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UPDATE (India): Please send a letter to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra calling for right to land for Adivasi people

March 29, 2004

UPDATE ON URGENT APPEAL UPDATE ON URGENT APPEAL UPDATE ON URGENT APPEAL

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAM

Update on Urgent Appeal 29 March 2004

[RE: UA-35-2003: Two hundred Adivasis made homeless over land rights; UP-32-2003: Enquiry into the shooting of Adivasis in 2001; land rights; indigenous groups; and UP-34-2003: Landless people stand firm against continuing government attacks; UP-40-2003: Hunger strike of Adivasis calling for right to land]
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UP-13-2004: INDIA: Please send a letter to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra calling for right to land for Adivasi people

INIDA: Right to land; Indigenous groups
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Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received an email from John P. Abraham, who is involved in the campaign that fights for the rights of the indigenous Adivasi tribals in India, calling for your urgent solidarity on this matter.

In his email, John P. Adraham said, "Once again we are approaching you with an appeal. We have experienced in the past that appeals to the authorities from friends like you can make a lot of difference¡¦. Please send your appeal to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra as soon as possible and ask him to look into the Adivasis's demands and take speedy action to protect their rights."

Brief reminder of the situation:

On 21 July 2003, about 100 police and the Maharashtra State Farming Corporation (MSFC) security personnel, destroyed about two hundreds huts of Adivasis - indigenous people - and more than a thousand acres of crops. No notice was given to these people. Several hundred adivasi children and women have been rendered homeless. The adivasi people have been fighting the MSFC for their legal rights to the land where they have lived for several decades.

The Maharashtra Agricultural Land (Ceiling on Holdings) Act, which came into effect in 1961, was intended to redistribute land among landless farmers. In Maharashtra and some other states, almost no land was successfully re-distributed. Instead, the government set up the MSFC and gave it cultivation rights to the land. However, the MSFC has never cultivated the 35,000 acres. Later, the State Farming Corporation pretended to sow the land, paradoxically, thousands of acres of land under the management of the State Farming Corporation are still lying fallow in this vicinity. Seeing the land lying fallow, Adivasis have in recent years have occupied it and staked a legal claim that is still pending before state authorities.

Meanwhile, a new amendment which will come into effect in 2003, enables the government to withdraw the land from the MSFC and grant any area of land usable for any "public purpose". There is a strong likelihood that much of the land will return to the hands of the former landlords, and this will have a disastrous effect on those living on the land. However, the MSFC has started a brutal crackdown against the adivasi people by destroying their houses and crops.

An appeal on the right to the ownership of the land in question, filed by the Bhoomi Hakk Andolan Samiti (Land Rights Movement committee), is pending with the Revenue Commissioner at the Nashik Puntamba. Also, In 2001, the Aurangabad bench of Mumbai High Court, in response to the writ petition filed by Bhoomi Hukka Andolan Samiti, had asked the government officials to follow the Supreme Court ruling, which says that until the case is finally disposed off, the tribals shall not be evicted. Therefore, it is unjust to demolish the houses and rice fields of the Adivasis.

Please send a letter to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra and request that he ensure that the huts of the tribals are not disturbed until the matter is finally disposed off as per the directions of the High Court in response to the writ petition filed by the adivasis.

The Adivasis are meeting the District Collector [district revenue head official] on 31 March 2004 and they will file an application in the local court regarding this matter on 1 April 2004. Also, they will put up huts on the land again on 1 April 2004. But nobody knows for how long it will be maintained until the next demolition by the police.

To see our previous urgent appeals regarding this case, please visit:
[UA-35-2003: http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/mainfile.php/2003/494/
UP-32-2003: http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/mainfile.php/2003/552/
UP-34-2003: http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/mainfile.php/2003/554/
UP-40-2003: http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/mainfile.php/2003/560/]

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write a letter to the Chief Minister of the State of Maharashtra and express your concern about this case. A sample letter is attached below.

1. Shri Sushilkumar Shinde
Chief Minister of Maharashtra
6th floor, Office of the Chief Minister
Mantralaya, Mumbai
Maharashtra 400 023
INDIA
FAX: + 91 22 23633272 / 22029214
E-mai: sectocm@maharashtra.gov.in
SALUTATION: Dear Chief Minister

With copies to:

1. Justice Shri Arivind Sawant
Chairperson
Maharashtra Human Rights Commission
MUMBAI, INDIA
Fax: +91 22 22885858

2. Vijay Sonkar Shastri
Chairperson
National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes
c/o The National Human Rights Commission
Sardar Patel Bhavan
Sansad Marg, New Delhi - 110 001
INDIA
FAX: +91 11 2334 0016
EMAIL: nhrc3@alpha.nic.in
SALUTATION: Dear Commissioner

3. Mr. Jean Ziegler
Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food
c/o Sally-Anne Way
Assistant to the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food
IUED, 24, rue Rothschild
CP 136, CH 1211 Geneva 21
SWITZERLAND
Fax: +41 22 90 65983
E-mail: sally-anne.way@iued.unige.ch

4. Mr. Miloon Kothari
Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing
c/o Ms. Lene Wendland
Room 4-041, UNOG-OHCHR,
CH-1211, Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Tel: +41 22 91 79299
Fax: +41 22 91 79010
E-mail: cmoller@ohchr.org


Sample letter:

Mr. Shri Sushilkumar Shinde
Chief Minister of Maharashtra,
6th floor, Mantralaya,
Mumbai, Maharashtra 400 023
Fax: +91-22 23633272/ 22029214

Dear Mr. Chief Minister Shri Sushilkumar Shinde,

RE: The Maharashtra State government should stop destroying the huts of the Adivasi tribals following the order of the High Court

I am writing to bring to your attention the 200 Adivasi families rendered homeless due to evictions in Rahata taluka, Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra on 21 July 2003.

