You are on page 1of 8

Learning from Model block process For a society based on equality and torture free environment it is necessary to establishment

civil and political rights in context with social, economic and cultural rights.
The work under the two pilot projects on testimonial therapy focused with most marginalized people of the community such as Musahar, tribals, indigenous group and Dalit. In which regular contact were established with the few survivors Pintu, Chotelal, Hublal, Katwaru, Ajai Singh, Ramlal Patel and few others still are connected and work for human rights as human rights defenders. At the starting of this project there was a thought that those selected under the project have been working in the past too and were connected to the localities even before us. They were to be led. But with regular interaction and meetings and dialogues an understanding was developed and coordination was achieved which brought forth a better system. This is an ideal team for model village. The team develop a guidance. developed society in process. members who were associated since past contributed two days to activist manual to bring about a better understanding and future In the last one and a half year activists of the organization have understanding and it has brought about sustainability. Closed model village process is now showing up to start in open society

Status of the services provided in the model villages are as follows: S. no 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Activities Testimony Followup Folk School Honor Ceremony Meta - Legal Legal Medical assistance Transport assistance Other welfare assistance Community meeting Identification of case Achieved 318 155 51 24 400 54 09 03 03 193 379

12

RTI

87

It has been working in such a manner that it brings the impact of a non violence social transformation having a silent ongoing revolution. The impact of ripple effect is in all directions. An example: During visits to villages women folk are often seen talking that this particular issue was explained to us in a former meeting and we discussed it with men later on. On the other hand if this is looked upon as cases then groups of victims often make crowd at the office to raise their voice. (On several occasion they say lets go there as this is the only human rights organization in the state that supports fight for justice.) a common saying among victims, Sanjay Yadav, Nandlal. Example of few survivors reaches to office: 1) SC/ST cases Nandlal, Munni and Guddu, Phoolpur, Musahar Basti 2) Bonded labour Shakra, Jalalpur Banwari, Fatanpur Champa 3) Women atrocity Maximum cases of domestic violence came to light 4) Police cases Deepu, Upendra Nath Singh, Shashikant Gaur, Kallu Mistry, Brijbala Singh 5) Organised violence Sanjay Yadav 6) Cases of arrest Satnam Singh and others People are actively participating in the model village programme. Active community leaders (barefoot workers), former survivors like Ramdayal, Laxman, Ramkripal, Yaseen, Muharram Ali, people of Ahladpur Chittaur and Hindwari village, Chotelal, women of Kudi Musahar basti, Prabhu and his associates from Aswari village Mahatim, Nandlal and Bhanoi. Earlier the focus was upon torture and organized violence as civil and political right. After a two day consultation upon activist manual under the model village project work has now to be linked with socio-economic rights issues such as malnutrition, sanitation, status of jail with the released prisoners. This will be implemented in phases under the project. Along with the brain storming of the community leaders and preparation of watch dog team of barefoot workers they will be trained to become change makers in the society. In the first phase a man and a woman will be selected for this purpose from a village. The selection will be done through election

process which will be held at the village, block and district level. They will hold meeting every three months and one convention in a year. The purpose of such meetings and convention will be to make the participants share their experiences and learn from the case presentations to be done in the meetings. Narrations by former survivor will be a learning lesson for all that will provide unity to all in the community, which leads as prevention process against TOV. We can take examples of Bhonu, Bhanoi and others who were the victim of police torture and organized violence but they stood up against it strongly. Another example is of Kamlesh for whom the entire Gagkala mushar Basti has come up to give his fight a political shape. Intensive follow up of work done up till now will be ensured that will make future strategy and provide vital help for the model village process. The learning from Belwa village, understanding of the community and ability to anticipate today help discussion among the member of the Musahar Basti. With the steps taken at the local level our families participate in the selection process and are heading towards community strengthening. At the local level approximately 11000 people have been connected. We still run learning process and along with work for improving the organization. The local self governance actually works against the Dalit and Musahars. Testimony helps process of pressurizing and evaluation to start the change for institutional reform of local self governance (panchayat) Harinath and Lalman Musahars had to spend 10 years in jail despite being innocent, which was only due to the corrupt system and the flaws in it. Same is the situation with Akkar, Bhonu and Balli. Constitution gives us the right to right justice and on time. If this does not happen then it is a violation of fundamental rights and against the constitution.

Following points have come up from the model block process Expectations;

1) If local issues of the village are raised prominently and continuously a model village can be made. 2) The community leaders and survivor can be imparted proper training and made strong enough to lead

3) People from the community are standing as leaders, they need training. The leaders need training on a regular basis so that they can be strong and thereby community becomes organized. The need is to raise maximum issues through advocacy to develop a model. 4) Community needs to be organized to bring social change. 5) People are now standing on their own for each others rights 6) Self unity will be promoted on the problems 7) People will think seriously over education and health 8) Leaders now tell problems of the community and even inform on the telephone. This strategy has helped to mobilize the community 9) The strength of the programme will be to bring unorganized people united as a group at one place 10) Survivors who were afraid to speak out of fear are now putting forth their problems and issues without hesitation Women folk now understand their rights and participate prominently Youth are active as target groups; they conduct folk school and have developed understanding towards the issues. This has made people to speak in open People in the target group have understood well upon MNREGA and are now reaching government hospitals to avail free of cost health services. More applications are coming up for MNREGA For the ones lodged inside jail we will go to jail once or twice and meet the family members of prisoners there to distribute the guidelines of DK Basu and hold meetings with them to make them aware about the guidelines and the laws With regular interaction and follow up with the survivor they have now understood the rules and are standing up against atrocities. They are also identifying other such survivors and extending a helping hand to other survivor and giving them courage to fight against atrocity.

