Saturday, December 12, 2015

Valley of Starvation Deaths

By J S Majumdar

THE undulating lush valleys of tea estates in West Bengal’s Darjeeling hills, Dooars and Terai regions are turning into valleys of death.

“Nearly 100 people died of starvation and acute malnutrition in the five closed tea gardens in Dooars since January this year with at least 10 of them dying last month itself”, reported Times of India on July 30, 2014, “The workers are paid only Rs 90 for eight hours a day to produce the expensive Darjeeling tea, while in Terai and Dooars the figure is Rs 95 a day.”

West Bengal Left Front meeting on November 4 condemned the ‘death rally’ of tea garden workers under the present regime. During the Left Front government’s time, the tea workers used to get support from the government, but now even their ration is getting closed, LF chairman Biman Basu said and called upon the Left trade unions to stand by the tea workers at this time of their acute distress.

Left Front government introduced payment of Rs 1500 each month to every worker, work under rural job scheme and ration consisting of food grains, pulses, oil and salt to the workers of tea gardens affected by closure.

G P Goenka’s 16 Duncan tea gardens in Dooars and Darjeeling "are in a state of limbo. They are neither closed nor open in the usual sense of the terms, with frightening consequences for the workers in the estates. This situation has added one more chapter to the shameful history of hunger in the tea industry," stated the report submitted to West Bengal government in September 2015 by Harsh Mandar, the Supreme Court's special commissioner on right to food. The report further states, "As far as medical facilities go, none of the estates had a functioning hospital…no medicines and/or other facilities in the hospital…Minimum first aid is also not available."

"Since April this year, the situation has become miserable in all these gardens. Wage payment and disbursement of bonus became irregular and yet, the state did not take any step,” said Ziaur Alam, general secretary of All India Plantation Workers Federation.

Out of the total 273 tea gardens in northern part of West Bengal, 22 tea gardens, including the largest conglomerate Duncan Group, are now closed affecting more than 35,000 workers. CITU general secretary Tapan Sen, MP during the Zero Hour in Rajya Sabha had raised the issue of closed and abandoned tea gardens in West Bengal. In reply, the minister of state for commerce and industry, Nirmala Sitharaman replied on September 30 that only 5 tea estates are closed and that the central government, state government and Tea Board had been working in coordination for re-opening of the estates and for the welfare of the workers. Since majority of the tea estates are illegally closed, hence, those are not counted by the governments and the workers are deprived of the relief introduced by the Left Front government for closed tea gardens.

The sorry state of affairs in the Tea Board, which has a substantial role to play in tea industry and workers welfare with a planned outlay of Rs 1425 Crs during the 12th Five Year Plan, can be gauged from Tapan Sen’s letter of October 14 to the minister Sitharaman saying that he, as an MP was elected as a member of the Tea Board in June, 2015; that since then the Tea Board has not been reconstituted with inclusion of MPs when half of the year has gone. The minister’s written assurance on October 21 of “necessary action will be taken” is yet to be implemented by the Modi government.

Non-payment of wages and starvation deaths led to another problem of large scale migration of workers from these closed tea gardens to states like Assam, Karnataka and Kerala. As Duncan gardens are remaining closed since late May, between 25-40 percent of workers have left tea gardens and their families in search of jobs elsewhere, reported Anisur Haque of Zilla Cha Bagan Worker’s Union of AITUC. Some of the workers’ colonies within the Duncan gardens have hardly any men left leaving behind starving women, children and the old.

G P Goenka’s Duncan tea gardens are unofficially closed since last May. At least 11 workers died of starvation in these tea gardens in few weeks since closure. Deccan Herald reported 26 such starvation deaths.

Goenka said that only one person had died at his Bagrakote tea estate and the rest of the allegations are “baseless canards”. Goenka “blamed the closure of his plantations in Dooars on non-availability of workers,” (!) reported the live mint.

Mamta Banerjee government shirked off all responsibilities by handing over to CID the entire matter of closure of 13 tea estates of Duncans Industries Ltd of G P Goenka and the starvation deaths. It is a cover up exercise and for continuation of status quo position in these tea gardens. After a prolong investigation, these cases will be thrown out by the criminal court saying that these come under labour laws and are to be dealt by special courts for labour.

LOW WAGES
For tea workers the minimum wage per day is Rs 97 in West Bengal; Rs 115 in Assam, Rs 206.22 in Tamil Nadu, Rs 228 in Karnataka and, after 17 days strike and settlement in October 2015 (Working Class, November, 2015), it is Rs 301 in Kerala. Wage revision is due in West Bengal in December 2015.

SURVEY REPORT
A survey report of all 273 tea estates in West Bengal has been kept under wraps by the labour department of the TMC government since May 2013. However, the gist of the reports has already been published by a number of organisations. The report reveals the deplorable conditions of the workers and their families leading to large number of starvation deaths while demand for tea and prices are soaring and prized gardens of Darjeeling tea are mostly exporting at high prices.

The survey shows that workmen of 35 tea estates are yet to be paid arrear wages as per last wage settlement. Workers of two tea estates are not paid their wages as per existing agreement.

11.25 lakh persons of 1.87 lakh families reside in these 273 tea estates in the Hills, Terai and Dooars region of North Bengal; of them 2.62 lakh plus are permanent workers.

During survey, 87 tea estates could not produce registration certificate or numbers under Plantation Labour Act, 1951. 185 tea estates could not provide certified standing orders under Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946. One DLC posted at Kolkata functions as certifying officer under Standing Orders Act. There is no labour welfare officer in 175 tea estates.

