) came into existence on March 6, 1948, with Comrade Sajjad Zaheer as general secretary. Karachi, the then capital of Pakistan, was the main centre of his activity.
How Hasan Naasir migrated to Pakistan, is not clear. While the self-justificatory version put forward by the government of Pakistan said he was planted (sic!) by the Communist Party of India, many refuse to buy this story. According to one of his friends, Hasan Naasir was on his way to England when his steamship stopped at Karachi, and he stepped down to the shore to meet some of his friends of Cambridge days. It is they who persuaded him to stay in Karachi. Be that as it may, the CPP entrusted him the responsibility of assisting Comrade Sajjad Zaheer in his day to day work. Now, having left his palace-like home behind, he began to live in a dilapidated one-room house, full of bugs and mosquitoes, in a workers colony.
COOKED-UP AFFAIR of 1951
Soon after its formation, the CPP faced an attack (so far the worst) from the ruling classes of Pakistan. In 1951 started the infamous Rawalpindi conspiracy case in which several leaders of the party were implicated along with some army officers and journalists.
That the Rawalpindi case was a cooked-up affair from beginning to end, has been laid bare by Captain Zafarullah Poshni who is now the lone survivor among the Pindi accused and came to meet the Indian communist delegation when it was in Karachi on March 2, 2005. In his Urdu book Zindagï Zindäñdilï kä Näm Hai (1993), he says it was Brigadier Akbar Khan who had planned the army coup that was quoted as the justification of the Rawalpindi case.
The story goes like this. Brigadier Akbar Khan, who was then officiating as army chief because Pakistan then lacked an army general, was a vacuous fellow and was dead infuriated against Liaquat Ali Khan, the then prime minister, over the fiasco in Kashmir. Ignoring the national and international situation then obtaining, the brigadier harboured the idea that it was Liaquat Khan who had ordered the tribal raiders to come back when they were at the outskirts of Srinagar. This was why Akbar Khan wanted to topple the government.
As the intelligence-wallas came to know about Brigadier Akbar’s plot, the government arrested him. However, to make the case more credible looking, the government invented the story that the CPP was planning to start a rebellion in the country and had enlisted several army officers for the purpose. That the charge was sans substance, becomes clear from the fact that according to a CIA estimation the CPP membership did not exceed 3,000 even in the mid-sixties. Moreover, numerous reports pointed out that it was the brigadier and his faithfuls who wanted to enlist the Communist Party’s support for their design and that the party had rejected their proposals outright. Faiz, our singer of revolution, says:
Wo bät säre fasäne meñ jiskä zikr na thä
Wo bät unko bahut nägwär guzarï hai.
(The thing which was not even mentioned in the whole story,
The same thing has offended him too severely.)
As for Liaquat Khan, he had to pay the price for getting several army officers arrested and thus annoying the army’s top brass. He was assassinated in the same Rawalpindi city.
DEDICATION TO THE CAUSE
In his book Across Three Continents, Dr Ehtisham Akhtar (a student activist of those days) says: “PM Liaquat Ali Khan had been besieged by the landowners. (He had left his estate in India)… He made much of the conspiracy, made a very emotional speech and gained high stature and acceptance, so far denied him because he had been so much in the shadow of Jinnah.”
The theory appears credible, more so because Sir Khwaja Näzimuddin who was nominated the governor general after Jinnah’s demise, was the prime minister’s own man and too weak to check his ambitions. (The British monarch used to be the head of state of Pakistan and appointed the governor general in consultation with the prime minister, till the country became a republic on March 23, 1956.)
At the time, Hasan Naasir eluded arrest for some time and was arrested in 1952.
The case found an echo in the Indian parliament and, in response to the demands coming up, Nehru interceded on behalf of the Pindi accused who were the migrants from India. The government of Pakistan agreed to release Comrade Sajjad Zaheer on the condition that India would take him back. Nehru’s intervention saved Hasan Naasir from being implicated in the case; instead, he was exiled.
Hasan Naasir’s dedication to the cause was such that, restless as he was, he returned to Pakistan after a year. He now played an active role in the formation of the National Awami Party (NAP), led by Maulana Bhasani and Wali Khan. Members of the banned Communist Party began to function through the NAP, which later became the Awami National Party (ANP). Hasan Naasir was soon elected secretary of the CPP’s Sindh provincial unit. Eventually, the Ayub dictatorship began to view him as one of the most dreaded communists of Pakistan. At that time, the CPP and its mass organisations were showing some possibility of growth.
