People's Vigilance Committee for Human Rights, Uttar Pradesh, India & Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong Kong, reports from a People's tribunal on starvation in eastern Uttar Pradesh

On 30 September 2005 a people's tribunal consisting of senior social activists conducted an inquiry into starvation deaths in eastern Uttar Pradesh state, India. The tribunal was initiated by the People's Vigilance Committee for Human Rights (PVCHR), which is based in Varanasi, in cooperation with the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), a regional human rights organisation based in Hong Kong.

The participants in the tribunal were retired high court Justice Rambhoosan Malhotra, Bijo Francis, South Asia Desk Officer of the AHRC, Professor Deepak Mallick, Professor of Gandhian Institute for Studies, Dr Ashok Singh, State Secretary of the Uttar Pradesh Indian Medical Association, Dr Rolee Singh, Chairperson of the Child Welfare Committee, K K Roy, State General Secretary of the People's Union for Civil Liberties and Ashok Kumar Sinha, Programme Officer, ActionAid International (India).

On October 1 some of the panelists also visited affected villages.

The tribunal directly heard 25 detailed complaints of starvation from persons of various communities. It also heard comments from many other persons who gathered for the hearing. It learnt that within the last three months, four starvation deaths had been reported in Shankarpur village of Vanarasi and Tanda village of Ambedkar Nagar, Uttar Pradesh.

It heard that although starvation deaths are going on, victims' families are not receiving proper attention from the government authorities and food-for-work schemes are not being properly implemented.

Sheela, the wife of late Kanhaiya from Shankarpur, Varanasi, a weaver who died due to starvation on 18 September 2005 because of the depressed industry, said that, "My husband starved to death after three months of hunger. I have three children. The eldest goes to school but she receives no food under the Mid Day Meal Scheme. I was told that one lakh [one hundred thousand] rupees were spent by the panchayat [village council] for the poor, and particularly those who are starving, but my condition is the same." Her husband's death was reported in the media and a member of the District Food & Supply Advisory Committee sent a written complaint to the District Magistrate of Varanasi and the Right to Food Campaign filed a petition with the Supreme Court's Commissioners and National Human Rights Commission. Subsequently Kanhaiya was given 10,000 rupees under the National Family Benefit Scheme, 50kgs of wheat and rice for one month, and was promised a house.

Subhavati, the wife of Shivnath Musahar from Kushinagar, Varanasi, said that her husband died of starvation and left her to take care of their four children alone. On 6 January 2005 she received some 20kg of rice at the time that her husband was extremely sick and there was some media attention on her case. But this ran out in one week. On January 14 her husband was hospitalized, and was discharged on January 23, but died two days later. She said that she has since received no benefits and is unable to send her children to school. They have to share their food out by eating on alternate days.

Vishambhar, a weaver from Shankarpur, Varanasi, said that he lost his job after the weaving industry declined and converted to power looms. He does not have any land or any other source of income. His wife, Jigna, joined a self-help group and took a loan of 2000 rupees to bribe the village secretary for an allotment of land, but the land allotted was infertile and nothing grew. They became indebted and suffered from acute malnutrition and hunger-related sickness. On 16 April 2005, his wife died of starvation. Within a month, his 16-year-old daughter and two-month-old son also died. After his case was raised locally and internationally, the Block Development Officer gave 20kg of rice, 50kg of wheat and 3 litres of kerosene oil. While the district supply officer claimed that he has also been issued an emergency relief card, in reality no such card was issued.

Prabhawati, the wife of Nagina Musahar from Kushinagar, Varanasi, told how her husband died of hunger. Her only daughter, Sambha, is two-years-old but because of acute malnutrition looks just six-months-old. To survive, Prabhawati begs and sometimes gets work in the fields. After outside intervention she was given 10,000 rupees under the National Family Benefit Scheme and a leaky house.

The tribunal noted that the state government of Uttar Pradesh was failing in its obligations not only by international standards but also relative to many other parts of India. For instance, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu both provide for a verbal autopsy in cases of malnutrition deaths, whereupon if children under five die then everybody is called in for the autopsy-including family and community members-and it
is found out whether it was a hunger death or not.

This is not done in Uttar Pradesh. The state also has very high child malnutrition, estimated at 51-55 per cent, but it spends just Rs 30-50 on nutrition programmes per child, while other states like Gujarat, Punjab and Haryana spend Rs 90-100, and northeastern states spend more than Rs 500 per child.

The cases that came before the tribunal spoke to how the government has neglected the starving of Uttar Pradesh. Villagers have not received wages after participating in food-for-work schemes, and records are made up by government bureaucrats to give a false impression of the schemes' functioning. The public distribution system closes for months at a time.

