German women aid given to Vidarbha farm widows :
Pandharkawada (India), March 17:
Today in very largely attended public function (see photo)to give German women aid to vidarbha farm widows held in small town pandharkawada in yavatmal district of vidarbha(India) in which most venerable widows who are facing starvation have given the relief aid .the function was orgnised by pandharkawada civic body president anil tiwari in local agrasen bhavan was attended by all social and political workers of all parties.
Kumar Roy and Shibani Bhattacharya Indian counter part of Indienhilfe e.V., a voluntary organisation based in Herrsching, have disbursed the amount.
Courageous and spirited stories told by widows, publicly, to keep the life alive was main attraction of the function.
This time, the helping hand has come from across the oceans, from Germany, for the distressed widows of farmers in Vidarbha, the region of Maharashtra in the grip of a severe agrarian crisis.
The readers of a Munich-based daily sent in financial contributions for helping women after reading about their plight in a series of stories carried by the newspaper.
The amount representing the total collection is to be handed over to the women at a brief function to be held in Pandharkawda in this district on Saturday.
Karin Steinberger, a correspondent of the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, a leading German newspaper, toured Vidarbha in December 2006 for a closer look at the agrarian crisis and the plight of the widows of debt-ridden farmers, who committed suicide.
Moved by Ms. Steinberger's articles, several readers remitted money to the newspaper's office, asking it to be sent to the widows. The total collection was the equivalent of Rs1. 5 lakhs.
However, the money could not be sent to India directly because of legal restrictions on remittance of foreign exchange, until Indienhilfe e.V., a voluntary organisation based in Herrsching, stepped in.
Kishor Tiwari, local farm activist of Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti was the chief guest of the this function and urged all farm widows to change the agrarian crisis in to prosperity whole world is with, we will appeal the all international community to stand along with you in this days of distress. No widows have become sex worker till date and it will not happen in future too.
Vidarbha farm widows are the highly respected like war widows in this maharashtra ,we condemn the media campaign to malign the image of vidarbha farm widows as turning be sex workers, Kishor Tiwari informed gathering with grate pain.
However some sections of Indian media are bent on attracting sensational headlines, doing investigative journalism, looking for spicy headlines, without any compassion.
This section of media is choosing to put farm widows in the dock rather than the agriculture policy makers.
Showing posts with label india. Show all posts
Showing posts with label india. Show all posts
Monday, March 19, 2007
Friday, March 16, 2007
German Women Join Hands With Vidarbha Widows
The readers of a leading German ( Deutsche )news paper, "Sueddeutsche Zeitung" have given relief aid to Vidarbha Farm Widows.
They were moved by Karin Steinberger's article based on the struggle of farm widows, after the suicide of their farmer husbands, when local Maharashtra govt. turned blind eye towards the plights of these widows.
This amount was collected by news paper "Sueddeutsche Zeitung" was transferred to INDENHILFE, an NGO working for the Indian people.
Their Kolkatta base office is arranging a function for Relief Aid disbursement at Pandharkawada in Yavatmal district of Vidarbha, Maharashtra in India on 17th March. INDIENHILIFE office in charge, Kumar Roy and Shibani Bhattacharya have been touring in rural part of Vidarbha to identify the widows who are working hard to save the surviving family, from agrarian crisis.
Karin Steinberger, is with the German news paper, "Sueddeutsche Zeitung" since 2000, writing features from all over the world, but most of stories are from rural parts of India. This article was based on the hardships faced by Farm Widows of Vidarbha and their "struggle to remain live", without any meaningful and coordinated government aid.
It was published in 2006, and the article has been read by the thousand of readers in Germany, but relief aid programme, has just coincidently matched with the timing when one of Indian media, TV news channels, has been running a premeditated campaign, to run fabricated stories of Farm widows and has been evoking very strong response from Vidarbha and all over the world.
This German relief aid distribution programme, will boost morale of these farm widows, at last, after the sheer apathy of local Congress and NCP government, and top local bureaucrats of Maharashtra, who are more interested in book keeping and making media statements, debating the reasons for farm suicides in cotton belt of Vidarbha.
They were moved by Karin Steinberger's article based on the struggle of farm widows, after the suicide of their farmer husbands, when local Maharashtra govt. turned blind eye towards the plights of these widows.
This amount was collected by news paper "Sueddeutsche Zeitung" was transferred to INDENHILFE, an NGO working for the Indian people.
Their Kolkatta base office is arranging a function for Relief Aid disbursement at Pandharkawada in Yavatmal district of Vidarbha, Maharashtra in India on 17th March. INDIENHILIFE office in charge, Kumar Roy and Shibani Bhattacharya have been touring in rural part of Vidarbha to identify the widows who are working hard to save the surviving family, from agrarian crisis.
Karin Steinberger, is with the German news paper, "Sueddeutsche Zeitung" since 2000, writing features from all over the world, but most of stories are from rural parts of India. This article was based on the hardships faced by Farm Widows of Vidarbha and their "struggle to remain live", without any meaningful and coordinated government aid.