EPF NOT DEPOSITED
Under Employees Provident Fund Act, 1952, workers’ total EPF contribution, not deposited by 46 tea estates, amounts to more than Rs 17.14 Cr and due management’s EPF contribution in 55 estates amounts to more than Rs 33.79 Cr for the period 2009-10 and 2012-13.

Under the Plantation Labour Act, 1951 there are provisions for the employers, apart from wages, to provide housing, drinking water, conservancy, medical, educational, canteen, crèche, recreational facilities and compensation to members of families in case of housing accidents.

HOUSING
Out of 2.62 lakh permanent workers, only 1.66 lakh workers have been provided houses; 95,835 workers have not been provided houses. 6 tea estates have not provided even a single house to their workers; 51 tea estates could not provide houses to 50 percent or more of their workers. In 2012, 62 tea estates did not spend a single rupee on housing.

The permanent workers are considered as industrial workers and, hence, listed in APL category and not eligible for Indira Awas Yojana. 44 tea estates do not have latrines. Houses in 12 tea estates in Dooars have no electricity connection.

DRINKING WATER
The workers suffer badly in the absence of supply of drinking water. The workers in the tea estates of hill areas in Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong sub-divisions have severe scarcity of drinking water as most of the tea estates do not distribute water through pipelines and the workers rely mostly on spring water and Jhora as the only sources of water.

MEDICAL FACILITIES
Out of 273 tea estates, 107 estates do not have any hospital, 166 estates have no nurse, 85 estates do not have any dispensary and 10 estates neither have hospital nor dispensary. Only 56 estates have full time residential doctors, other 110 estates depend on visiting doctors. Primary health centres (PHC) exist only in 160. 113 estates do not have any PHC.

AGITATION
In this background, in one of the biggest mobilisations in action, 4.5 lakh tea garden workers are expected to participate in 96 hours relay fast at 45 places on November 27-30 and strike on December 1 in response to the call of the united forum of tea trade unions in West Bengal.

The Bengal Platform of Mass Organisations (BPMO) in their current statewide jathas in November, while covering each electoral booth area, are also raising the issues of the plight of tea garden workers. 

Tea Gardens Turned Killing Field in Bengal

KOLKATA: LAKSHMAN Santal finally got something to eat, a packet of puffed rice and boiled peas. Not fresh enough though, but this meagre and nearly-rotten food is his lifeline for at least two more days. Santal, a worker of Bagrakote Tea Estate in Jalpaiguri, was served this food as part of “sarad” (funeral ceremony) of his wife. Just because his wife Mukti Santal, 44, died of starvation a few days ago, and the neighbours arranged a kind of ritual for her that Lakshman could smell of something called ‘food’ after long hours of starvation.

This is not an exceptional human tragedy in tea gardens in West Bengal now. Tea gardens have become virtual killing fields for thousands of workers and their family members with every 24 hours bringing a death-news from here and there.

Bagrakote, owned by Duncan group, has witnessed more than 30 deaths in the last six months. This is one of the 16 closed gardens of the same group. The story is more or less the same in many such closed or formally ‘open’ but virtually closed gardens in Terai and Doors region in three northern districts of Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling.

The humanitarian disaster is stark in gardens taken over by the state government. In Red Bank, the number of deaths is 72 from 2013 while it has touched 40 in Surendarnagar. Chronicles of starvation, severe crisis of food, complete collapse of basic amenities mark the seven closed gardens, run by the state government. There has been no effort on the part of administration to run these estates, neither providing workers with minimum resources for sustenance. Mamata Banerjee government, meanwhile, sold five gardens to private owners threatening the security of the workers. The private owners have already started retrenchment.

That a regime of crony capitalism has taken control of the state is further proved by the closure of six more gardens by Alchemist group, owned by TMC member of the parliament, KD Singh.

Nearly 25 thousand workers of Duncan group are facing extreme crisis while the owners have siphoned off money in other businesses.

There are 290 gardens in the Dooars (Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar) and Terai (Darjeeling plains and Uttar Dinajpur) with an estimated production of 221 million kg, providing employment to over 2,14,000 people. Since April this year, a large section of tea garden workers have not received their salaries, rations, not even drinking water and the heath centres in the estates have closed in series.

The callousness of the state government has become clear when they failed to provide minimum support to the starving workers through rural development schemes or providing temporary workdays in government projects. There is absolutely no planning for such safeguards.


The workers are on warpath. Joint Forum of 24 trade unions has initiated sustained movement demanding basic facilities and opening of closed gardens. Workers observed relay hunger strike in the last week of November and observed a strike on December 1.

Saturday, November 14, 2015

Brutal Attack on Democracy in West Bengal

By Debasish Chakraborty

Peoples Democracy,   October 11, 2015

Kolkata: ‘DACOITY in Daylight’,  ‘Blood on the streets as Bengal goes to the polls in civic elections’, ‘Hide, Didi, Hide’, ‘ Unabated Lumpenraj’, ‘Elders stand up to goons of Trinamool in Bidhannagar’- these are some of the headlines in leading newspapers on October 4. They were reporting polls in three Corporations in West Bengal the day before. Paragraphs after paragraphs were written how the armed gangs of the ruling party practically invaded localities, particularly in Bidhannagar, and captured booths after fierce attacks on voters.