MC’CARHTHYISM IN PAKISTAN
This was the situation when the Ayub dictatorship further intensified the repression that the Liaquat government had let loose against the party.
Hasan Naasir evaded arrest for some time. It is known that he spent several months in the house of the foreign secretary whose daughters were enamoured of him. He, however, did not use the connection for any personal aggrandisement. He had so thoroughly declassed himself that he spent several nights among the beggars on the Lahore pavements and was found quite fresh every morning. He was eventually arrested and incarcerated in the Lahore Fort --- a majestic Mughal structure which the British had converted into a detention camp. The torture meted out to him in this fort jail has been best described by Umar Chaudhari as “a story of McCarthyism in Pakistan.” Chaudhari used these words while reviewing the 2008 edition of Hasan Näsir ki Shahädat, a 1970 Urdu book by Major Mohd Ishaq.
As the story goes, one day in 1960, Major Ishaq, one of the Pindi accused, went to meet Faiz and found him unusually perturbed. To his query, Faiz told him that some communist from Karachi had been brought to the Lahore Fort and was being tortured there --- so much so that his cries of pain were terrifying the other prisoners there. Faiz had come to know about it from a prisoner’s wife.
Major Ishaq moved a habeas corpus petition in Lahore High Court on November 22, 1960 and thus the fact of Hasan Naasir’s death surfaced during the hearing next day. The governmental version was that he had committed suicide on November 13, but the officials refused to disclose the site of his grave. Finally, after much legal wrangling and in order to prove its innocence, the government agreed to exhume the body when Hasan Naasir’s mother, Mrs Zehra Alambardar Hussain, reached from India to claim his body. However, while no hanging mark was found on the corpse’s neck, there were marks of torture on knees, elbows and some other parts. At the same time, after closely inspecting the teeth, hair and the feet, Mrs Hussain refused to accept that it was her son’s body. Evidently, the government had decided to conceal Hasan Naasir’s body from his mother too.
Some time later, the cell where Hasan Naasir was confined, was gutted in a mysterious fire, and it is widely believed that it was part of the official plot to destroy every evidence about his death. Documentary records so far remain undisclosed in the name of national interest (!).
On February 24, 2005, when (late) Comrade Surjeet visited the Lahore Fort to see the Cell No 3 where he was confined during the British days, we got a chance to see a wall and the half-burnt small window in it; these are now the only surviving parts of Hasan Naasir’s cell.
However, much as the government tried in its power, it failed to erase the memory of Comrade Hasan Naasir who now stands as an icon of the Left in Pakistan. He is the theme of numerous folk songs and poems, short stories and plays. Shehr-e-Nigäräñ, a book by renowned Marxist critic Sibte-Hasan, is highly inspiring.
Quite recently, as reported in these columns earlier, the Supreme Court has reopened the case of Comrade Nazir Abbasi and ordered the arrest of Imtiaz Billa who was responsible for his murder. This gives one the hope that Hasan Naasir’s case too would be reopened, all the evidence pertaining to his death brought to light and thus a long-standing demand fulfilled.
November 09, 2010
Source: www.pd.cpim.org
People’s Democracy
Vol. XXXIV, No. 46, November 14, 2010
LOCAL ELECTIONS IN GREECE: KKE INCREASES ITS VOTE SHARE
LOCAL and regional elections were held in Greece on November 7. People voted to elect representatives for 13 regions and 325 municipalities. In the first round of the elections, nationwide the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) secured around 11 per cent of the vote share. The KKE was the only party which saw an increase in its percentage of the vote (+3.3 per cent) and in actual votes (+75,000) in relation to last year’s parliamentary elections (2009).
KKE fought the elections on the agenda of its opposition to the so-called 'austerity' measures pursued by the Social Democratic PASOK government. The electoral performance of the KKE is a result of the struggles waged by the KKE along with PAME and other mass organisations against the IMF and EU sponsored 'austerity' measures implemented by the government. The second round of elections are scheduled for November 14.
Prakash Karat, general secretary of the CPI(M) in a message congratulated the KKE and hoped that the results achieved by it would further strengthen the party and help in intensifying the struggles against the anti-people measures of the Greece government.