It was published in 2006, and the article has been read by the thousand of readers in Germany, but relief aid programme, has just coincidently matched with the timing when one of Indian media, TV news channels, has been running a premeditated campaign, to run fabricated stories of Farm widows and has been evoking very strong response from Vidarbha and all over the world.
This German relief aid distribution programme, will boost morale of these farm widows, at last, after the sheer apathy of local Congress and NCP government, and top local bureaucrats of Maharashtra, who are more interested in book keeping and making media statements, debating the reasons for farm suicides in cotton belt of Vidarbha.
Friday, March 9, 2007
Ten Minutes For Me Too Mr Chidambaram
- Gita, with her 4 month old kid
KOPA MANDAVI VISIT of VJAS - GITA WANTS ANSWERS FROM the Wise People of SOCIETY
Kishor Tiwari visited KopaMandvi, yet another village on National Highway no.7
"I was shocked to look at pathetic condition of 23 year widow of Sharvan Chichodkar, a Vidarbha cotton farmer, who committed suicide.
She asked "who killed my husband?"
Gita narrated .. "It was constant worry of family debt and food starvation, that forced him to kill himself.
After Sharvan, nobody is there to look after me.
I will have to feed my kid and old father in laws.
We are fed up with this crisis."..
Sharvan is third farmer suicide in KopaMandvi.
More than 100 farm suicides in this belt in last 4 years.
All GM cotton growers in Vidarbha are in debt, as per Shri Kishor Tiwari of VJAS.
Indian Finance Minister, Shri Chidambaram, had high profile photos and media coverage with top Indian industrialists, like Ratan Tata, on eve of Congress 2007 Budget. He did not have even 10 minutes to spare for debt ridden and suicidal Vidarbha cotton farmers, as he was too busy putting final touches to the Sensex Budget in New Delhi.
Friday, February 23, 2007
Three Widows
The Tale of Three Indian Widows :
Savita, Sunita and Pratibha are three women from different contexts, background and age groups, yet engulfed by the continuing tragedy that plays out in Maharashtra. The number of widows is growing at a frightening speed in the cotton country. Jaideep Hardikar reports.
http://www.indiatogether.org/2007/feb/agr-widows.htm
The most senior Indian bureaucrats and politicians, continue to deny any agricultural emergency in Indian rural areas, that calls for their attention.
Some IAS Relief Commissioners, are waxing eloquent on farmer's folly, in pursuing high cost cultivation practices in un irrigated parts of India, while some IAS bureaucrats are issuing mental insanity certificates to suicidal farmers as "sirfira". The Indian story of bureaucratic incompetence is tragi comic.
The Sensex Minister is following the bears and the bulls closely, while the Cricket Minister is celebrating the return to form of Saurav Ganguly in Indian cricket.
Savita, Sunita and Pratibha are three women from different contexts, background and age groups, yet engulfed by the continuing tragedy that plays out in Maharashtra. The number of widows is growing at a frightening speed in the cotton country. Jaideep Hardikar reports.
http://www.indiatogether.org/2007/feb/agr-widows.htm
The most senior Indian bureaucrats and politicians, continue to deny any agricultural emergency in Indian rural areas, that calls for their attention.
Some IAS Relief Commissioners, are waxing eloquent on farmer's folly, in pursuing high cost cultivation practices in un irrigated parts of India, while some IAS bureaucrats are issuing mental insanity certificates to suicidal farmers as "sirfira". The Indian story of bureaucratic incompetence is tragi comic.
The Sensex Minister is following the bears and the bulls closely, while the Cricket Minister is celebrating the return to form of Saurav Ganguly in Indian cricket.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Collecting Rural Women Narratives
As of now, there are no rural narratives of wives and daughters of suicidal farmers up on the blog :
http://www.zubani.blogspot.com/
Some people have offered to collect some of the narratives. One hopes there can be many more people who begin to collect them, translate them to English, and to other languages, and put them up on the Internet and build up the the Zubani Blog as a resource for all who are concerned and affected.
The process of collecting narratives, is absolutely open and will continue to be so for many years, because one can see no end to more and more such narratives. There is no concept of an editor for these narratives.
Everyone who contributes, is a self moderated editor. We will keep learning from the narratives, and hopefully these narratives will point a way forward for the future of science and technology innovations, sustainability and creativity, in Indian farming and agriculture and indeed rural life, in coming years.
Anyone with basic Internet access, can post the narratives, from anywhere in India. Feel free to experiment, and there is no need to be afraid of anyone on this earth.
Without fearlessness and without openness there is no future. Find your inspiration from these women and daughters, whose husbands have consumed a can of pesticides, and left them alone, to fend for themselves, and everyone will begin to ask questions of themselves.
What are we doing, Where are we going ? Are our actions of any help to those who are living in the villages of India ?
http://www.zubani.blogspot.com/
Some people have offered to collect some of the narratives. One hopes there can be many more people who begin to collect them, translate them to English, and to other languages, and put them up on the Internet and build up the the Zubani Blog as a resource for all who are concerned and affected.
