[Goanet]Face to face with tribal reality of Goa - IV
Hello! Next NEST study session will be held at the residence of Anand Velip, H.No.228, Valkini, Col. no.2, Sanguem, Goa from 4pm on saturday 2nd April to 4pm Sunday 3rd April 2005. The Venue is 7kms. away from Sanguem town. Public transport is available from Sanguem. You are invited. Overnight stay. Anand's contact nos. 2607277, 2607273 Theme: Feudalism, Capitalism and transformations in tribes of Goa. Thanks and hope to see you in Sanguem. Gopal KerkerDurgadas Gaonkar Sebastian Rodrigues NATURE ENVIRONMENT SOCIETY AND TRANSFORMATIONS (NEST) DONGAR GHAR, HILLTOP RESIDENCE, CHORAO ISLANDS, TISWADI, GOA. PH:(0832)2492014. 31/A, IGREJ VADDO, MARNA, SIOLIM, BARDEZ, GOA. 403517 PH: (0832)2272164 FOUNDER: Dr. Bikram Dasgupta.
[Goanet]Tribute to Manjula Gawde, Goa
Tribute to Manjula Gawde On 26th November 2004 Manjula Gawde Sattari, breathed her last in Goa Medical College, Bambolim, after 22 days of relentless struggle to survive. And as soon as she was declared dead the hell broke loose. Villagers rose up in arms and her body was unceremoniously half burned amidst scuffles and police interventions on the very next day. The uproar over her death continues. Newspapers continues to bring the stories, politicians continue to take advantage of the situations, Police cases have been filed against the villagers and even arrested, yet the murderers of Manjula Gawde has not been arrested though who the murderers of Manjula Gawde is the common knowledge. Oh! Police believe it is the case of suicide! Manjula Gawde (18) was beaten up with injuries by the her employer Vinita Savaiker (a cloth vendor married to pygmy collector Sanjay Savaiker) along with her family members including her father-in-law Krishna Savaikar on 4th November 2004. Vinita has been bonded in the exploitative employment in as the domestic worker -- as house cleaner and cloth washer at Rs.200 (Rupees two hundred only!) per month or Rs.6/- (Rupees Six Only) per day for the past two years. Actually she had collected only Rs.600/- over this period. At around 5.00 pm. Vinita Savoiker, the employer of the Manjula Gawde started beating her up with dog chains, wooden sticks and of course the kicks and slaps. (Though the findings of the post mortem report is yet to be ascertained, her dead body possed black marks of torture on her chest and tremendous swelling at the vaginal area). Vinita while beating up Manjula was howling I will never be at peace till Manjula is dead. Manjula's mother too who was present was not only beaten up (by banging her to the pole) along with Manjula but was also threaten at the gun point by Krishna Sawaikar (father-in-law who possesses licence gun) that in case she informs the villagers or the Police then she will be shot dead. (This is the fear which kept Kasturi from informing the villagers about the beating up incident till her daughters' death 22days latter!) After mercilessly beating up Manjula Gawde, she was thrown into the middle of beetle-nut Orchard (owned by Savoiker family) where she was forced to drink liquid Pesticides that was used to spray in the plantations. (Savaikar family owns huge plantations- Kulagar at Bhatwadi, Advai, forest property in Mhadei of Cashew plantations, property at Kumbarkhand, Vagurem and Savaiker Industries). Here Manjula spoke her last few words to her Mother Ayee maka chau dili punn mhaka ti bori lagunk nam (Mom, I was given tea to drink but it din't taste good). The reasons for the wrath of Savaikar family is not difficult to understand. Manjula is not the first girl to be murdered in this fashion in the last few months. There is line of Girls Murdered- Tanuja Naik, Anjana Shirodker, Maria Vaz... the common factor being that they all belonged to vulnerable sections of society where mega irresponsibility galore; injustice and fear all pervasive. After beating up, Manjula was dropped near the residence of Gawade family who leaves in the forest in small 4 by 5 mud house with no property of their own but 3 genetically affected either deaf and dump or both family member. At this point Manjula's father Chandru Gawde was beaten up by the Savaiker family and warned him to shut his mouth about beating up of his daughter. The Gawde family was ordered to give salt water by Savaiker family and then take her to on Dr. Amsheker, private practitioner at Valpoi in his private clinic. After treating Dr.Amsheker referred her to be admitted to the Goa Medical College on 19th November 2004- after complete two weeks. In between she was also given treatment by another medical practitioner in Margao on the advice of Dr.Amshekar. In glaring incident of travesty of justice Police has been siding with the murderers of Manjula. After the mob of around 1000 people burnt the body in front of the house of Manjula Gawde, the next day instead of investigating the perpetrators of violence, police arrested Manjula's brother Rajesh and her Mother Katuri along with the villager Bablo Gawde; stripped them of their clothes in the lock up except their underwears (excluding Kasturi) and were kept hungry without lunch and dinner. NEST denounces this action of Police. Further Police has slapped criminal cases against 16 villagers on some fictitious charges like assault on Police arrested and released them. (Around 1000 people had battled the police on 27th November 2004, why the cases only on 16 people? To create situation of fear in democratic India?) But cases has not been withdrawn. NEST demands the immediate withdrawal of cases against all following 16 people. They are Suresh Gawde, Manisha Gawde (Manjula's Sister), Krishna A. Gawde, Bhagwant Babli Gawde, Prakash K. Vantekar, Naru Ramnath Gawde, Ranganath k. Gawde, Gurudas P.Gawde, Umesh P.Gawde (minor), Prashnt P.
