A custodial death of a tribal in Pavi Jetpur of Vadodara.

The relatives of the victim claims that he was killed by the police after he was picked up by the police on March 15, 2008.

The victim.

-The police allegedly beat Salat so much, that he was not able to survive and later on succumbed to death on the very next day-Bharat Salat told.
-He suffered from severe health problem on the next day of his arrest and was taken to the Pavi Jetpur Hospital, who was later on released on the bail and died after that.
-He was a healthy man with no disease or any health problem, there was no reason which could result in his death except the severe beating of the police personnel-his relatives.



Buddhilal Salat, a 32-year-old tribal living in the Pavi Jetpur area, allegedly died in police custody on March 16. The relatives of Salat have filed an application in the Pavi Jetpur police station demanding a live video post-mortem of his body.

Salat, a bootlegger by profession, was picked by the Pavi Jetpur police on March 15 evening. He was taken to the Pavi Jetpur Hospital early in the morning the next day. “They beat him up so much that he died,” Salat’s uncle Bharat Salat told DNA.

“He was a healthy man with no disease or health problem. There was no reason which could result in his death except the severe beating of the police personnel,” Bharat Salat said.

“Bhuddhilal, suffered from severe health problem on the next day of his arrest and was taken to the Pavi Jetpur Hospital, who was later on released on the bail and died after that,” the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Pavi Jetpur, HN Chaudhary told DNA. Chaudhary refused of any torture to him in the police custody.

However, the relatives of Bhuddilal don’t agrees with Chaudhary and told DNA that the police tried to release him immediately on bail even though he was admitted in the hospital. “The police sub inspector and incharge of the police station even gave Rs1,000 to his wife to take Bhuddilal to the Sayajirao Hospital (SH) in Vadodara,” Bharat Salat said.

His wife Maniben Salat took him to the hospital in Vadodara where the victim succumbed to death. “She brought the dead body back to the police station after he died,” Chaudhary told. “He died in the police custody and the police cheated with us, by sending me to the Vadodara for his treatment,” Maniben Salat told DNA.

A crowd of over 100 people from the Salat community gathered at the Pavi Jetpur Police station late in the evening on Tuesday. “We have filed an application which revels the facts of Buddhilal’s death and have demanded to have a shoot his post mortem for the evidence against the polcie,” Bharat Salat said.

Salat is survived by his wife and four kids in the age group of 3 to 10 years.

List of incidents
March 15, 2008 At around 5 pm Buddhilal Salat was picked up by the
police for bootlegging.

March 16, 2008 At around 6 am he felt tizzy and became unconscious

At around 7 am He was at the Pavi Jetpur hospital

At around 12 pm He died in Sayajirao Hospital in Vadodara.

NOTE-The above mention news story written by me appeared in DNA, in Ahmedabad edition on March 18, 2008, Tuesday.

A member of BT to USA for studies.

No one would have thought that the struggle for survival started by the Budhan Theatre in August 1998, will result into the admission of two of its members in National School of Drama and would given enough exposure to Uttar Bajrange to fly to New Jersey in USA to do his post graduation.

Even though Bajrange has nothing to do with the active theatre activism, but he was fortunate enough to get enough exposure for being an active member of Budhan Theatre, which motivated him to contribute to his community by concentrating on his career.

He got support and guidance from the people associated with BT and able to fly to USA to study. For instance he got support from the film maker couple from New York (now in Taiwan) Kerim Friedman and Shaswati Tadulkar. The couple is making a film on Budhan Theatre.

Bajrange is the first one from the chhara community from Ahmedabad to go abroad for studies. He will study in Steven’s college in New Jersey for 21 months starting from January 2008.

Budhan Theatre wishes him a very best of luck and wish he will also play an important role to change the fortune of entire DNT community of India.

DNT Commission to submit interim report within fifteen days.