Source: www.pd.cpim.org
People’s Democracy
Vol. XXXIV, No. 46, November 14, 2010
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Thursday, October 21, 2010
TRIPURA: AIDWA Holds Sixteenth State Conference - Haripada Das
TRIPURA is a role model for the country in implementing alternative policies for the welfare of poor, especially the women community. Defying scorching heat of sun and airing resolve to carry forward the ongoing developmental process, frustrating the machinations plotted by Congress party in the state, a large number of women gathered at the Stable Ground, Agartala on the occasion of the 16th state conference of AIDWA on October 2, 2010. After a long time, Agartala city witnessed such a huge and lively women’s rally in the city.
Unable to enter the overflowing ground, about half of the women stood on the roads passing by the South and Western side of the ground. The rally was presided over by the AIDWA state president, Sabitri Debbarma and was addressed by Brinda Karat and Manik Sarkar, both Polit Bureau members of CPI (M), working president of Tripura state committee of AIDWA and CPI (M) Central Committee member Rama Das, and Krishna Rakshit, AIDWA state secretary.
Addressing the mammoth open rally of the women, Brinda Karat said the politically conscious women folk of the state must stand in the forefront in the nationwide struggle for the pro-people alterative policies, by consolidating their present organisational growth and cementing unity.
Describing the plight of the women of the country as the worst victims of the feudal capitalist system, she said since the adoption of LPG policies by the ruling class ten years back, while millionaires have been further nourished, the condition of poor got more deteriorated. India possesses the highest number of women anemic patients in the world because they are mal-fed or half-fed due to poverty. Ironically, this happened at a time when a huge quantum of six crore tons of food grain is allowed to be rotten under open sky and denied distribution to the hungry countrymen free of cost, defying the Apex Court’s clear directives. Most of the countrymen are struggling to negotiate with the price hike everyday.
Ridiculing the yard stick of selecting BPL, that the families having income below Rs 350 per month may be treated as BPL and others as APL, Brinda Karat said, “May I request the prime minister to show the countrymen managing his family with Rs 360 per month.” In the name of Food Security Act, the UPA government is trying to abolish whatever food security is remaining at present. She argued for a minimum of 35 kg food grain at Rs 2 per kg for all families, a rational amount of wage for the anganwadi and Asha workers, and the workers engaged in mid-day-meal scheme etc., abolition of gender discrimination prevalent in various parts of the country, implementation of FRI ensuring equal right of women on the allotted land under this Act. She also scathingly condemned the role of Trinamool Congress for maintaining a direct nexus with anti-national Maoists who have unleashed an annihilation drive by killing innocent poor to wipe out CPI (M) from Jangal Mahal area in West Bengal.
The chief minister of Tripura and CPI (M) Polit Bureau member, Manik Sarkar congratulated the massive women’s rally that indicates the importance of women who are the part and parcel of the democratic struggle of the state. Referring to Arjun Sengupta Commission’s report which says that 77 per cent of the countrymen can afford not even Rs 20 per day, Manik Sarkar said, the report was placed three years back. Dr Sengupta had no any leftist antecedent. Still, the central government took no remedial measures. The report is now gathering dust in the prime minister’s office, Manik Sarkar informed and asked who is responsible for such a bad state of living of the countrymen? Out of the 64 years since independence, except for eight or nine years in three-four terms, the Congress party all along ruled the country. Thus, there should not be any dispute that Congress party is entirely liable for this shameful plight of the countrymen. This is because, the Congress party acts just opposite to the pledge it makes to the electorate. In the last elections also, they shed crocodile tears for the poor promising for an ‘aam admi ka sarkar’. But even after two years, they took no single pro-people decision. It is now clear to everybody that they are servants, not of aam admi but are very obedient servants of khas admi, Manik Sarkar quipped.
Briefly describing the measures taken by the Left Front government for the welfare of the women, and the over-all development programmes in the state amidst non- cooperation from the centre and various limitations mainly due to financial constraints, Manik Sarkar said the opposition parties, the extremist outfits and a section of media are trying to create unrest and instability in the state so that the government all along remains embarrassed with tackling law and order situation and development activities don’t progress smoothly. He asked the people to be alert against them and not fall prey to their provocative actions.
