annual report print final.qxd - Asian Centre for Human Rights
annual report print final.qxd - Asian Centre for Human Rights
annual report print final.qxd - Asian Centre for Human Rights
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INDIA HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT 2005 Gujarat<br />
discrimination in the society despite<br />
enjoying a high status in the government.<br />
Rajan Priyadarshi, a 1980 batch IPS<br />
officer, does not have a free and dignified<br />
life in his caste-conscious native Kadagra<br />
village in Dehgam taluka in Gandhinagar<br />
district, where till 2003 even the village<br />
barber <strong>report</strong>edly did not entertain Dalit<br />
customers. It was <strong>report</strong>ed that he could<br />
not buy a house in the locality inhabited by<br />
higher castes of the village and continued<br />
to have a house in the ‘Dalit vaas’. 38<br />
Another Dalit, Jayantilal Parmar,<br />
chairman of the Ahmedabad Municipal<br />
Corporation’s standing committee, too<br />
continued to have a house in the ‘Dalit<br />
vaas’ of the Kukarwada in Vijapur taluka<br />
in Mehsana district. He told <strong>report</strong>ers,<br />
“Even if I want nobody would sell me a<br />
house in the upper caste locality. The<br />
social structure is such even today.” 39<br />
PK Valera, an IAS officer who retired<br />
as commissioner (Fisheries) a few years<br />
back, also <strong>report</strong>edly faced similar<br />
discrimination because of his Dalit<br />
background. When Valera organised a<br />
social gathering in his native Borisana<br />
village near Kalol in 1997, the person<br />
whom he had given the cooking contract<br />
refused to clean up the utensils saying that<br />
they would not wash utensils at a Dalit’s<br />
place. Valera also worked as a director of<br />
social welfare department in the state. He<br />
told <strong>report</strong>ers that even today there are<br />
people who do not accept a cup of tea at<br />
his home in his village. 40<br />
Kanti Makwana, a retired DSP, was<br />
<strong>report</strong>edly not allowed to take out the<br />
marriage procession of his son by the<br />
upper caste villagers in Govana village in<br />
Harij taluka in Patan district in 2003. 41<br />
VII. Atrocities against the<br />
Adivasis<br />
Despite failure to rehabilitate all the<br />
dam oustees in Maharashtra and Madhya<br />
Pradesh, on 13 March 2004, Gujarat<br />
government cleared raising of an<br />
additional 10 metres <strong>for</strong> the Sardar Sarovar<br />
dam. The Supreme Court order of 2000<br />
had clearly stated that permission to raise<br />
the height can only be given after all three<br />
states furnish Action Taken Reports<br />
(ATRs) showing that every affected person<br />
by the additional submergence has been<br />
resettled. The Maharashtra government<br />
refused to file the ATR saying it would<br />
only do so when all families were<br />
rehabilitated. Yet the height was raised. 42<br />
Although the Narmada Control<br />
Authority’s website showed `zero<br />
families’ <strong>for</strong> rehabilitation, according to<br />
Narmada Bachao Andolan, 11,000<br />
families remained to be resettled at the<br />
height of the dam at 110 metres in<br />
violation of the Narmada Tribunal Award<br />
and the Supreme Court order of 2000. 43<br />
In addition, the conditions of 15,812<br />
Tadvi tribals living in the six villages near<br />
the Narmada dam remain precarious as<br />
promises of rehabilitation and<br />
development <strong>report</strong>edly given by Pt.<br />
Jawaharlal Nehru while laying down the<br />
foundation stone of the Narmada dam in<br />
1961 have not been kept. They were not<br />
considered “project-affected”. 44<br />
■<br />
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