*The members of the community and representatives of NGOs demanded the commissioner to submit the report before commencement of next five year plan.
*The commission has not yet submitted the TAG report to the Union government.
*In a close group meeting organised in Baroda on Saturday, the members of DNT/NT/SNT demanded the resignation of the commissioner of the commission.
*The chairman of the commission announced that the commission will sit with some of the members of such communities and the members of TAG on Tuesday, to prepare the interim report.

Roxy Gagdekar
Ahmedabad.

The commission for Denotified, Nomadic and Semi-nomadic Tribes (DNT-NT-SNT) is expected to submit its interim report by March 31, 2007, after pressure from various representatives of DNT/NT/SNT of the country including Karnataka, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra. All these states have maximum number of DNT/NT/SNT tribes in the country.

In a close group meeting with the representatives of DNT/NT/SNT tribes like Bajanias, Sansis, Madaris, Vadis, Daffers etc,. People from 30 such tribes were present in the meeting along with the members of the Technical Advisory Group (TAG). “The delay in the submission of the report will surely deprived around six crore DNT/NT/SNT people of the country from the provisions for them in the eleventh five year plan,” said an activists and member of TAG, Kanji Patel. The eleventh five year plan will commence from April 18, 2007.

At the end of the meeting the chairman of the commission Dr. Balkrishna Renke announced that the commission will sit with some of the members of such communities and the members of TAG on Tuesday. “One representative from each state Gujarat, Karnataka and Maharashtra will meet the commission on Tuesday,” said the chairman of TAG Dr.GN Devy. Dr.Ajay Dandekar and Dr.Devy will also be present in the meeting to help the commission to submit the interim report within next fifteen days.

“No provisions have been made for the DNT/NT/SNT as the commission failed to submit even its interim report to the union social welfare department,” said another member of TAG, Dr. Ajay Dandekar. TAG had submitted a report of recommendations to the commission, four months, which was supposed to be submitted to the union government in December 2006.

The representatives of the community as well as some NGOs from Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Karnataka are worried about no provisions for DNT-NT-SNT in the eleventh five year plan if the report is not submitted within next fifteen days. “The commission should submit the TAG report, as interim report to the government so that some provisions can be made in the next five year plan for such tribes,” said advisor, Vicharta Samuday Samarthan Manch (VSSM), Harinesh Pandya. VSSM is a Gujarat based organisation working for DNT/NT/SNT.

As a result of non-submission of the TAG report into the government there are no provisions for DNT/NT/SNT in the union budget this year. “Similar case would also arise in the eleventh five year plan if the report is not submitted to the government,” said an DNT activist from Karnataka, Dr.Balaguru Murthy.

The commission which was supposed to last up to December 2006, was extended because the it was not able to submit its report to the central government. “The commission is further extended for one more year, but it has even not submitted its interim report, which indicates that the commission is not working properly,” says a representative of Madari Community Babunath Madari.

According to the commission there are around 15 crore DNT/NT/SNT people residing in India.



The mentioned News story written by me, appeared in DNA Money in Ahmedabad Edition on March 20, 2007. It was posted by on my blog on March 22, 2007.

Daffers fight ‘criminal’ tag, turn security guards in villages

*The tribe has entered into a contract with village panchayats to protect farms for a handsome remuneration
*Daffers were one of the 191 tribes labelled as ‘criminal tribes’ by the British
*They continue to be harassed by police