[Goanet]Re: condemn workers exploitation in Goa-India.
## # If Goanet stops reaching you, contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # Want to check the archives? http://www.goanet.org/pipermail/goanet/# # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ## Indeed very sickening state of affairs indeed. Labour loot in the name of labour employment. Smoke in the Goa's Smokeless industry- Tourism. Congratulations to GJLF for blowing the whistle. In case Travelpack continues to harrass and torment the Working Class then it may not be long time that it may be asked to pack off from Goa. A systematic process of squezing the employees. Earlier the travel pack acts to rectify its labour policy, better it is. Long live workers rights! Long live Workers Unity! NEST supports the awakening of the working class in Goa.
[Goanet]Re: ENDORSEMENT RELEASE (National Wildlife Week, October
## # If Goanet stops reaching you, contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # Want to check the archives? http://www.goanet.org/pipermail/goanet/# # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ## On the Occasion of Willdlife week in India;pointers to Goa. Seby. Dear Mr. Saldhana, Thanks for your e-mail. Please include in the letter bio-degradation of the Goa landscape and the waters which is threatening wildlife and lowering the potential of the Peoples of Goa. We at NEST ([EMAIL PROTECTED] ) held a series of conferences in February 2004 and had discussed on Neurological deseases affecting the humans which have direct bearing on Environment. We had also discussed about the threat to the Western Ghats Forest due to iron ore and Manganese mining within the territory of Goa. We also touched on the potential of the Dudhasagar waterfalls for hydro-electric power generation as well as for the irrigation of the farms. We have been sensitive to the plight of the villagers inhabiting the lowlying areas of the waterfalls. The forest reserves of this tiny territory and it's ecological balance of the land and the water; and the plants and animal settlement is being disturbed. Tourism is one of the main industries of this place. If look at the canary islands in the Southern atlantics, although tourism has brought prosperity to those islands, these islands have been subjected to natural climate change. Although we in Goa feel such things like rainstorms, unseasonal rains, cyclones and tornados, drying up of some of our rivers, these may be the warning signs of the greater danger that may befall us in this tiny territory.we may be sitting on Powder keg if we ignore this deliberate ignorance of the life processes which is true even for this small territory Goa as it is true for the Upper reaches of the Indo-Gangetic plains. I suspect therefore although we have good rains this year as compared to last year, the water table of this region is drying up. And we may have to take corrective measures with human ingenuinity to bring water table to a level which can sustain life, and therfore correct some of the imbalances in the degraded landscapes and human, plant and animal settlements. This is the task for all of us; to highlight to the ministry of Environment and Forest. On behalf of NEST we wish to inform you of our 8th annual NEST conference on Indigenous People to be held at Social development Cenre, Ranchi, Jharkhand from 16-18 November 2004. You are invited to participate in the same and present the paper. Formal invitation will posted to you shortly. Dr.Rajendra B. Kenkre, MD.FRS Neurologist ESG India S2L [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: ENDORSEMENT RELEASE National Wildlife Week, October 2-8, 2004 WHY IS THE GOVERNMENT CONTINUING TO 'CLEAR' CRITICAL WILDLIFE HABITATS? OPEN LETTER TO THE MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT AND FORESTS In commemoration of National Wildlife Week, it has become ritualistic for Government agencies to organise a variety of events. One hopes that the commitments renewed and the new commitments made would be lived through in the weeks and months that follow, and the country's wildlife populations would be more secure. Recent decisions of the Ministry of Environment and Forests, and thereby those of all agencies connected with its decisions, however, hardly give us the confidence that the country is adopting a mature and progressive policy on wildlife protection. Instead we are confronted with expedient decisions that aim to support industrial development at any cost, excellent biodiversity enclaves are threatened with interference by such developments, and in some cases large scale submergence by dams, and the involvement of public at large is considerably weakened by pursuing policies that make agencies stronger and their decisions increasingly in-transparent. Keeping this in view, it has become imperative for groups and individuals across the country to come together to make a strong statement on how our wildlife protection laws and policies are simply being wished away by the very actions of the State. Highlighting significant concerns a letter addressing many problems and weaknesses in the system of decision making, and its implications to wildlife populations and their habitats has been sent to the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests and is enclosed. We request you to kindly endorse this letter and send a copy to the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests. Please mark a copy to Neeraj Vagholikar of Kalpavriksh ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) for archiving and follow up requirements. Your effort would help pressurize the Ministry to genuinely reform its ongoing thoughtless programme of decimating wildlife habitats, even as it continues to ignore the excellent range of expertise