The process of collecting narratives, is absolutely open and will continue to be so for many years, because one can see no end to more and more such narratives. There is no concept of an editor for these narratives.
Everyone who contributes, is a self moderated editor. We will keep learning from the narratives, and hopefully these narratives will point a way forward for the future of science and technology innovations, sustainability and creativity, in Indian farming and agriculture and indeed rural life, in coming years.
Anyone with basic Internet access, can post the narratives, from anywhere in India. Feel free to experiment, and there is no need to be afraid of anyone on this earth.
Without fearlessness and without openness there is no future. Find your inspiration from these women and daughters, whose husbands have consumed a can of pesticides, and left them alone, to fend for themselves, and everyone will begin to ask questions of themselves.
What are we doing, Where are we going ? Are our actions of any help to those who are living in the villages of India ?
Monday, February 12, 2007
Why Zubani ? Indian rural narratives of women
The idea for this blog came up in the course of some discussions regarding what women - the wives and the daughters - of the farmers, who are committing suicides, in the cotton belt of India of Vidarbha, Maharashtra, are thinking.
Priya of Samanvaya, Chennai has been involved with a campaign of email updates regarding the farmer suicides in Maharashtra.
In the course of the discussions, we wondered, that if and when, the dust of arguments, rhetoric, politics settles down, who is facing the world with blank uncomprehending eyes ?
No proud farmer of rural India deliberately wants to be a delinquent debtor. No Indian farmer wants to die without repaying all his accumulated debts.
However he has been pushed into disasters due to a failure of economic policy.
The Indian economic policies with respect to agriculture, are nothing other than a disguised exit policy and a tool for sucking surplus for subsidizing industry.
For large masses of Indian farming populations, the present and the future is bleak.
Even though India is a democracy, the Indian farmer, and rural populations, fail to find a voice in policy making, as New Delhi and Mumbai, pursue a course of economic restructuring of epic proportions, driven by the desire to benefit from globalization and the need to respond to the threat from China, US, Europe.
Large scale economic restructuring is unleashing large social displacement and rural distress.
The farmer of course - the husbands and the fathers - who committed suicide by drinking a can of pesticides, and was able to manage to relieve himself of the mental burden of financial debt and the daily verbal torture of debtors, and money lenders.
But it is the rural women of India who are unable to comprehend that Indian economic policies are making agriculture unviable for the farmer who is solely dependant on rural incomes.
It is these women of India, reduced to a sorry state, from divine Shakthi and the Rani of Jhansi invocations, who are left alone in the wake of these powerful market forces and economic policies of Indian urban led growth policies without social security.
It is the women, the daughters and the wives, who will pay the price of the debacle of Indian farming and disguised exit policy.
This is an attempt to collect some of the rural narratives of some such women, the powerless Shakthi, who does not have the power to slap the errant people in the face, as shown in the TV soaps, that are the staple of Indian middle class and upper classes, solely preoccupied by the return to form of Saurav Ganguly, the get rich quick questions of Shah Rukh Khan and the unending rise of the Indian sensex.
Priya of Samanvaya, Chennai has been involved with a campaign of email updates regarding the farmer suicides in Maharashtra.
In the course of the discussions, we wondered, that if and when, the dust of arguments, rhetoric, politics settles down, who is facing the world with blank uncomprehending eyes ?
No proud farmer of rural India deliberately wants to be a delinquent debtor. No Indian farmer wants to die without repaying all his accumulated debts.
However he has been pushed into disasters due to a failure of economic policy.
The Indian economic policies with respect to agriculture, are nothing other than a disguised exit policy and a tool for sucking surplus for subsidizing industry.
For large masses of Indian farming populations, the present and the future is bleak.
Even though India is a democracy, the Indian farmer, and rural populations, fail to find a voice in policy making, as New Delhi and Mumbai, pursue a course of economic restructuring of epic proportions, driven by the desire to benefit from globalization and the need to respond to the threat from China, US, Europe.
Large scale economic restructuring is unleashing large social displacement and rural distress.
The farmer of course - the husbands and the fathers - who committed suicide by drinking a can of pesticides, and was able to manage to relieve himself of the mental burden of financial debt and the daily verbal torture of debtors, and money lenders.
But it is the rural women of India who are unable to comprehend that Indian economic policies are making agriculture unviable for the farmer who is solely dependant on rural incomes.
It is these women of India, reduced to a sorry state, from divine Shakthi and the Rani of Jhansi invocations, who are left alone in the wake of these powerful market forces and economic policies of Indian urban led growth policies without social security.
It is the women, the daughters and the wives, who will pay the price of the debacle of Indian farming and disguised exit policy.
This is an attempt to collect some of the rural narratives of some such women, the powerless Shakthi, who does not have the power to slap the errant people in the face, as shown in the TV soaps, that are the staple of Indian middle class and upper classes, solely preoccupied by the return to form of Saurav Ganguly, the get rich quick questions of Shah Rukh Khan and the unending rise of the Indian sensex.
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