MASUM (Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha), a human rights organization, founded in 1997, with a group of activists focusing the activity of the organization mainly against custodial torture and violence. We were firm in selecting this option and gave stress to fight against all custodial tortures and police atrocities, in the vast arena and ever-increasing compound of the definition of human rights.
In 2004, we came across a number of reports of different medias over starvation deaths in different parts of West Bengal. Initially, we tried to avoid in pursuing the issue of starvation and kept it out of our agenda, primarily because of the fact that it was without our targeted periphery and secondly, the matter was quite complex and the issue of starvation deaths around West Bengal as well as in India are its deep rooted socio, economic and political problems which we can hardly address from our small platform of human rights organization. But we could not ignore such miserable condition of a large section of our fellow countrymen, whose right to life were systematically denied for long time. At the same time, the AHRC, our partner organization and a number of our friends had been expressing their concern for this human disaster.
We did not know a single person in Jalangi block, Murshidabad. We went to Jalangi bazaar and started to contact people who were badly affected by starvation and facing death. We went into remote villages – Biswaspara, Dayarampur, Parashpur, Taltali, Farazipara and others within Jalangi block. The area was, once very fertile and famous for cultivating Jute, Paddy, Sugar cane etc. Even on one occasion Dayarampur was declared as “Model Village” by state administrative authority. Situated on the bank of river the Padma, which acts as the natural border between India and Bangladesh. The main cause of the plight of the people is changing the course of the river continuously and thus eroding the fertile land to the riverbed. The people said the river intruded into Indian Territory about 9-10 km. inside erasing numberless villages from the geographical map. Out of 14 mouzas, only 7 remain. Since agriculture is the main occupation of the villagers, losing lands, homes, crops into the riverbed; the once affluent peasants became penniless. The people are dying like ants due to poverty and without any legal occupation. The starvation looms large on this area at Jalangi block. We confronted several painstaking, heart-breaking scenes. Mostly affected people are women, aged and children. The families are deserting old and sick members. There is no rehabilitation programme of the State Government for these ill-fated villagers. When people takes refuge in others area, they are humiliated, creating tension in the locality. The children are eating rubbish out of hunger and dying. Women are forced to enter into flesh-trade for survival. The families are devastated and displaced sometime without trace generating volumes of Internally displaced persons.
In search of the helping hand in the locality, firstly we noticed the government authorities as non-existent one and the political parties and Panchayat are non-functioning and giving only lip service. Jalangi seemed to us an example; how the so-called decentralisation of power, i.e. the Panchayeti Raj has became a farce by the lefts, in the last 28 years. We met the Block Development Office, Relief Officer of the block, The District Magistrate and other government officers and also Panchayat Pradhan, Panchayat Samity for releasing relief to the affected people and to do the needful. There are so many government programmes are going on in black and white in the area, such as Annapurna Yojna, Antodaya, B.P.L schemes, GRs, but practically, the relief seldom reached in the hands of the affected people. Sometimes, quality of the food-grains are not fit for human consumption and the misery of the starving people continued. All-round corruption is omnipresent. Despite, repeated reporting on different electronic and print media, starvation at Jalangi failed to move the administration. The administration and government machinery remained a mute spectator except sporadic visit of the bureaucrats. Such cruel and callous attitude of the government authorities are shocking.
We found boulders for embankment have been stacked beside the roads away from the place of river line for months together. We enquired and found that local Panchayat administration kept the work pending due to their internal disputes over the choice of suitable and loyal contractor. The matter was drawn into the notice of the B.D.O, D.M., Irrigation Department but the administration at the grass root level of Panchayat seemed more powerful than any authority in its inaction.
The agriculturists lost their land and livelihood. Without any legal means for survival, the obvious choice is illegal one. The border of Bangladesh is not far away and the lure of easy money is smuggling. All the kingpins of local smugglers have nexus with the local police, BSF, Customs Officers and leaders of the political parties, mainly the ruling one. The don of the smuggler is a elected member of local Panchayet Samity. So, a large section of the villagers fell into the trap of the smugglers for their livelihood.
A large area where human beings affected by malnutrition lacks basic infrastructure of health care. The nearest Rural Hospital, Sadikhandear, run by the Health Department is known for its notoriety. There is no medical facilities despite medicines are allotted and supplied by authorities for every hospital. Badar Mondal, aged 52, a leprosy patient died of starvation and devoid of any treatment in the hospital on 10 January, 2006.
Even when we contacted and met Unicef, local chapter of the international organization, on several times for the plights of the starved children of Jalangi, that also bore no fruits for Governmental paraphernalia.
It is not that nothing can be done. In our experience, we have seen that in one case at Bellilious Park, at Howrah, a victim of forced eviction, named E. M. Parvathi was reeling under severe poverty and lost her husband and 3 children due to starvation. We made complaint everywhere and even placed the case to the Governor, Mr. Gopal Krishna Gandhi. The Governor in his exceptional gesture on his own initiation arranged free education for remaining child of E. M. Parvathi and provided monthly financial assistance.
However, to draw the attention of civil society, both in national and international forums, we arranged a Public Tribunal with the help of Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong Kong to find the fact of starvation death. The tribunal got tremendous response in Jalangi and it was organized on 23 and 24 September 2005. The Tribunal was constituted with number of retired High Court Judges, medical practitioners, lawyers, social workers, and human rights activists. We are publishing the full reports of the Tribunal, which found with evidence that our concern of people of Jalangi was correct. The people are dying and the government authorities are mute spectators. The good governance is far cry; even there is no governance at all effective at the remote place at the villages of Jalangi block. The total break down of the rule of law and denial of human rights are apparent on the face of record.
We hope, the compilation with the report of the tribunal and documents will shake the conscience of the civil society to take stance for the part of the humanity and raise their voices in search of justice.
Kirity Roy
Secretary
Masum
