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Odisha's Little Gandhians

By S.G.Vombatkere

02 August, 2011
Countercurrents.org

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) had sent a 3-member team on July 4, 2011, for an on-the-spot inspection of the area of the POSCO project in Jagatsinghpur District of Odisha to examine whether children were being used, misused or abused by the elders of those villages by involving them in the on-going protest against the POSCO project in the area. The inspection, including interviewing children, was in response to a complaint to NCPCR that children were being used as “human shields” to protect adult protestors from police action to enforce acquisition of forest land for the POSCO project, and that children were forced or coerced to demonstrate on the frontlines by lying down on the ground [Ref.1] to block entry of police and government officials into forest lands of their villages.

The people of eight affected villages (Dhinkia, Govindpur, Nuagaon, Noliasahi, Polang, Bhuyanpal, Bayanakandha and Jatadhar) have been opposing the POSCO composite mega-project by organizing themselves for non-violent resistance, agitation and protest as POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS). The peaceful resistance began in 2005 soon after Government of Odisha (GOO) signed a MoU with Pohang Steel Company (POSCO) of South Korea. GOO is increasingly embarrassed since acquisition of land for POSCO is being opposed by PPSS which has also peacefully resisted entry into the area over the past six years despite heavy administrative and police pressure. The peacefully agitating PPSS volunteers have several times suffered intimidation, beatings and violence at the hands of the police, which has registered criminal cases against over 1,000 people. A rather unusual feature of PPSS is that women predominate in participation and are also targets of criminal cases. Notwithstanding, the peaceful resistance of PPSS volunteers continues to be in the best Gandhian tradition and a thorn in the flesh of the GOO-POSCO nexus.

GOO's land acquisition efforts intensified early in 2011, and police have made more frequent appearances in greater strength, attempting to intimidate the PPSS volunteers. PPSS has arranged that people from every home take turns to sit in dharna every single day on the land to be acquired, and on any given day there are always at least 150 people squatting on the land. This has been going on for six years. But when police appear in force, the entire village numbering nearly two thousand turns out in full strength.

Starting a few months ago, children led by young Rakesh Bardhan (Class 4), Chinmay Pani (Class 7) and others have voluntarily joined their parents and elders in the resistance demonstrations. This was done in a novel manner, said to be the first of its kind in the world; children lay down in lines on the hot earth under the blazing summer sun, blocking the path of the police and government officials. The resistance included the innovative logistic arrangements of the PPSS, among which was a man carrying an agricultural spraying pump walking about spraying water on protestors to cool them down. In the absence of high police strength, children go to school, even though most schools are almost wholly (and illegally) occupied by the police as living quarters.

The children and women lying down on the ground succeeded in stopping the fully armed riot-gear-clad police forces. The police then started a campaign of psychological warfare using loudspeakers, warning and threatening the PPSS volunteers every 15 minutes that police would attack if they did not vacate the land. But the protestors held fast, were successful in stopping the police advance, and have thus far saved the lands from acquisition.

While participating in the PPSS dharna on July 15, 2011, this writer was witness to a surprise visit by the Odisha State Jagatsinghpur District Children Welfare Committee (CWC) team of five persons including one woman and Chairperson R.N.Das. The CWC team which was investigating reasons for children participating in the frontlines of the struggle, spoke to PPSS leader Abhay Sahoo, Manorama Khatua and other village people sitting on dharna. Though they found no children at the dharna, they tried to explain that it was wrong to force children to miss school and face violence by sitting on dharna. The CWC team withdrew silently when they faced response from the people on the following lines:
When their parents are being attacked by police forces, do you expect children to pack their books and go off to school? This peaceful resistance is six years old; children who were age 12 when it began are 18 years old now, of voting age and children who were six when it started are 12 years old now. Do you imagine that they are not aware of the causes for their parents' resisting land acquisition? Do you not think that if parents are displaced by the POSCO project, the children's own future is ruined? So is not the children's future being threatened by government? And in any case how can children study when their school is occupied by police forces? Why do you not object to children being employed in hotels in cities or in dangerous occupations like mining? The children in the anti-POSCO movement are receiving education in non-violent, peaceful resistance to government aggression favouring corporate interests, and should actually be praised.

The CWC and other children's rights bodies and activists who have criticized PPSS for “forcing” children to participate in the PPSS movement would do well to reconsider their approach. It is noteworthy that the CWC visited PPSS on 15 July and were not aware of the NCPCR Report, excerpts of which appeared in the media on 24 July [Ref.2]. Commenting on children's participation in PPSS activities, NCPCR states, "The children think that they are protecting the interest of their families which is contrary to the allegations that children are being coerced to participating the agitation. The anxiety / apprehension on account of the prospect of displacement and loss of the source of livelihood for their families, has been apparently affecting the minds of the children. It appears to be a factor behind such conduct by the children”. But NCPCR has gone further and condemned Government of Orissa for police occupation of schools and failing to provide midday meals in schools, and also noted that “the district level officers of the women and child development department and school & mass education department appear to be oblivious of their responsibilities in respect of these children”, and “there is no mobilisation through the District Child Protection Committee under the ICPS and the Child Welfare Committee”.

The word “pratirodh” appears in the name of PPSS because the reason for forming it was to oppose the POSCO project to protect people's lands and livelihoods. But the name conceals the fact that it is actually a movement that protects and strengthens people's constitutionally assured right to life and livelihood. Their 6-years long on-going peaceful struggle against the nexus of government with corporate financial forces is a source of inspiration to movements across the country especially because children are actively participating in it. These children are demonstrating the power of peaceful resistance to the state and central governments in a way that the Father of the Nation would have applauded and perhaps himself joined the PPSS struggle were he alive. Gandhiji non-violently opposed unaccountable and cruel (British) power used against ordinary people. Many decades later in independent India, the people of PPSS and elsewhere in the country are following his example but against their own governments' economically and physically violent anti-people actions. But now there is a new dimension; children are in it. The valiant children of Govindpur, Dhinkia and other villages of PPSS deserve national recognition.

References
1. Vombatkere, S.G.; “Lying Down For Justice Children Show The Way”, Countercurrents.org; June 13, 2011.
2. News item; “NCPCR justifies agitation by children against POSCO project”; ExpressIndia.com; July 24, 2011;
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/NCPCR-justifies-agitation-by-children-against-Posco-project/821588

S.G.Vombatkere retired as major general after 35 years in the Indian military. He is engaged in voluntary social work, and is member of the National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM) and People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL). As Adjunct Associate Professor of the University of Iowa, USA, he coordinates and lectures a course on Science, Technology and Sustainable Development for under-graduate students from USA and Canada. He holds a master of engineering degree in structural engineering from the University of Poona and a PhD in civil structural dynamics from I.I.T, Madras.
Contact details:
Maj Gen S.G.Vombatkere (Retd) // 475, 7th Main Road // Vijayanagar 1st Stage // Mysore-570017.
Tel:0821-2515187
E-mail:[email protected]

 


 



 


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