An appeal on the right to the ownership of the land in question, filed by the Bhoomi Hakk Andolan Samiti (Land Rights Movement committee), is pending with the Revenue Commissioner at the Nashik Puntamba. Also, In 2001, the Aurangabad bench of Mumbai High Court, in response to the writ petition filed by Bhoomi Hukka Andolan Samiti, had asked the government officials to follow the Supreme Court ruling which states that until the case is finally disposed of, the tribals shall not be evicted. Therefore, it is unjust to demolish the houses and rice fields of the Adivasis. However, the state is forcibly destroying the huts of the Adivasis and is continually in violation of the High Cort order.

I strongly urge you to order the government officials to halt plans to destroy the huts of the Adivasi tribals in Rahata, Kopergaon and Shrirampur Talukas according to the order of the High Court in response to the writ petition filed by the Adivasis who occupied these lands. Their right to housing should be protected until the legal process is finished. I also request you to take immediate action to resolve the issue of land ownership, and to uphold justice and protect the civil liberty and human rights of the Adivasi people.

Yours Sincerely



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Thank you.

Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC)

Document Type :
Urgent Appeal Update
Document ID :
UP-13-2004
Countries :
Issues :
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Extended Introduction: Urgent Appeals, theory and practice

A need for dialogue

Many people across Asia are frustrated by the widespread lack of respect for human rights in their countries.  Some may be unhappy about the limitations on the freedom of expression or restrictions on privacy, while some are affected by police brutality and military killings.  Many others are frustrated with the absence of rights on labour issues, the environment, gender and the like. 

Yet the expression of this frustration tends to stay firmly in the private sphere.  People complain among friends and family and within their social circles, but often on a low profile basis. This kind of public discourse is not usually an effective measure of the situation in a country because it is so hard to monitor. 

Though the media may cover the issues in a broad manner they rarely broadcast the private fears and anxieties of the average person.  And along with censorship – a common blight in Asia – there is also often a conscious attempt in the media to reflect a positive or at least sober mood at home, where expressions of domestic malcontent are discouraged as unfashionably unpatriotic. Talking about issues like torture is rarely encouraged in the public realm.

There may also be unwritten, possibly unconscious social taboos that stop the public reflection of private grievances.  Where authoritarian control is tight, sophisticated strategies are put into play by equally sophisticated media practices to keep complaints out of the public space, sometimes very subtly.  In other places an inner consensus is influenced by the privileged section of a society, which can control social expression of those less fortunate.  Moral and ethical qualms can also be an obstacle.

In this way, causes for complaint go unaddressed, un-discussed and unresolved and oppression in its many forms, self perpetuates.  For any action to arise out of private frustration, people need ways to get these issues into the public sphere.

Changing society

In the past bridging this gap was a formidable task; it relied on channels of public expression that required money and were therefore controlled by investors.  Printing presses were expensive, which blocked the gate to expression to anyone without money.  Except in times of revolution the media in Asia has tended to serve the well-off and sideline or misrepresent the poor.

Still, thanks to the IT revolution it is now possible to communicate with large audiences at little cost.  In this situation there is a real avenue for taking issues from private to public, regardless of the class or caste of the individual.

Practical action

The AHRC Urgent Appeals system was created to give a voice to those affected by human rights violations, and by doing so, to create a network of support and open avenues for action.  If X’s freedom of expression is denied, if Y is tortured by someone in power or if Z finds his or her labour rights abused, the incident can be swiftly and effectively broadcast and dealt with. The resulting solidarity can lead to action, resolution and change. And as more people understand their rights and follow suit, as the human rights consciousness grows, change happens faster. The Internet has become one of the human rights community’s most powerful tools.   

At the core of the Urgent Appeals Program is the recording of human rights violations at a grass roots level with objectivity, sympathy and competence. Our information is firstly gathered on the ground, close to the victim of the violation, and is then broadcast by a team of advocates, who can apply decades of experience in the field and a working knowledge of the international human rights arena. The flow of information – due to domestic restrictions – often goes from the source and out to the international community via our program, which then builds a pressure for action that steadily makes its way back to the source through his or her own government.   However these cases in bulk create a narrative – and this is most important aspect of our program. As noted by Sri Lankan human rights lawyer and director of the Asian Human Rights Commission, Basil Fernando:

"The urgent appeal introduces narrative as the driving force for social change. This idea was well expressed in the film Amistad, regarding the issue of slavery. The old man in the film, former president and lawyer, states that to resolve this historical problem it is very essential to know the narrative of the people. It was on this basis that a court case is conducted later. The AHRC establishes the narrative of human rights violations through the urgent appeals. If the narrative is right, the organisation will be doing all right."

Patterns start to emerge as violations are documented across the continent, allowing us to take a more authoritative, systemic response, and to pinpoint the systems within each country that are breaking down. This way we are able to discover and explain why and how violations take place, and how they can most effectively be addressed. On this path, larger audiences have opened up to us and become involved: international NGOs and think tanks, national human rights commissions and United Nations bodies.  The program and its coordinators have become a well-used tool for the international media and for human rights education programs. All this helps pave the way for radical reforms to improve, protect and to promote human rights in the region.