All elections, including Pachayat elections in 2013,  Lok Sabha elections in 2014, Municipalities polls including Kolkata Corporation in April this year were marred by widespread rigging, booth capturing and violence. Readers of Peoples Democracy would remember horrible facts of how TMC captured hundreds of booths in Kolkata and North 24 Parganas in particular in April. In many areas, the ruling party candidate got even 98 percent of the polled votes! Elections in Bengal have become farce to a degree never imagined in any place in the country.

The apprehension was there this time too when Bidhannagar, Asansol and Bali (as newly added part of Howrah Corporation) went to polls. In Bidhannagar, Left Front candidates were threatened, some of them were forced to remain indoors throughout the campaign period. Left activists were attacked, campaign materials destroyed. Three days before the elections, gangs of TMC activists, mostly rowdies were brought into Bidhannagar from different areas. They were kept in government-owned stadium, lodges and hotels. They were brought in broad daylight in buses and cars. Nothing was done to ensure peaceful polling despite repeated appeals to administration. In fact, police was accomplice to the whole design.

On the polling day, these gangs began to take control from the morning. They began to beat up Left polling agents, chasing away voters, thrashing residents near polling booths, roaming in gangs and converting the whole municipality area into a terror zone. The people of the state were shocked to watch this blatant and violent attack on democracy in television from the morning. Scores were injured, including elderly voters and women who dared to stand in the queue.

By 10 am, it was clear that an unprecedented rigging was taking place in Bidhannagar. In most wards, opposition agents or supporters were chased away. Roads were deserted and outsiders were on rampage with the help of the police. The wrath turned towards the media persons covering these scenes. One after another journalist was attacked; many of them were beaten up severely. Altogether 20 journalists and photographers from television and print media were attacked. Some of them had to be hospitalised. Women journalists were threatened of dire consequences including rape. Cameras were destroyed. The attacks were led by the TMC MLAs. Never before had such a large scale attack on media happened anywhere in the country. The real face of Mamata Banerjee rule was thoroughly exposed to the entire nation.

Meanwhile in Asansol, many booths were captured, though the resistance was far more intense in Raniganj, Jamuria and Asansol city. Coal mafias led attacks there with connivance from police. In Bali, people were chased away from booths and no semblance of election was witnessed.

Only exception was Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad, where three tier panchayats went to polls. United vigil from the people forced the ruling party hoodlums to back away and a peaceful voting took place there.

WAVES OF PROTEST

The ferocious attack on democratic rights of the people shattered the conscience of the state and wide protests took place. The Left Front demanded a re-poll in three Corporations. Immediate sit-in in front of the state election commission had started. The Left front also gave a call for Bidhannagar Bandh on October 5, which was withdrawn only after state election commissioner declared deferment of counting for an indefinite period.

More farcical incidents were in store, though. After the postponement of the counting, TMC activists led by senior state ministers stormed the state election commission’s office. The election commissioner Sushanta Ranjan Upadhyay proved himself a loyal follower of the chief minister throughout his tenure and never exercised the legal powers to protect the sanctity of free and fair elections. He was widely criticised as a ‘stooge’ of the ruling party. However, with widespread criticism from all quarters, the election commissioner tried to deflect the anger in a limited manner. Even that was not permitted and senior ministers threatened him with dire consequences. The election commissioner was forced to first rescind his order and then resign altogether. He put in his papers to the governor and within hours the transport secretary of the state was appointed as new commissioner, simultaneously holding both the posts. Till the filing of this report, the entire episode remains undecided.

The state rose in protest. Rallies and protest marches took place in all corners of the state against the murder of democracy. The media persons took out a huge procession in Kolkata and demanded immediate arrest of the culprits. Renowned intellectuals issued a strong statement condemning the attack on democracy. Signatories included Mrinal Sen, Soumitra Chatterjee, poet Sankha Ghosh, film directors Srijit Mukherjee, Aparna Sen, actor Abir Chatterjee and former state election commissioner Mira Pande.

A WEEK OF AUTHORITARIAN BRUTALITY

In fact, the first week of October has exposed the authoritarian nature of the TMC regime in a brutal form. Nearly 300 Left activists were injured, many of them severely, when police attacked a rally in Kolkata on October 1. Police brutally charged batons on the rally which was proceeding towards Kolkata police headquarters, protesting the deteriorating law and order in the city and hundreds of false cases. The rally was attacked nearly a kilometre away from the police headquarters at Lalbazar. Police was determined to spill blood and attacked the marchers without any provocation and warning.

CPI(M) Central Committee member and CITU state secretary Dipak Dasgupta, Polit Bureau member Md Salim, Party state committee member Manab Mukherjee, Rupa Bagchi, senior RSP leader Sukumar Ghosh  and front ranking leaders of Kolkata district were among those injured. Many were hospitalised. Many of them were hit on the head. CPI(M) activist Bishwanath Kundu was grievously injured and he had to go through an emergency brain operation.

Lalbazar march was organised by the Left Front in Kolkata. Processions started from three points. Senior Left Front leaders like Biman Basu and Suryakanta Misra led these processions. Thousands of people marched towards Lalbazar. At a point, police suddenly charged towards the rally. They began lathicharge without any provocation. Left leaders tried to persuade them to restrain but without any effect. Even after the first attack, the protesters refused to turn back and then came the second spur of attack. Large police force along with the RAF was used in this attack. Women protesters were beaten up by police too. Many senior and aged protesters were mercilessly beaten. The campaign vehicle of the Left Front was vandalised by the police.