From eking out a living as highway robbers, members of the once “most dangerous” denotified tribe - Daffers - seem to have turned a new leaf earning their livelihood out of guarding fields and doing odd jobs.
The rise in remuneration from guarding fields in the past five years has been the main magnet for the members of this tribe. “We guard fields from thieves and cattle round-the-clock throughout the crop season,” said Latif Usmanbhai Daffer, a resident of Vasna village in Sanand at the inauguration of a photo exhibition organised by Vicharta Samuday Samarthan Manch (VSSM) in the city. The week-long exhibition, which is an initiative by VSSM and Janpath to bring all denotified and nomadic tribes of Gujarat on one platform, is being held at Seva Café on the CG Road.
Many of the Daffers engaged as ‘farm guards’ earn over Rs 2-3 lakh per year.
“Earlier, we used to be paid around Rs 1,200 to Rs 1,500 per month for protecting the fields in a village. But the rate has increased to almost Rs 16,000 motivating many of us to take up this work,” Ahmed Ibrahim Sindi, a Daffer leader of Vijapur town of Mehsana district told DNA Money.
The farm protection business has prospered so much that many Daffers have entered into contract with village panchayats to decide the rates.
“We have standardised rates for protecting farms in various regions. An acre of farm in Saurashtra costs Rs 20 while the same in north Gujarat will cost Rs 100,” said Sindi.
Many members of the tribe have also turned to transport business.
“Those who are in the transport business earn Rs 5000-6000 per month as goods transporters,” Sajan Daffer, a Daffer community leader in Mehsana told DNA Money.
However, the tribe continues to be harassed by police despite the criminal cases against them coming down considerably in the last five years.
“Some of the Daffers are continuously harassed by the police due to the stigma associated with their community. We have even passed a memorandum in our community panchayat to ostracize any member who participates in a criminal activity,” said Sindi.
Explaining how the community got its ‘criminal tag’, Mittal Patel, Co-ordinator of VSSM said, “The British in 1871 had marked around 191 tribes including the Daffers as ‘criminal tribes’ under the Criminal Tribes Act 1871. They even kept them in special jails called settlements.”

published on December 22, 2006 in Ahmedabad Edition of DNA Money.

FEMINA-DECEMBER 20,2006.-WE ARE NOT THIEVES

One of the friend of budhan theatre, MANJU RAMANAN has written anexcellent article on some of the brave DNT women of India. It is seriesof article, six stories of DNT women have been published in the firstphase.It is good to read this special feature if one wants to know about theINDIAN WOMEN.One of the founding member of 'Budhan Theatre' and theatre activistKALPANA GAGDEKAR'S interview has also been published in it.BUT the most impressive thing to know is the interview of SHYAMLISABAR, the wife of BUDHAN SABAR of West Bengal, the man whose custodialdeath had made a history.

The intro of the article is as follows....


When the oppressed burst into words, they are unstoppable. Theirlexicon resonates withyears of muffled silence that has just been un-gagded. Women fromIndia's denotified tribes(with 40-60 million people), labelled thieves by imperial rule, stillbear the brunt of subversivelaws, false increiminatio and imprisonment. they have been mob-lynched,tortured evenraped. Manju Ramanan meets six remarkable women (Ther could be moresoon) whoboomeranged the chains of oppression, with great courage.

'Hole in the wall' in chharangar.

Now a days the kids at chharanagar are not seen on the streets playing cricket or gulli danda. They have very easy accessement to the computers and Internet. Yes, the unique concept of hole in the wall is been started here in chharanagar since 14th January 2006. This unique concept allows the students to access the computers for almost 24 hours. The hole in the wall in chharanagar is first in Gujarat. It is been started in chharanagar by Sneh prayas, an NGO working for the underprivilege students. Of cource the NIIT is behind everything. In other words it is a joint venture between NIIT and Sneh Prayas. The Kids here can access the computer and Internet easily.

Most of the parents of these kids had even not seen a computer. Even the kids had not got any chance to work with the machine before this unique concept. Computer is one of the subjects in schools for these kids, but in a period of around half an hour four to five students are been allotted one computer. So the students are never able to understand the system properly. And the number of cyber cafes is very less near chharanagar. The one which exist charge heavily. So it is nearly impossible for the kids of chharanagar to access the computers. But now it is possible for them to work on computers whenever they want.