The Supreme Court has appointed 2 advisors to the commissioner of Right to Food for UP and has asked the state secretary for support in fulfilling its mission but with no tangible action by the state government.

Here are some stories by people from this area.

Kalwati, aged 30, of Raup Village in Sonbhadra district told how she is struggling to feed her five young children since becoming a widow:

"The six of us live in a desperate situation and hunger is a primary concern. We only eat once a day, and the meal normally consists of some rice or roti (flatbread) and salt, nothing more. I even have a red ration card allowing me access to food assistance by the Public Distribution System (PDS). The PDS shop is located eight kilometers away and provides 20kg of rice and 15kg of wheat for 90 rupees. However, the 35kg of wheat and rice that we receive is not sufficient for even 10 days. By the end of every month, we are starving. Every time we receive more wheat, my children are so hungry they will eat just plain flour. This is what my daughter just did this afternoon.

"My husband was the sole income earner in our family, but he was murdered by the local mafia two-and-a-half years ago. Since his death, I have been the sole breadwinner in the family, as my children are too young to work. I weave brooms and straw mats. I earn approximately 2.50 rupees for each broom or mat I sell, and I normally make between five and ten a day, but I have to travel almost eight kilometers everyday just in order to sell my products. The money is not enough to buy anything, maybe a few vegetables at most.

"I have five children who depend on me to eat. The eldest, Durgavati, is 12 years old. She does not go to school because she needs to stay at home and care for the house and my other children while I am away trying to sell my brooms and mats. My boys, Sadesh, aged 10, and eight-year-old Rajesh both go to school. The two youngest, son Siri Ram and daughter Rinki are too young to attend school and thus also stay at home. In general, most Raup villagers are involved in the broom making industry. As a result, most of the young girls must stay home and take care of the younger children while their parents are away. I never went to school and my daughters will not either. I am not the only person in this situation, the entire village suffers on a daily basis the same way I do. I ask, why is there no ICDS (government run childcare center) here for our children?

"I used to have the ability to work quickly; however, the nerves in my hand were injured some years ago so now one hand is paralyzed. But it is not possible to get medical attention for my health problems. There is no healthcare or medical facilities for the Raup villagers. In 2004, after the newspapers reported our situation, one doctor did come on a single occasion. He gave us some medicines but we never saw him or any
other doctor again. The district hospital is seven kilometers away in Robertsganj so we can only go if we have enough money to cover the expenses or enough energy to walk. Also, the government hospitals do not have any medicine to give us so even if we do go there, we still cannot afford to buy medicines from the shops.

"My fellow villagers and I are not asking for much. As a tribal community, all we are asking is for some land that we can cultivate and live on, land that we have a right to. The upper-caste villagers in Raup are a very prosperous community and they are doing very well. However they are threatening us to leave as they are laying claim to this land. Where are we going to go then and how will we be able to live? All I want is for my children to be taken care of so that they can live life with dignity."

Chotalal, aged 42, son of Mithailal of Oraw village in Pindra Block under Phoolpur Police Station, Varanasi district, explained how the Musahar community struggle to survive under the control of other groups:

"We have no land of our own. We work in the fields of Dakurs and Brahmins. They are the upper caste people. This work is seasonal, for about two months per year. For a full day's work we are paid 5kg of wheat for a male and 3kg of wheat for a female. We work from 7am to 4pm. Sometimes we get 20-30 rupees per day for men and 5 rupees for women. We have never even hoped for the minimum wage and equal remuneration. If we demanded the minimum wage, the landlords would kill us. If we have any complaints, we must keep quiet. You can't go to the police: the police mean money here. They all work for the landlords.

"For the rest of the year, we work as manual labourers and also make plates out of leaves, which people buy for serving food at marriages and other ceremonies. We earn about 20-30 rupees for making 200 plates.

"The Gramasabah (village council) here has about 90 bigahs (45 acres) of land. This land was taken by the upper castes. We were told that this land was intended to be given to us but the fact is that we do not have this land. I was told that some of the property which is currently held by the landlords stands in our names, but we are not able to use it as our own property. However, we still have to work on it as labourers since the property has been taken by them. We are scared to put any claim on our property.

"We are not even allowed to go to the place where the upper caste people live. Even the backward people do not allow us to come to their houses. This is because we are untouchables. But if there is any work in their households, we are expected to go and do the work. If we are found in the upper caste area without being asked to come there for work, we will be beaten. If there is any crime in the locality, we are by default blamed for it. In the past, there was a murder: 13 of our family members were arrested and put in jail. No one ever dared to complain because it would not make a difference.