A delegation of Left leaders, meanwhile was scheduled to submit memorandum to the police commissioner. But they refused doing so, protesting the brutal attack. Suryakanta Misra and other leaders rushed to the spot and a road blockade started. It continued for hours.

CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury condemned this barbaric attack in a huge rally in Mathurapur on October 2. While addressing the public meeting in connection with the SFI state conference, Yechury warned the ruling party that such attacks on democratic movements in 1970s preceded the formation of the Left Front government in the state. The people of West Bengal would never allow such brutality and would respond in a fitting manner.

On October 4, thousands of people participated in a protest march in Kolkata against the police brutality and rigging in the civic polls.


Saturday, September 26, 2015

Political Repression in West Bengal Today : INTERVIEW WITH SURJYA KANTA MISHRA


The Marxist, XXXI 2, April–June 2015 

The Left movement in West Bengal – the most powerful contingent of the Left movement in India – today faces intense repression by the State Government led by the Trinamul Congress (TMC) and by the ruling classes in general. Dr. Surjya Kanta Mishra, member of the Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), holds the two crucial positions of Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly and and Secretary of the State Committee of the CPI(M). Dr Mishra gave this interview on the state of political repression in West Bengal to Madhav Tipu Ramachandran on May 19, 2015. The interview was conducted over three hours, during a journey by car from Kolkata to Nadia. In the interview, Dr Mishra speaks on what he characterises as a three-pronged attack on democracy and the people in West Bengal, an attack whose victims go beyond the Left and Left parties; on the attack on Left forces in the State; on comparing the current repression with the period of semi-fascist terror in the State in the 1970s; and on the need and prospects for a resurgence of the Left in the State and in India.


MTR: What is the nature of political repression in West Bengal today?
SKM: The repression that we have been facing in West Bengal today, four years after the changing of the government, is a multi-pronged one. There have been three types of attack against the people of the State: first, an attack on democracy and democratic institutions; secondly, an attack on peoples’ livelihoods, and thirdly, an attack on secularism in the State.
Concurrently, there has been a concerted and violent attack on the CPI(M) and the Left Front.

MTR: What has the Left had to confront?
SKM:  Around  170  comrades  have  been  killed  during  this  period.  More  importantly,  thousands  of comrades have been brutally attacked and denied hospital treatment, their complaints have not been registered, and many of them — more than 5000 by my estimate — will be physically handicapped for the rest of their lives.
More than 1500 offices of the Party, the Left Front and mass organisations have been attacked, and either captured and converted to Trinamul Congress (TMC) offices or put under lock and key.
More than 100,000 comrades have been implicated in false cases.
Many people have been forced out of their places of residence, more than 51,000 at the last count. When people return to their places of residence after a certain period of time, say one or two years, they are not allowed to speak to anyone, not allowed to leave their houses, their mobile phones and landlines are taken away, and they are not even allowed to drop letters into a post box. They are forced to pay fines to goondas, often to the tune of several lakhs.(our estimate is that Rs 50 crores have been taken in total by means of extortion in the State)

MTR: How does the extortion take place?
SKM: The money is taken after threats and leaving no paper trail, although we do have a few documents. Where persons who have been forced to leave their home do not return, members of their families are sometimes tortured. The goons say: “Tell him (or her) to come back, live here, pay the fine; send him (or her) the message that otherwise their family will not be allowed to live here in peace.”

MTR: You described the first kind of attack as on democracy and democratic institutions.
SKM: What I have described is part of the larger attack on the forces of democracy in society.
It  is  said  that  in  parliamentary  democracy,  the  House  belongs  to  the  Opposition,  that  is,  the Opposition must take the lead in addressing issues within the Legislature. In West Bengal, we publish an account every year of how many questions we asked, how many remained unanswered, how our adjournment motions were rejected, how no time was spent on non-official discussion and non-official resolutions, how resolutions were passed solely by the Government — no one else — and how our resolutions were thrown out.
The Press Corner in the Assembly is no longer open to the Leader of Opposition when the House is not in session.

MTR: What exactly is the Press Corner?
SKM: During our time in Government, we organised that a Press Corner be opened, in order that any member of the House be able to meet the Press and discuss policies and open issues to debate. As a Government, we believed in keeping ourselves accountable to the people via the Press. We used to regularly go to the Press Corner and discuss our policies.
The  Press  Corner  usually  has  to  close  by  5  p.m.,  and  one  day,  a  few  months  after  the  new Government had come to power, an accusation was levelled against me to the effect that I had exceeded the deadline by five minutes. Although I am sure that I did not overstep the time limit, even if I had, it is hardly cause to close the Press Corner to the Leader of Opposition. They have closed down the Press Corner for three and a half years now, and whenever the Assembly is not in session, I have to arrange Press Conferences in the street outside (although I can, of course, hold them in the Party office as well). Ministers can hold press conferences in their offices, but ordinary MLAs of any political party should have the right to speak out to the press, which is why the Press Corner was built in the first place.