There will be around twelve more computers kept in this center other than these two computers as 'hole in the wall.' A computer trainning center will be started soon here, where everyone from chhara community would become computer literate. A huge place is been rented by sneh prayas where vocational training center can be started for the chhara people. So there is still a very long way to go, but some very positive things had started here ever in the history of chharanagar.

Struggle of three years resulted in allotment of six houses to Sansis.

The Sansi basti near Maninagar was last demolished before two months. As a result of modernising the city 191 families living here become homeless since last three years. Budhan theatre took the responsibility to resettled them, as soon as possible.

Daxin Bajrange a active member of Budhan theatre is the person who took the challenge to resettle the residents of this ghetto. It took almost three years to daxin to sensitse some of the officers in Ahmedabad Municiple corporation. "It is really very hard to sensitise the local authorities, but we go on doing our work, we took help of many concerned officers and activists." says Daxin.

The Ahmedabad Municiple corporation had announced that they will give houses to six families out of 191 families. "Most of the families have election card and ration card. But these houses are been provided to only those families who had a Jhuppatpatti identity card(Slum identity card), issued by Indira Gandhi Government in 1976." Says Daxin. Rest of the families were also living with these people but they were not able to take care of this document. I lost it(slum identity card) when the municipality came here for encroachment first time befor three years." says Mukesh sansi, a resident of this area.

"udhan theatre will go on doing its work and will try to provide the rest of the families too with some alternate piece of land." says daxin.

The Negative reaction of a protest play 'Mujhe Mat Maro Saab' by Budhan Theatre

No one knew that the result of a protest play in front of the IIM-Ahmedabad would leave 250 families of a slum homeless. The play 'Mujhe mat maro saab.(MMMS)'(Don't beat me sir)was performed on 5th jan at 5:30 pm in front of the gate of IIM Ahmedabad. Now around 250 families of tribes like Bharthari(A artist tribe), Rajbhoi, Nat Bajania(A artist tribe) and Harijans. All of them had to even leave their temporary shelters as a punishment by the AUDA (Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority) and Vastrapur Nagarpalika.

The play MMMS is based on the police atrocities on such tribes and encroachment process of the local authorities. Their present plight is been shown very effectively in this play. All the people here in this gheto survive on the petty labour and petty business. Their condition is same as the condition of the Sansi Basti of Maninagar. This ghetto is located near the famous Management Institute of India, the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad.

When the play was performed on 5th jan in front of this institution there were many students present as audiance. And exactly on the next day of the performance the temporary shelters of these people was destroyed by the local authorities. There huts were first time broken in 2004 when Ahmedabad city was declared as a metropolitan city of India. To raise their voice and stand on behalf of them Budhan Theatre has made and performed this play on various location like Tejgadh, Baroda, karai police academy(yet to be performed)and many other places. But the reaction of this play is really very dangerous when it was last performed in front of IIM.

"You go away form here or we will beat you and take away all your belongings." This was the statement of an officer on duty of local authority, on morning of 7th jan. "We are very scared and had to run away from here, we want to save our lives, our children and our very less belongings. So there is no other obtion than to run away from here." says a senior citizen here in Ahmedabad. There were around 250 families residing here before 2004. But later the figure decreased to 25 families as a result of continous ecroachment in this Ghetto.

The local Authorities like AUDA and AMC are not ready to help this poor people to provide some alternate land to stay. Budhan Theatre is fighting for this cause since 2004, but the problem is with the testimonies. Very less among them have election identity cards. "We are living here when the IIM and the Andhjan Mandal(An organisation working to help disable people) here was not established, It was almost like a jungle and we settled here, at that time." Says s senior citizen of this locality."How can we have any testimony, We don't know what documents are required to prove oneself that we are the citizens of India." said Rajubhai, a resident of this locality.

Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation is even dangerous than the Killer quake of Gujarat.

