Sri Lankan Situation is Fraught with Danger

The danger here is that the emergent political dimensions will undermine the prospects of economic recovery.

M.K. Bhadrakumar
16 May 2022

Ranil Wickremesinghe arrives at a Buddhist temple after his latest appointment as prime minister, Colombo, May 13, 2022.

India finds itself between the rock and a hard place in its approach to the Sri Lankan crisis. There is no question that the government attributes primacy to Sri Lanka remaining a practising democracy. But the developing situation in that country is going to be a cliffhanger right up to the final whistle.

Things can take different turns. The best hope is that although the political class is thoroughly discredited and the legislative is dysfunctional, the democratic spirit lingers on. Arguably, the protests themselves are a manifestation of it — an inchoate uprising clamouring for political accountability by the elected government. The democratic foundations of the state are not irreparably damaged.

Political transition has become the core demand of the protestors and embedded within that the non-negotiable pre-condition that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa should quit office. The demand has been partially conceded, although with caveats, but the pre-condition on the president’s ouster hangs in the air. No one knows how to bell the cat.

Rajapaksa acted smartly by appointing as interim prime minister a senior politician with sound experience, Ranil Wickremesinghe, but the fact remains that the latter is in popular perception someone who is close to the president’s family, and whom the president can rely upon to protect the family’s security and interests if the crunch time comes. Simply put, it is old wine in a new bottle.

On the plus side, however, this is the sixth time that Wickremesinghe is holding the post of prime minister and he enjoys acceptability in Delhi and the western capitals as a sober thinker and doer who can be trusted to steer clear of rash decisions, which is useful at the present juncture to source urgently needed help from abroad to navigate the crisis in the Sri Lankan economy.

On the other hand, Wickremesinghe is a discredited politician himself who never once completed a term in office as prime minister, and he represents a one-man party (himself) in the parliament and is a spent force politically. As the Archbishop of Colombo Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith put it, “People want a person with integrity, not someone who has been defeated in politics.”

There is lurking suspicion In Colombo that Rajapaksa picked Wickremesinghe primarily to deflect the protestors’ demand for his own exit. The BBC reported that the news of Wickremesinghe’s appointment has been “largely met with dismay and disbelief” in Sri Lanka.

This becomes important in the days and weeks ahead because the onerous responsibility to steer the political transition to calmer waters leading to fresh elections and the formation of a new government, etc. falls on Wickremesinghe’s shoulders. The big question is: Will he persuade Rajapaksa to step down?

The high probability is that Rajapaksa may instead try to use Wickremesinghe as a firewall to weather the protests, in effect, to defy the protestors’ demand that he quit. Suffice to say, the future of the Wickremesinghe government is murky at best.

The danger here is that the emergent political dimensions will undermine the prospects of economic recovery. It is going to be next to impossible for Wickremesinghe to negotiate the bridging finance and the agreement with the IMF while simultaneously on a parallel track clip the powers of the executive presidency and set a date for Rajapaksa to resign and for the office of the executive presidency to be abolished. The economic agenda itself is so daunting.

In addition to negotiating with the IMF on the details of long-term structural reforms, the government will need to arrange urgent “bridge financing” from international agencies to inject short-term liquidity, convince creditors to allow a pause in debt payments, and prepare a range of legislation to increase taxes and cut non-urgent public spending.

Without doubt, the IMF has already spelt out the reforms needed to win its financial support, which include a long series of austerity measures, from budget cuts to income tax and VAT increases, an end to inflationary money printing by the Central Bank, phasing out import restrictions, stopping government interventions aimed at stabilising the rupee, and “growth-enhancing structural reforms”, including unpopular measures such as the sale or partial privatisation of state-owned companies, removal of costly social subsidies, and so on.

As for Rajapaksa, he seems determined to cling to power, especially in the face of the public calls to hold him and his family accountable for alleged corruption and other crimes. He has expressed no intention to resign his post and instead has floated the idea vaguely of curtailing his executive powers. The situation is extremely volatile. Even deeper economic collapse or more serious social unrest becomes a possibility if the political standoff continues unresolved quickly.

At any rate, the process to remove or sideline President Rajapaksa is likely to take weeks, if not months, and could fail entirely. This is where Rajapaksa may seize the moment to turn the turmoil to his own purpose by resorting to violent repression (consistent with his past record) or bring in the military for a larger role in governance.