MTR: There have been other incidents in the Legislative Assembly.
SKM: These are manifestations of the new regime. When we moved an adjournment motion in the house for a discussion about the Sarada chit fund scam, a few of our MLAs were beaten up and injured inside the House by ruling party MLAs. The injured included a woman, Debalina Hembram, a former Minister, who was thrown between bench and desk in the Treasury benches. The other injured MLA, Gauranga Chatterjee, our State Committee member, sustained a fracture in the skull, but the government hospital to which he was admitted said that there was no injury, and refused to admit him. He was then admitted to a private hospital and the CT scan he undertook subsequently revealed his fracture clearly. Nothing further could be done about this, for if something happens within the House, the Police will not take action and so nothing was done.
Thus, even the legislature, which is said to be the place where the Government in a parliamentary democracy is accountable to the people, has failed to discharge its constitutional responsibilities.

MTR: Are these attacks directed solely at the Left?
SKM: No, the attacks that were first aimed at us are now aimed at the entire Opposition — as well as at members of the ruling party itself. I told the Chief Minister that at least 50 people of her party have been killed by her own people, and I believe they do not even have a record of them.
The historical experience is that when the attack on democracy begins, nobody is spared, not even members of the ruling party. In the chit fund case, TMC MPs and other ruling party loyalists are now being disowned or being forced to leave by the party as its leaders believe that these people may have divulged sensitive information to the CPI(M), or to the courts or police.

MTR: What about other democratic institutions?
SKM: All of them are under considerable pressure. The local bodies and all the authority they had are under attack. Elections are rigged, people outside the ruling party are not allowed to submit nominations, and even if they do manage to submit them, are then forced to withdraw their candidatures. Co-operatives are  similarly  besieged  (have  been  “captured”)  –  no  elections  are  held,  and  they  are  run  by “administrators.” There is no campus democracy for students or teachers. Student elections are under attack, and the right of students to form unions denied. The right of workers to strike has been taken away.
Other democratic organisations, such as the constitutional bodies, are under attack. There is no Chairperson of the Human Rights Commission (HRC), because when the Commission delivered certain judgements  or  recommendations  unpalatable  to  the  government,  they  found  a  way  to  remove  its Chairman. Thereafter, they appointed the former Director General to the HRC, an appointment that I opposed as a member of the Selection Committee. I stated that never has a police officer with several human rights violations sub judice been appointed to a Human Rights Commission. He now acts as de facto Chairman of the Commission – which is a reflection the state of human rights in our State.
The State Election Commission has not been spared either, as the government’s war with the State Election Commission on the issue of holding panchayat elections showed. A Sessions Court judge has had to come to us for safety and security, which shows that there are members of the judiciary who are under personal threat. The Central Bureau of Investigation has had to ask the High Court to transfer the case out of Alipore court, since they did not expect justice from the Alipore court.

MTR: You described the second kind of attack as being one on people’s livelhoods.
SKM: People are denied wages after working on the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, denied work when funds are available, and sometimes denied employment on the basis of political loyalty, anyone but a supporter of the ruling party being unacceptable for employment. Wages are sometimes withheld for six months or even a year, thus violating the terms of the law.
Farmers are not paid the procurement prices declared by the Government, and mechanisms for output procurement are not in place. The agrarian situation is deteriorating every day. There have been farmer suicides in West Bengal, as had not occurred in the 34 years of Left Front rule preceding the period in power of this Government.

MTR: Are the issues of livelihoods singularly issues of rural areas?
SKM: No, in recent times, the industrial sphere has been characterised by closures in traditional sectors (for example in the tea and jute industries) and in other sectors, and by a failure to start new industries. People are thrown out of employment because factories are being closed and because of the hooliganism of the ruling party in the factory sector. Today’s newspaper says that the Chief Minister has announced that seven jute factories are to reopen. These mills had become unviable and unable to function because hooligans of the ruling party had demanded ever greater amounts of money as extortion. The Chief Minister has ultimately had to ask them to see that the factories reopen. A temporary change in the situation does not, however, reflect what is happening every day everywhere else; her words in this case are nothing more than lip service, with nothing actually changing in the field.
Members of the business community have begun to complain that they are unable to run businesses because they have to pay this ‘extortion fee’. The insurance scheme that we introduced while in Government has not been implemented properly. The Government is not paying the premium amount to which it is committed, and a sum of to Rs 69-70 crores has been left unpaid by the government in the last four years (a substantial proportion of this relates to crop insurance). Government employees and teachers have not been paid their dearness allowance; up to 48 per cent — a proportion almost unheard of — of their wages remain unpaid, and the failure to pay wages now affects around a million people.

MTR: You described the “third prong” of the attack as being on secularism.
SKM: There has never been any serious incident of communal tension in this State since Partition. During the 34 years of Left Front rule, whenever there was communal tension in the country, the army was swiftly deployed and political steps were taken to ensure that such tension did not flare up in the State.
For example, when anti-Sikh riots swept the country after Indira Gandhi’s death, not a single case was registered in West Bengal. Similarly, after the Babri Masjid incident, the firm secular stance of the government prevented communal violence here in West Bengal. Our political ability and the mobilisation of people ideologically and organisationally against communal violence made sure communal forces were unable to raise their swords.
A dangerous situation is now developing in the State, with the ruling party at the Centre taking the Hindutva line and the ruling party in the State giving shelter to Jama’atul Mujahideen fundamentalists from the other side of the border. The government in Bangladesh is in pursuit of them and they find protection here under the ruling party and its administration. With respect to the incidents at Khagragarh, subsequent to the investigation carried out by the intelligence agencies, the political people who sheltered the guilty have not been apprehended; in fact, the administration has gone into denial mode and has destroyed evidence of the blast in Khagragarh. No one in the ruling party has been booked. There is a tacit understanding between the two ruling parties, with the ruling party at the Centre and the ruling party in the State taking opposite sides, thus further polarising the two communities. It is one of the greatest dangers of the present time that, in a State that had not seen political parties taking the side of this or that community for so long, the left and democratic and secular forces are attempting to be made irrelevant, and that the people are being divided along communal lines. Even during the semi-fascist terror of the 1970s or during the days of the Emergency, this sort of communal tension was never seen in West Bengal.

