People's Democracy

TAMILNADU

CPI(M) Demands Pattas for Kalvarayan Tribals

M Girija

PLAYING the traditional musical instruments and bursting crackers, the tribal community of the Kalvarayan Hills accorded a warm welcome to Brinda Karat, a member of the Polit Bureau of Communist Party of India (Marxist), at Karumandurai in Salem district of Tamilnadu on May 15. It was an interesting experience in a public meeting organised by the Tamilnadu Tribal Association (TNTA).

Addressing the meeting, Brinda Karat said, “The tribal people of this country fought for the freedom of the country. Thousands and thousands of tribal people sacrificed their lives for the cause. The tribals then believed that whenever the country got its freedom from the British, they would also get their freedom from exploitation; they hoped that they would no more be called encroachers in their own land. Though the land, the forest and the mountain in the country belonged to the tribal people, the British rulers said all these belonged to the state and called the tribals encroachers. Even in the independent India, however, the rulers are saying the same thing. But why should we be deprived of our rights?”

Today in India, no community faces so much discrimination as the tribal community faces. Tribal people are the owners of the land. They do cultivation on such lands. But to prove their ownership they don’t have any pattas, she said.

“We don’t have any paper to prove our ownership. According to the Forest Rights Act enacted in 2006, patta is to be issued to the tribal people who have been living and/or doing cultivation on the land till December 2005. Even after six years of this enactment, however, the state government of Tamilnadu has not so far issued a single patta to any family of the tribal community. They say they are unable to proceed with the issuance of pattas as a case is pending in the Madras High Court. But if the state government had the political will to implement the law, they should have filed an appeal in the Supreme Court. We, therefore, demand that the Tamilnadu state government file an appeal in the Supreme Court and uphold the rights of tribal community,” she asserted.

“The other issue which we face today is that when we approach the administration for issuance of community certificates, our request is turned down. In a family, the father would be having a certificate to the effect that he belongs to a tribal community. But his sons and daughters are being denied such certificates. When we approach the officers, we are forced to go from pillar to post --- from the block office to the panchayat office, from the panchayat office to the collectorate, and so on. We cannot tolerate such attitude of the bureaucracy as it questions our very dignity,” Brinda Karat said while criticising the state government.

“The Tamilnadu Tribals Association is an organisation that fights for the rights of the tribal community and for upholding their dignity. Therefore, we call upon you to mobilise the tribal community people in all the hills and carry forward the struggle to assert your rights,” she appealed. When Brinda Karat asked the audience whether they would be with the TNTA in its struggles for the assertion of the right for land for the tribal people and the right to lead a life with dignity, the audience responded positively in a loud chorus.

The meeting was presided over by A Ponnusamy, secretary of the TNTA in Kalvarayan Hills. N Krishnamurthy, a member of the TNTA state committee, delivered the welcome address. TNTA president P Shanmugam, general secretary S Palanichamy and treasurer P Dilli Babu, MLA, also addressed the meeting.

Earlier on the day, a workshop was organised by the CPI(M) to carry forward the party building activities among the tribal people. Brinda Karat inaugurated the workshop and impressed the participants on the need to build a strong party organisation and to identify cadres and leaders amongst the tribal people.

MOST OF CULPRITS

GO SCOT-FREE: BRINDA

On the same day the Salem district committee of the All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) organised a Legal Awareness Seminar in Salem, in which Brinda Karat delivered a special address. In her speech, she said, “I am happy to see many brothers here in the meeting and we want more and more brothers in our struggle to uphold the rights of women. The laws of the land and the Indian constitution assure equality to women. It is said that the women have the right to education and the right to work. But when the women and girl children don’t feel safe in the school, during travel in the bus or train, when she walks on road, works on the field or in the factory, can the right to education and right to work have any earthly meaning? In every place, she has to face sexual harassment. But when we raise our voice against these, it is shameful that some of our politicians say that the dresses the women wear are the root cause for such harassments. We could see that in Delhi a girl child of three years was sexually harassed. Can they attribute the same reason of dress to this child?  As there is no strong legal system to ensure deterrent punishment for the culprits, such attacks are being unleashed on the women with impunity.”

She pointed out that 68,000 cases of sexual harassment were registered in the last three years, and out of these, culprits were punished only in 22 per cent cases. In other words, out of every 100 people who commit such crimes against women, only 22 are punished. That means a large majority (78 per cent) go scot-free. So, if there is no punishment or no certainty of punishment, then the offenders are naturally emboldened.

“Now, after a great deal of struggle after the Delhi gang rape, amendments have been made in the Indian Penal Code and the Evidence Act. The recommendations given by the Justice J S Varma committee have not been accepted by the government in full. In spite of the existing overall negative situation, this is an important step forward. If any government officer or police official does not file FIR or does not follow up the case, now under the law a provision has been made for punishment up to one year of imprisonment. Though we had demanded imprisonment of three years, even this much is an important step forward. We know in so many cases, when the victim or her relatives go to the police station to file a complaint, the police officials don’t file the case. Instead, they tell them to work out a compromise with the perpetrators of the crime, as filing the case would bring ‘disrespect’ to their family,” she slammed.

Brinda Karat quoted a recent incident in which a six years old girl child was kidnapped. Her parents went to the police station and filed a complaint. After two days, the body of the child could be located in their residential area. When the parents went to the police station to file a complaint about the rape and murder of their child, the police officials asked them to take Rs 2000 and give up the idea of filing a complaint. “It is to be understood that such things are happening even after enactment of the law for punishing the officers and officials who fail to discharge their duty. So, enactment of law alone will not be sufficient. A strong movement is required for its implementation. Otherwise, such laws would simply remain on paper. For this we should mobilise more women and men and build a strong movement for protecting the rights of women,” Brinda Karat asserted.

AIDWA district secretary K Rajathi presided over the seminar and its state secretary, Jothilakshmi, inaugurated. Dr Chellammal, principal of the Salem Gokulam Nurses Training College, G Chamki Raj, Madras High Court lawyer, and P Suganthi, state general secretary of AIDWA, also addressed. M Girija of the All India Insurance Employees Association, translated Brinda Karat’s speech into Tamil at both of the meetings.