11) 12)

13)

14)

15)

We would take the data of prisoners under the Right To Information Act from the district jail and meet their prisoners families to get information about the cases. Achievements

Robertsganj. 1) Rajmati alias Mangri (survivor of sexual harrasment) and Amrawati, wife of Laxman was given Rs 6250 as compensation after her case got registered under the SC/ST act 2) Two people Devchandra and Suneshwar were given Rs 1500 as their houses in the Raup Ghasia Basti were impounded by water. 3) Suneshwar got Indira Awas on the directives of the district magistrate while the names of ten others in Ghasia Basti have been nominated for the same 4) Names of 52 children of Ghasia Basti were registered in the primary school 5) Construction of the Anganwadi centre was completed in village Tiyara and now an Anganwadi worker is running the centre on a regular basis 6) Piyari Devi (Hinduari) was reinstated for cooking mid day meal on the basis of written complaint and other communication with authorities after she was removed from the post 7) Naugarh (Majhegai and Devduttpur) survivors were organized against the step taken by forest department in which houses of many Dalits were uprooted. The work of digging being done by forest department was also stopped by the community people. 8) Installation of electricity polls in Lodhi village Badagaon1) Documentation was done in the case of Nindanpur (Kalawati). After this the accused (Satyanarayan Pandit) made a public apology in the village and paid compensation personally In the matter of Bhanoi in Baragaon documentation helped to make the case a degree and has helped community strengthening Pindra1) At least in 8 villages Indira Awas have been made and also the job cards. After intervention by the organization work days are being mentioned in the job cards and payment of labour is also being done

2) Ratanpur (Kinau) people had to travel at least one kilometer distance to get drinking water but with the intervention by the organization a hand pump has been installed 3) Balli Banwasi was illegally detained by the SHO Phoolpur for four days and a bogus case was also lodged against him. When magistrate demanded an answer the SHO apologized 4) On the basis of the applications action was taken and statements recorded, which has helped in community strengthening 5) Tension was brewing among people in Aurao, Kharagpur and people were ready for violence anytime. Efforts were made to ensure peace that worked and now people live peacefully in these two villages 6) ANM (Auxiliary Nursing Mother)/HV (Health Visitor) go within the community. ASHA workers too visit people in the community 7) Phoolpatti was beaten up by the upper caste on the occasion of marriage but they tendered public apology fifteen days later 8) People have developed confidence after they were granted free legal consultancy 9) Monitoring of government schemes at village level has begun Ambedkar Nagar1) People are now being benefited by government schemes. 2) Rambali of Mubarakpur started getting benefit of the Antyoday Anna card 3) Sixteen people got the benefit of Manyawar Kansiram Awas Yogna in Mubarakpur ward number 3 and 7 and 6 people in Mohania 4) People in Mubarakpur ward number 4 started getting benefit of Mahamaya economic support scheme also with a few people in Mohania 5) Parveen Bano daughter of Hasmat Ali in Alhadpur got support with Savitribai Phule education scheme for two years

6) In the case of Hajara Khatoon in Ahladadpur success has been achieve at few points through documentation 7) An Anganwadi worker was appointed in Ahladadpur 8) Asopur (Bagia) now has its Anganwadi worker coming on a routine basis who usually remained absent from duty earlier 9) Probe has begun on the applications filed from Lucknow on June 26, 2011 on the occasion of torture day 10) Notice has been issued on the applications filed in regard to the uprooted families in Chintaura Shortcomings 1) Resignation by staff has brought problem on smooth functioning and establishing of new staff. It has also made an impact upon internal understanding 2) Problem in getting timely solutions to the problem of the community from the officials 3) The facilities of ration card, old age pension and drinking water has not reached all the beneficiaries as yet 4) Not all children are coming to the Anganwadi centre 5) Work at times is not done according to the planning done in advance 6) Lack of positive response to the human rights cases sent for probe earlier 7) Lack of training of the community leaders 8) Survivor/witness turning hostile on the temptation/pressure from the officials 9) Not all are satisfied in the community 10) People are superstitious which is a key hurdle in getting people united for a cause 11) At times when we are not able to bring about a desired result expected by the people we feel depressed and there is a loss of enthusiasm

12) Some people who have greater awareness in comparison to other talk of their personal interest and ignore common interest of the Basti people 13) Sometimes leaders are accused by people during the community meeting. Such things happen a few times creating problem 14) When victims are not met for a regular follow up they fall in the trap of sabotage plots 15) At times we enter in to heated debate with the officials while pursuing a victims case hence the relation with the officer gets awful 16) Earlier the number of cases were less but now the number has gone up while the workers are raw. This has brought a problem Risk: 1) Pradhan, local administration, politicians, people with a communal bent of mind, people with muscle power and people with dominating nature 2) Personal enmity of the leaders with the upper class people of the village 3) Risk might be there during follow up visit to the area once the problem or issues are registered with the high officials 4) The local peoples representatives raise a doubt about us 5) In some villages problem came up due to the differences developed by the Pradhan himself. For example Dinesh Kanaujia the Pradhan of Jagdishpur gave Rs 300 and 25 kilogram of wheat to convince her to give statement in favour of the accused (Ahiravir) 6) People of the upper class gamble in community under Musahar Basti police station. Women in the locality are worried with the fact. This leads to violence often 7) Some of the politicians and self styles goons spit venom and threaten victim of dire consequences

.Model Block Desk

You might also like