MTR: How would you characterise the differences between the present situation and the semi-fascist terror in West Bengal in the 1970s?
SKM: There are many differences between the two periods of political repression. The 1970s were a different time, the situations at the State, national, and international levels were different — and history does not repeat itself. The attack then came at a time when the CPI(M) and associated Left Parties were growing very fast. In terms of electoral performance, we had 40+ Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) in 1967, 80+ MLAs in 1969, and 110+ MLAs in 1971. It was a fast growing force that came under sharp attack during the semifascist terror, notwithstanding the rigged 1972 elections. After 1972, we boycotted the State legislature for five years, a period during which we depended solely on extra- parliamentary activities. We won only 14 seats after that election, down from around 114; the election of 1972 was an one that made the term “rigging” enter the political lexicon in a new way. When elections were held in 1977, the Left Front achieved a majority of almost two-thirds; it had great popular support, and remained in power for 34 years, its share of the popular vote always remaing between 40 and 50 per cent. In the 2009 and 2011 elections, we saw a definite decline in the Left vote-share. The elections of 2009 and 2011 were not rigged as were the elections of 1972. These two elections gave the popular mandate to the ruling party; in other words, we were not, in 2009 and 2011, a growing party as we had been in the 1970s.

MTR: Are there other differences? What about the number and method of deaths? Are they similar?
SKM: The number of casualties now is not comparable to the number in those years since the nature of the attack has changed: more attacks, fewer deaths, more handicapping injuries than fatalities — a change, therefore, in the tactics of attack. The attack is also much more extensive or widespread than in the 1970s. The semifascist terror was concentrated in urban areas in a few districts and in certain select rural areas. The current political repression is mostly in rural areas and covers all districts barring one or two, more repression though in a different form.
The international contexts are also different. The Vietnam war ultimately succeeded, all of South Vietnam and Saigon were taken over by the National Liberation Front, and the socialist camp and the international community had not been overwhelmed by imperialism as they have been now. That was the time of the Bangladesh liberation movement, and the Indo-Soviet Treaty signed by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi brought a certain unity to the fight in Bangladesh.

MTR: And you mentioned the issue of the State’s secular fabric.
SKM: Yes, in spite of the attacks of the democracy, communal forces did not gain ground. In Bengal, the entire people were united behind the liberation forces in Bangladesh, irrespective of which side of the border they were on. Whether a person was Hindu or Muslim, the shared the opinion that the Razakars were the enemies of the people. The situation has changed. The erstwhile Razakars, now part of the fundamentalist forces, are crossing over and being provided shelter on this side of the border.

MTR: What are the tasks – the battles — that confront a new political generation today?
SKM: It is a new experience that the present generation is going through, and an important one. Our generation had the experience of fighting semi-fascist terror and working during the Emergency. The young today must gain experience in fighting in the new global situation and the new correlation of world forces in favour of imperialism, of confronting globalisation and neoliberalism and their impact on national policies, identity politics, and reactionary post-modernist philosophies that are being propagated on a global scale. There is thus a great change in the situation — our generation did not have the experience of confronting these challenges simultaneously. The younger generation faces a multi-pronged challenge, difficult and complicated at every level, globally, nationally and in individual States. I believe they will gain more experience than we did during our lifetimes.

MTR: And what, in that context, are the prospects for a resurgence of the Left?
SKM: I shall not go into the global dimensions of this question, although the fundamental objective of establishing a socialist and democratic order in the country is associated with the international situation and what other countries are going through — and there is much need to learn from each other’s experiences. I believe that there are objective conditions for a successful resurgence of the Left, whether globally or in the State of West Bengal.

MTR: What would you say about West Bengal in particular?
SKM: We first noticed the erosion in our support base after the panchayat elections of 2008 (that is, even before the Lok Sabha elections of 2009). In spite of the changes that have taken place in elections thereafter, we believe that there has been no fundamental change in the correlation of the forces in the State since then. Notwithstanding some erosion, the ruling party continues to have majority support in terms of its popular base. Now they have taken to force, and are rigging the elections to distort the actual correlation of votes in the State out of the fear that if there is a free and fair election, their vote share will decline substantially and the Left Front’s share will increase, and although they would probably not lose the majority of votes, their margin of victory would decrease. They are apprehensive particularly in the areas where the Left are strong and able to offer some resistance.

MTR: What are the positive developments in this regard?
SKM: The phrase that the bourgeois press loves to repeat — “The Left continues to bleed” – can no longer be made to appear self-evident, because, going by the municipal election results, in terms of popular support, the Left have been able to stop the erosion. Siliguri, but not Siliguri alone, has shown that it is possible to counter the terror and beat the TMC. That is the positive development, and has happened for the first time after four years.