"Nearly all our children go to school. But their schooling is over after Grade 4. All our children are dropouts from the school. There are no schools that will educate our children for free and we have no money to pay school fees. The government schools are far away. Even though the fees at government schools are nominal, we do not have enough money to pay. We would like to see our children educated and well-employed but this is not a realistic dream.

"We do not have any medical care or hospitals near by. Nobody from the government would ever come here. Some of us have ration cards but we do not have money to buy rations. In the past, we would have to pay at least 100 rupees to buy our rations, because the public distribution shops were so corrupt. Now, the price is normal, at 10 rupees, but we still cannot afford this."

Bhotu Musahar, aged 55, son of Sukhdev Musahar, residing at Belwa Musahar village, Varanasi district, said that starvation is treated as normal in his
village:

"We have stayed here for about six generations. For eight months we work at a brick kiln. The kiln is about 10 kilometers from here. But we have no option. There is a kiln which is in the neighboring property. It is run by Rajendar Thiwari, the most powerful man in Belwa village. The property is on Panchayat land. The place from which the clay is
collected for this kiln is from the village property. We were told that this property was earmarked for our community to cultivate and build our huts. But we cannot question this since the person who questions Thiwari would not live to see the next dawn.

"For about ten years we worked for Thiwari. He never paid us any money. He used to abuse us for everything. If someone failed to turn up for work he would beat that person when he came to work next time. If anyone fell sick and failed to turn up for work, then also he would beat the person. Women faced the same treatment. Thiwari's son used to do the same. His son, Guddu Thiwari, was very young when he used beat us. I was beaten by him when Guddu was only 20. The kiln manager beat us too.

"Thiwari would give us some vegetables for our work, once a week, and that was the only payment. This was not enough for us. It would be over in a day and the rest would be easily damaged, since what he gave us was already rotten. Once in a while we would get dead animals. These were Thiwari's animals. However, we were not allowed to take any dead animal. Only when Thiwari allowed us we could take them. We never cared how the animal died; we only cared how fast we could cook it. Sometimes we would dig up buried animals a day after without anyone knowing. We did not have any time to fetch food for ourselves since we were not allowed to leave the kiln. We could not earn anything else from other work since no one would employ us. This was because we are untouchables and even if anyone was willing to employ us Thiwari would intervene and prevent it.

"Many people died from starvation and a few from injuries suffered at work and also from beatings. We never dared to complain to anyone. Where could we complain? We had seen police officers staying at Thiwari's house and having dinner with him. Thiwari also used to threaten us that if we ever dared to complain to anyone about this he would get the police to arrest us. He threatened us that instead of the men, he would get the women arrested. So we had no other option. Men, women and children worked for Thiwari. Every child was to work for him. The only concern was whether one could work or not. Young or old, all had to work. Rain or drought everyday we had to work. Even if somebody died and the body was still at home, you still had to go to work or else they would beat us. We were fed up with this situation and the punishments were intolerable.

"It was Dr Lenin who came to our rescue. It was his organisation [PVCHR] which helped us from this mess. He advised us to lodge complaints at the sub divisional magistrates court. But there was no action. Soon there was an opportunity for us to speak at a [tribunal]. After that we came to know that it had asked the magistrate to take action upon our complaint. The magistrate came here. We also came to
know that Dr Lenin also had filed a separate complaint on our behalf to the same officer. One day we were all free. However, we were never paid any compensation. We were informed that the magistrate had ordered 20,000 rupees to be paid to us. But when we inquired at the magistrate's office we were told that since the magistrate is a Brahmin, he would never execute the order, and we were asked to be satisfied with our freedom, and that nothing more is to be expected.

"We have only five ration cards altogether. The ration shop dealer never opens his shop regularly. It is open only one or two days in a week and that too during evening hours. We work in a kiln about 10 kilometers away. By the time we finish our work and return, the shop is closed. The food grains that are to be supplied for a very low price are also sold at a higher price. We are not able to afford such high prices. We know it is illegal. But we cannot complain. The ones who dare to complain will never live to see the result of the complaints. The police, health officer and district administration officers are all teamed against us. Who cares for us?

"Hunger is accepted in our village. It is hard to manage the children. By night they start crying and refuse to sleep [due to hunger]. We have no option. We beat them hard so that they cry for a while and are soon tired and that is how we put our children to sleep.

"Many have died of starvation here. Bahru Musahar's family is one example. His wife and two children died within four weeks of one another. His daughter Reena died when she was five-years-old. Then his wife Kismati Devi died, and soon his other daughter Hasna, who was nine-months-old: all within about four weeks of this year. Bharu has lost his senses now. This is not strange for us. Every year in July, August, September and October a few children die here due to malnutrition and acute starvation. No one cares for us."

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