The top military commanders – most notably the army chief, Major General Shavendra Silva and the defence secretary, retired General Kamal Gunaratne — are known to be close to the president. The military personnel live a life of perks and privileges in Sri Lanka and as stakeholders, they would have no qualms about turning their guns on protestors to preserve the regime.

Of course, the role of the international community is relevant but it is not to be exaggerated. The military leadership is unlikely to be deterred from intervening in politics or from brutal suppression of protests in support of the regime. Interestingly, the incumbent army chief is already under US sanctions for alleged war crimes (committed under Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s watch as the defence secretary during the civil war.)

Paradoxically, any lifeline from the IMF, while easing economic hardships for the average Sri Lankans and lessen the intensity of the clamour for political change, could also provide breathing space to Rajapaksa, allowing him and his family to restore themselves. The family has a history of rising like the Phoenix from the ashes.

Sri Lanka is only one of some 35 developing countries today that are struggling with post-pandemic economic recovery. The big powers have little time left for Sri Lanka amidst the birth pangs of a multipolar world order. Therefore, the chances are that Gotabaya Rajapaksa, a ruthless practitioner of power, will strive to attrition the protesters somehow to survive the challenge to his leadership.

INDIA

Rich Look on as Homes of the Poor Vanish in Delhi

Governments and society must change their outlook toward those who keep the wheels of the economy turning. It is what our Constitution says we must do too.

Swarajbir
14 May 2022

A man walks past demolished structure after a demolition drive in Delhi


In American novelist Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s novel ‘The Sirens of Titan’, a central character named Winston Niles Rumfoord acquires the power to appear anywhere on earth and then disappear to another planet. One of his sojourns takes him to Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. Vonnegut fantasises that Rumfoord and his dog have entered a phenomenon he calls Chrono-Synclastic Infundibulum, which turns them into a kind of ‘wave’ that appears and disappears at will. Rumfoord materialises—becomes visible—when the scattered molecules of his body come together. And when he wants to disappear from anywhere, the molecules break up, and he dematerialises to materialise in a new location.

The wealthy and middle-class people who live in big metros and cities also want people with fewer resources, who work in their homes, shops, factories, businesses, etc., to appear at their place of work on time, work properly, and then disappear. They expect workers to be diligent and efficient in accomplishing their tasks quickly and appropriately. These sections also believe they pay these workers a lot of money, which they do not even deserve. In a way, they think they are being kind to an underserving lot. It does not matter to them where or how these workers live, whether they have access to health and education or social security. The rich and middle class remain silent and indifferent to all such concerns.

The question is, where should these workers live? Like in Vonnegut’s imaginary world, they cannot materialise and dematerialise at will. They are not characters in a novel but human beings in flesh and blood who live in a cruel real world. With the kind of wages they earn, very few of them can afford houses with concrete roofs. So, where do the rest of them live? Of course, in unhealthy, unsafe, and socially undesirable environs called “slums”.

Their spaces are cramped, yet they live there—entire families of five, six, or seven members in just a tiny hovel. Many pay rent to live in these huts. Even this is termed as “illegal occupation” and “encroachment”. There are times when their settlements are legalised, and at other times, they are bulldozed. It depends entirely on the will of the rulers, the administrators, and the balance of political power. Is it not pertinent to ask, when do the workers figure in our collective understanding or our social and economic discourses?

Look at the residential colonies of the wealthy and the middle class. There is no space for the poor and the underprivileged in them. No part of these colonies is reserved for housing for the workers, as the land prices here are high. When the price of land is steep, men with fewer resources get dwarfed. Setting aside areas for workers’ dwellings makes no “economic sense” in the development discourse. The claims of the underprivileged inevitably dwarf and disappear before such economic logic. Some large, affluent houses create servants’ rooms, typically tiny single rooms where the help and their entire family are expected to stay, feeling obliged. The servants’ room is considered a big favour to a worker. A worker who lives in such a room with their family must be grateful to the employer and, in return, they make themselves available to the master full-time. Not all workers are fortunate enough to get a room in exchange for their services. This is metropolitan slavery—what else are we going to call it?

The same middle-class thinking informs the architecture and town planning professions. Just like no place is carved out where workers can live in dignity while planning colonies, city planning as a whole also creates no space for them. Occasionally, the government will announce housing for the poor and pigeonhole flats are built for working people. The upper and middle classes quickly lash out at these as a “wasteful” expenditure. As control over the process of urbanisation increasingly passes into private hands, new privately-developed colonies have even less space for workers. In fact, they are entirely missing from these developments.