The sixteenth state conference of AIDWA began with the flag hoisting by its president Sabitri Debbarma and paying respectful floral tributes at the martyrs’ column. Agartala Town Hall, the venue of the conference and the dais of the hall were named as Ila Bhattacharjee Nagar and Manjulika Bose Manch, the two veteran women leaders of the state who passed away in the interim period.
The first session of the conference started in the evening on October 2, 2010. A seven member presidium with Sabitri Debbarma, Rama Das, Chhaya Bal, Basana Das, Jharna Das(Baidya), Rehana Begam and Sukhamati Debbarma and an eight member steering committee comprising Krishna Rakshit, Pabitra Bala Das, Alo Bhowmik, Minu Saha, chapala Biswas, Hasi Bhattacharjee, Kiranmala Debbarma, and Maya Paul were constituted. After reading out the condolence resolution and homage to martyrs, secretary Krishna Rakshit presented the political-organisational report on behalf of the state committee.
On October 3, addressing the delegates’ session of the conference, Manik Sarkar elaborated the government’s achievements of the programmes for the welfare of the women in the state. Many measures adopted by the Left Front government for the upliftment of the socio-economic conditions of the women are unprecedented in the country. Aiming at the women’s empowerment, 50 per cent seats have been reserved for the women in the rural and urban bodies. In government recruitment, though reservation is not there, the government is very much careful to see that women are represented well. About 28 per cent of the total annual budget is earmarked for 22 schemes meant for the women’s welfare. Out of 34,402 self help groups in the state, 18,040 are run exclusively by women who are being supported by the government in various ways. Law against female foeticide is strictly enforced here. The government provides allowances for the female babies, upto the age 16 years. At present, more than 6000 female babies are getting such allowance. About 47,000 divorced women are getting government allowances. The name of both wife and husband are recorded in the document for land allotment ensuring equal right to women on the land. The number of anganwadi centres has increased from 900 in 1972 to 9,900 at present. These centres are rendering services to 3.5 lakh children and 1.6 lakh mothers. There are more than 600 health sub-centres. A target has been set to establish at least one health sub-centre in each of the panchayat and village committee area. Distressed women are getting legal aid to get redress from the court. The police department has been instructed to ensure at least 10 per cent women in the police force. In every police station, there is a female desk so that the female complainants feel no hesitation in talking and registering complaints. Women’s Commission of the state is performing a robust duty to render redress to the women victims of domestic and other violence. There are female courts in three districts to settle the domestic disputes, the chief minister informed. Congratulating the delegates, Manik Sarkar urged them to draw the women still in the wrong camp and enrich themselves with clear political understanding to sharpen the struggle for a classless society.
Sudha Sundararaman, general secretary of AIDWA hailed the Tripura unit of the organisation for its achievements in drawing majority of women masses of the state in the path of democratic movement for safeguarding women’s rights. Tripura would be the shining source of inspiration in the struggle against the ruling forces who are interested to please US imperialism, compromising the interests of the country, the communal forces who prefer to turn the country into a Hindu state, the forces in the Jammu and Kashnir trying to cut off the hills jeopardising the integrity of the country, against the semi-fascist attack let loose on the CPI(M) supporters in Jangal Mahal and other areas of West Bengal by the TMC-Maoist combine. She advised the conference to take up the issues related to the downtrodden working women and suggested to equip them with sharp political ideological consciousness.
Altogether 601 delegates representing 19 divisional committees attended the conference and 38 delegates discussed on the political-organisational report. Nine resolutions demanding passage of women’s reservation bill, controlling price rise, containing crimes against women, better involvement of women in NREGA, supporting self help groups, rational quantum of allowance to the anganwadi and Asha workers and against the imperialism and secessionist and extremist outfits etc were passed.
In the concluding session, a new 88-member state committee was elected unanimously amidst high applause. The new state committee in its first meeting constituted a 23-member state secretariat. Sabitri Debbarma, Rama Das and Krishna Rakshit were re-elected as president, working president and secretary respectively. Chapala Biswas was elected as treasurer of the state committee. The three main thrust areas of the conference were to protect the rights already achieved, organise the women of unorganised sectors and sharpen the political-ideological understanding.
Courtesy: www.pd.cpim.org
Friday, October 15, 2010
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