MTR: What about the threat of the BJP’s rise in Bengal?
SKM: That is the other important development, and manifested in the municipal election results. about a year back, there was a campaign that the BJP was emerging as the real alternative to the TMC in the State. We said firmly at the time that there is no alternative to the Left, and that statement has been vindicated by the municipal election results. The threat of the BJP emerging as the alternative to the TMC has been proved beyond doubt to not be the case, as the BJP has suffered a considerable erosion in support. Be it Congress or BJP, the other parties remain behind the Left in terms of vote share — that is the other important fact to have been established.
But when all said and done, the situation is so complicated and difficult that one should not become complacent as a result of the reduction in the BJP’s vote share. One must perceive that communal forces continue to pose a great threat to the unity of people and to secularism, and that that threat should never be underestimated, for communalism cannot be gauged just by vote shares; it has the potential to do severe damage to the state’s secular fabric.

MTR: What do you conclude from these recent developments?
SKM: Our conclusion is that, in spite of its complications, the present situation is one in which there is potential for the Left to forge ahead and grow further. This is evident from the mood of the people, and the successful resistance to attack in the last municipal elections, the attack itself having been launched by the ruling party in connivance with the local administration (with the State Election Commission pleading its helplessness). It is also evident from the fact that resistance is something that has developed almost spontaneously, with women at the forefront of the struggle.

So objective conditions that have developed that are favourable for the Left to project itself as the real alternative in the battle for democracy and for secularism and against the increasing attack on people’s livelihoods. What we consider our most important task is to see that the subjective conditions are focused on organising local and broad-based struggle, uniting the Left and the people, and people and parties associated with the secular and democratic struggle, to build up organisation and not to depend solely on spontaneity. The objective situation occurs independently of individual human will; at the same time, the subjective can be used to take advantage of the situation and overcome the complexities of the objective situation — and that depends on our effort and our will. It is the Left and only the Left only that can provide the alternative in this battle for democracy.

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC): Confusion on Landlessness in Kerala & West Bengal

By A Bheemeshwar Reddy and R Ramakumar

Vol. XXXIX No. 28, July 19, 2015

THE Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) was carried out between June 30, 2011 and December 31, 2011 by the ministry of rural development, government of India. The three stated objectives of this Census were to enable state governments to prepare below poverty line (BPL) lists, to arrive at a caste-wise enumeration of the population, and to ascertain the socio-economic and educational status of the enumerated castes. Provisional results from the information collected from households in rural India – including data on socio-economic variables such as the castes of households, the main sources of household incomes, and land ownership – were released on July 3, 2015. The data on different variables now released by the government have not yet fully been disaggregated by caste and gender. 
The SECC results show a very high share of landless households among rural households in West Bengal and Kerala. Since Kerala and West Bengal are justly famous for the redistributive land reform carried out by Left governments, these high figures for landlessness need some investigation.

DEFINITION OF LANDLESSNESS IN THE SECC
The first question is definitional: How does the SECC define landowning by a rural household? The SECC definition does not consider homestead land owned by households when assessing landownership status of a household. This in effect means that the SECC data fails to capture those landless households who received homestead land as part of the land redistribution programmes in these two states. This would also include beneficiaries who received crop land, including garden land, on which they later built homes, thus converting their plots (by definition) into homestead land. As we show below, this partly explains why, according to the SECC, the share of landless households is high in the states of Kerala and West Bengal.

HOMESTEAD LAND IN KERALA AND WEST BENGAL
The most important element of public action in Kerala after 1956-57 was the implementation of land reforms across all regions, initiated by the Communist Party of India-led government. The impact of land reforms went beyond changes in land tenure; land reforms also became the “centrepiece of the programme for social and economic progress” for which Kerala is famous. 
There is general consensus among scholars that land reform in Kerala was most successful with respect to tenancy abolition and the distribution of homestead lands. The component of land reform that directly benefited landless agricultural workers was the distribution of homestead land. A significant number of landless agricultural workers received ownership rights over the plots of homesteads. Official data show that between 1957 and 1996, about 5,28,000 households in the state were issued homestead ownership certificates. 
The provision to distribute homestead land to agricultural workers was added to the land reform legislation by the CPI(M)-led government in 1967 once it had become clear that the extent of ceiling-surplus land available for redistribution would be smaller than expected. Between 1959 (when the Communist ministry was dismissed) and 1967 (when the second Communist-led ministry came to power), landlords supported by the Congress party had transferred substantial tracts of land. The Kerala Land Reforms (Amendment) Act, 1970 gave landless agricultural worker households the option of buying, in panchayats or townships, 10 cents (0.10 acres) of land each. The payment was to be 25 percent of the market value in normal cases and 12.5 percent of the market value if the landowner possessed land above the ceiling. Fifty percent of the amount finally payable was subsidised by the state, with the remaining 50 percent to be paid in 12 annual instalments (which were never paid). Thus, most agricultural worker households in the state received plots of homestead land free of cost. 
Homestead cultivation is a characteristic feature of Kerala’s agriculture, distinguishing it from systems of crop cultivation in many other Indian states. While the average size of a homestead plot is smaller, the cropping pattern in a homestead is more diverse than a plot of garden land. Mixed cropping pattern in homesteads allows for intensive forms of cultivation in small landholdings. The major crops grown in homesteads are perennial and annual crops, such as coconut, arecanut, pepper, cashew, banana, and vegetables. Research on homestead cultivation has drawn attention to its commercial and nutritional importance to the household and its ecological significance in promoting biodiversity. Further, crop cultivation in homesteads is very often combined with livestock rearing – cows, buffalos, goats, and poultry. 
The share of land under homestead farming in Kerala has grown, and the share of area under garden land has declined, owing to the demand for land to build houses.Over the years, many small holdings have been subdivided into smaller and smaller homesteads. 
In West Bengal, about one million (10 lakh) households received homestead land during the period of the Left Front government (1977 to 2011). 
The SECC has completely excluded homesteads from consideration. 