It is neither any earthquake nor the result of any war in Ahmedabad. All the huts here are scattered in pieces and the area with 191 houses is now a big open lane so that the area looks more beautiful. Ramswaroop sansi of Ahmedabad was sitting calmly near his broken hut taking care of his very less belongings. He lives in the Sansi Basti (ghetto) in Ahmedbad. It is a small ghetto of Sansis of Ahmedabad. They live in Maninagar, the area from where Narendra Modi the chief minister of Gujarat fought his last Vidhan Sabha Election (legislative elections.)

It is the Municipal Corporation of Ahmedabad, who had forced to live them in inhuman conditions. They were living happily here since early '60s, but these happy days came to an end when Ahmedabad was declared as a metropolitan city in Central Budget of 2004. After this the encroachment work (to beautify the city) of the corporation started in double speed. "We are living here since '60, I don't know why we are being forced to move away from here. We have Election cards, Ration cards and all other residential testimonials. But no one is ready to hear us." says Ramswaroop Sansi (50), the local leader of Sansi Basti.
191 families lives in this ghetto, which includes people of Sansi, Rajbhoi, Vaghri and Dom tribes. Almost all of them are forced to again become Nomads. Because their huts have been broken for 10 times since 2004. "We have to spend Rs.1000 to 1500 to reconstruct our huts. The corporation authorities even takes away the scraps with them after breaking our huts." Says Mukesh Sansi, a resident of this area. As the residents here have no other place to live they comes to the same place again and reconstruct their huts. There are many families in Ahmedabad and in other metropolitan cities of India who are scared of the term 'developing the cities' because they have to pay the highest price for the development of cities, i.e. the land on which they lives since decades.

The law says that any family settled in Ahmedabad before 1965, is to be provided with alternate land by the Govt, if they have to be encroached. But it is not been done here. "We settled here in 1960, at that time this area was not too developed. We had seen Ahmedabad developing since many decades, and now they (govt. administrator) say that we are not a part of it and should go out of Ahmedbad." says a nostalgic Ramswaroop. Since the establishment of this slum it was denied from all type of facilities and basic amenities. There is no electricity, no proper sanitation and no water connection. In other words the people here live in very inhuman conditions. "We are still happy here, we urge them not to throw us out of the city. Where will we go and how will we survive." Says a senior citizen of this locality.
Most of the Sansis here survive through petty business. Almost all the sansis male sell maps and charts on the streets of Ahmedbad while the women are very brilliant in making hair weigh. While the Rajbhoi and Vaghri survives on petty labor work. "Everything is disturbed, we are no more able to go for our work. We have to take care of our belongings. During encroachments Corporation staff comes with the police personals, who many times even does atrocities on our people. So we have to remain present at our residence during the encroachment process, if we want to save our children and other family members." says Mukesh Sansi.

Mukesh was able to earn about Rs.100 a day easily by selling the Maps and charts. But now a day he has to remain at his residence. While his wife begs and brings some food daily for them from the immediate vicinity. This is the condition of almost all the families living here.

The place with most cultural activities in Ahmedabad-Chharanagar.

Once situated on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, Chharanagar has now become a part of it. Consisting of a population of around fifteen thousand people. ‘‘This slum” as said by Dr.Ganesh Devy, a literature critic and founder of Tribal Academy in Tejgadh (of Baroda District in Gujarat,India),‘‘is now the only place in Ahmedabad where cultural activities are done in a huge amount.”

Chharanagar were notorious for its illegal activities since many decades, but education and tremendous amount of cultural talent in this tribe has helped to wipe out this image to some extent. Most of the youngsters here are now interested in Drama and Singing activities instead of involving in any type of illegal business. But how has this change occurred? Play writer and DNT activist Daxin Bajrange says,‘‘We have a small library in chharanagar. This library is different from other libraries because only book reading activity is not carried out here.” This library is been run in chharanagar with the help of Sneh Prayas, a NGO working for the upliftment of underpriviledge children. The Chharanagar library is a common place for many youngsters who are willing to change the notorious image of chharanagar. ‘‘The library is not different from our theatre group, Budhan Theatre, which is involved in many cultural activities. This theatre group is formed with the objective to wipe out the notorious image of chharanagar.” said Bajrange.