LANDLESSNESS: NSS DATA VERSUS SECC DATA
The effect of not counting homesteads in land ownership is illustrated by a comparison of the SECC data on landlessness (that is, the percentage of households with no land) with the data from the National Sample Survey (NSS) Employment and Unemployment Surveys of 2011-12 (EUS). The EUS definition of land ownership differs from that of SECC in only one respect, that is, the former includes homestead land in its calculation of household land holdings. It is clear from Table 1 that once homestead land ownership is included, the ranking of states by percentage of landless people changes substantially. According to NSS data, Kerala and West Bengal are not among the states with the highest percentage of landless households. 

Table 1 Households with no land, NSS and Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC)
NSS Employment and Unemployment Survey, 2011-12
SECC-2011
States
% of households with no land
Rank
States
% of households with no land
Rank
Uttaranchal
13.42
1
Andhra Pradesh
73
1
Andhra Pradesh
11.65
2
Tamil Nadu
73
2
Himachal Pradesh
10.01
3
Kerala
72
3
Tamil Nadu
8.7
4
West Bengal
70
4
Haryana
8.6
5
Tripura
68
5
Assam
8.31
6
Punjab
65
6
Maharashtra
8.14
7
Bihar
65
7
Karnataka
8.1
8
Telangana
58
8
Gujarat
7.16
9
Assam
57
9
Chhattisgarh
7.08
10
Haryana
56
10
West Bengal
6.81
11
Madhya Pradesh
55
11
Kerala
5.88
12
Gujarat
55
12
Orissa
5.12
13
Odisha
54
13
Jammu & Kashmir
4.8
14
Maharashtra
53
14
Punjab
4.38
15
Chhattisgarh
47
15
Jharkhand
4.14
16
Karnataka
47
16
Madhya Pradesh
3.75
17
Uttar Pradesh
45
17
Rajasthan
3.26
18
Uttarakhand
43
18
Uttar Pradesh
3.16
19
Rajasthan
38
19
Tripura
2.07
20
Jharkhand
38
20
Bihar
1.07
21
Jammu & Kashmir
22
21



Himachal Pradesh
22
22

DEMOGRAPHIC PRESSURE
Further, demographic pressure on land is higher in rural West Bengal and rural Kerala than most other states (Table 2). The average area per household is relatively low in the states, and the subdivision of family holdings has accelerated the process of fragmentation. 

Table 2 Average extent of land owned per household in hectares
State
Land owned per household (in ha.)
Rank
Rajasthan
1.483
1
Madhya Pradesh
1.122
2
Maharashtra
0.903
3
Karnataka
0.851
4
Chhattisgarh
0.81
5
Gujarat
0.804
6
Haryana
0.764
7
Telangana
0.705
8
Punjab
0.632
9
Assam
0.631
10
Uttar Pradesh
0.493
11
Andhra Pradesh
0.491
12
Jharkhand
0.488
13
Jammu Kashmir
0.432
14
Himachal Pradesh
0.397
15
Odisha
0.38
16
Tamil Nadu
0.348
17
Tripura
0.334
18
Uttarakhand
0.317
19
Bihar
0.242
20
Kerala
0.209
21
West Bengal
0.174
22
Source: Table 1.1, NSS KI(70/18.1): “Key Indicators of Land and Livestock Holdings in India,” page A3  

UNDER-REPORTING IN WEST BENGAL

We have clear evidence from primary survey data that the extent of household land holdings in West Bengal villages has been substantially under-reported by respondent households in the SECC. 
In India, as is well known, many households that should, by reasonable criteria, be classified as poor are classified under the general category of above poverty line (APL). This is despite their being clearly poor in respect of one or many criteria, for instance, in terms of employment and per capita income, food consumption, housing, or access to education and health facilities. 
The division of the population in to APL and BPL is an exclusionary policy measure. Its objective is to create target groups for certain policies, thus excluding large deserving sections from the benefits of those policies. Respondents to government surveys are now reluctant to disclose actual land holdings for fear that full disclosure will push them up to APL status and therefore out of the purview of various government schemes. Thus, many households with small or tiny holdings of land have reported no land at all because of a fear of unjustly being declared to be “above the poverty line.” In West Bengal, the classification of households into APL and BPL categories – and the exclusion of households from the BPL category – has been marked by misclassification and political vindictiveness.

In three villages in West Bengal, we compared unit-level data from the SECC with household data from surveys conducted by the Foundation for Agrarian Studies (FAS) in 2010 and 2015. These three villages are in three different agro-ecological regions of the state. Landlessness as reported in SECC was significantly higher than in the FAS surveys. In fact, the differences between the figures for these villages were as high as 16, 30, and 37 percentage points. (Table 3).

Table 3 Landless households as a proportion of all households, SECC and FAS surveys in percent
Village
Landless households as a share of all households according to
SECC
FAS village survey
Village 1
68
39
Village 2
54
38
Village 3
59
22


In brief, definitional problems with the SECC survey and people’s legitimate anxiety to avoid being excluded from the benefits of target-oriented schemes, and consequent under-reporting of landholdings, has led to misleading conclusions from the SECC data about landlessness in Kerala and West Bengal.