Budhan Theatre, struggle for symbolization is the name of this cultural group run by many chhara youths. It is an important activity not only for the development of Chhara tribe but also for 191 Denotified Tribes of India. One of the founder member of this group Kalpana Gagdekar says,‘‘Voice of these marginalized people is raised and communicated to the main stream society through the medium of street theatre.” The main activity of this group is to culturally develop chharanagar, so that some alternative source of income could be automatically generated in the community. In fact they had started generating employment in such areas. The celebration of 53rd Denotification day justifies this. ‘‘Basically chharas are the artist tribe and it is proved that, most of the chharas are comfortable with acting and singing, so the role of Budhan theatre is to hunt such talent through a singing competition.” Said Kalpana. Around 70 young and enthusiastic participant was a part of this programme. Daxin says,‘‘We are planning to come out with a album with all the winners of this competion, so that people could know that chharas are born actors and not born criminals.(The name given to Denotified Tribes by British in 1871). Budhan Theatre is a name of not only a theatre group but a movement fighting for their identity.

As stated earlier the library is run by this group with the help of Sneh Prayas, a NGO working for the upliftment and development of marginalized children. Other young chhara activist devoted to work hard for the development of Chhara Tribe, Vijay Chhara(26) says,‘‘We called it Chharanagar Samudayik Vikas Kendra(CSVK). The main objective of this center is to work for the development of whole Tribe. We had started this long journey by concentrating on the development of chhara kids.” An informal school, nutrition programme, outside visit, theatre activity, drawing class etc., are carried out in this center, all by the Sneh prayas.

Most of the parents of the students are involved in some type of illegal activity. But their kids are now-a- days busy to work on computer and do several cultural activities. One of the student Jayesh Machrekar(15) visiting the library daily says,‘‘It is the place next to my house. I have learnt to work on computer as well as to act after coming into this library.” Around 150 students are a regular visitor to this historical place. Yes many chhara people called it a historical place because such a successful movement has not ever been last for so long in this part of Ahmedabad.

But the development of chharanagar took its first step when social activists like Late Mansing Chhara, Adv.Raghunath Chhara, Late Rasik Gagdekar started the developmental movements in chharanagar. In fact it is because of their efforts that a graduate from each house is found in chharanagar. A Class II officer working in Information Department of Central Government says,‘‘The amount of Education has increased in our community since last two decades. The amount of primary education is almost cent percent.”

It is their movement that the chhara youngsters are taking forward. And there are many activists like Mahasweta devi and Dr.G.N.Devy who always says that they are proud to the friends of chhara and helpful to them in their struggle for symbolization.

Chharanagar

Chharanagar, a small ghetto of DNTs was once situated in the outskirts of Ahmedbad. Now as the city grows, chharangar has become a part of the Metropolitan city. Chharas, the poeople residing in chharanagar are still living with the stigma of Criminal Tribes, the one which British gave them in 1871. Mahasweta Devy says,"There are two birth year for a child born to any DNT family." One is the real birth year and the other one is 1871, in which the Criminal Tribes Act was passed to 'Rehabilitate' tribes like Sansi(Also known as chhara, aadodiya, kanjar, kanjarbhat, manesh and bhedkut),Daffer, Vaghri, Bhamta(Also known as kaikadii) etc. There were around 191 such tribes that were forced to live in the such settlements.

Chharanagar is now situated near one such settlement. The people of Chharanagar are still fighting for their identity. The yougsters are still deprived of jobs. Even in such situations, a wave of positive change is blowing in chharanagar. That is because of some of the concerned citizens and Mahasweta devi, the lady who came out strogly on the issue of Denotified Tribes.(DNT).

But still there is lot of work to be done in chharanagar. keep watching this blog to have information regarding Chharas and DNTs.