In the perception of the middle class, workers’ settlements are havens for the filthy, the criminals and those who spread disease. There is no room for such settlements in our beautiful clean cities, opines the middle class. They should be demolished to make way for better buildings, or parks and business facilitation centres.

But what is the economy of the demolitions we are seeing? When any settlement (slum) is demolished, the upper and middle-class people living in its neighbourhood heave a sigh of relief. They rejoice that the “filth” is being removed, even if they need those who live there to work in homes, shops, or factories. Whether the government is giving workers an alternative place to live—is it not the government’s responsibility to provide shelter to the underprivileged?—the upper- and middle-class attitude towards these issues is negative.

The middle class thinks it pays taxes, especially income tax, so it funds the government’s expenses and runs the economy, while all other people are a “burden” on the exchequer. In reality, the millions of underprivileged people contribute to the state exchequer through indirect taxes, which pay for the advancement of the rich and cover the salaries and loans taken by the middle class.

When slums and settlements of the poor are demolished, officials declare they have freed government land worth thousands of crores of rupees from illegal occupation. Such announcements are hailed as a sign of the success of the authorities. They are credited with having benefited the government and civil society by thousands of crores. Only on the margins of some newspapers does it appear that the demolition has left thousands homeless and hurt as many livelihoods. Where will the homeless go to live? Nobody thinks about it.

Even if a rehabilitation plan exists for the poor, it is half-baked and remains stuck in administrative red tape for decades. Often, resettlement sites are miles away from the upper- and middle-class habitations, and even then, they are seen as acts of state benevolence.

In a few years, the city expands, and the upper and middle class approach these settlements. All over again, they start talking about the workers’ settlements as filthy, crowded, ‘sanctuaries of crime’, just like Delhi’s affluent class are talking about Jahangirpuri and other settlements these days.

When it comes down purely to economics, most experts say the government saves thousands of crores through demolitions and removing encroachments. But many experts have brought to our attention the losses incurred when thousands of people are left homeless, with their livelihoods destroyed. Losses from such destructions are far bigger than financial gains derived from amassing some more land.

Governments, political leaders, town planners, financial experts, administrators, and economists should be guided by a humane perspective on urban issues. It is their humanitarian, legal and constitutional duty to think about the poor working people before they order the bulldozing of humble settlements. Only this will make us civilised in the true sense, not the mindset that seeks to uproot workers from their homes. Workers are the water that nourishes the soul of humanity. They are the salt of the earth, the real inheritors and masters of the earth. Governments and society must give them their due share. Only by recognising their share can society move towards a just order and build a nation on the principles of justice, equality, and fraternity. Governments and society must change their outlook towards the working people. This is what our Constitution also says we must do.

Dr Swarajbir is the editor of Punjabi Tribune and a noted playwright. The views are personal. This article is a translation by Navsharan Singh from the original in Punjabi, published with permission from the author.

ABOLISH THE DEATH PENALTY

INDIA

Suicidal Tendencies Among Death Row Prisoners Raise Serious Questions About the State’s Responsibility, Says the Team From NLU-D’s Project 39A

The mental health condition of death row prisoners who have been languishing in prisons due to delay in processing of their mercy petitions, and other legal remedies in the appellate courts, has been a mystery. In this interview, the team from NLU-D’s Project 39A.

Gursimran Kaur Bakshi
13 May 2022

Courtesy: NLU-D’s Project 39A

The mental health condition of death row prisoners who have been languishing in prisons due to delay in processing of their mercy petitions, and other legal remedies in the appellate courts, has been a mystery. In this interview, the team from NLU-D’s Project 39A – which has collected the requisite data – sheds some light to unravel it.

—–

In December 2021, the Supreme Court bench comprising Justices L. Nageswara Rao, B.V Nagarathna and B.R Gavai acquitted three death row convicts (Momin, Jaikam and Sajid) in Jaikam Khan versus The State of Uttar Pradesh, after they had already spent eight years in prison. The bench remarked that their conviction and death sentence imposed is totally unsustainable in law.

As per the empirical report ‘Deathworthy’ published by the National Law University, Delhi’s [NLU-D] Project 39A, it has been found that more than 60% of prisoners on death row suffer from some kind of mental illness.

As we commemorate Mental Health Awareness Month, it has been realised that the present laws namely, Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 [MHCA], Prisons Act, 1894 and the Model Prison Manual, 2016 do not substantively address the mental health rights of prisoners.

The 1894 Act only gives a definition of a sick prisoner as someone who ‘appears out of health in mind or body’. Whereas, the MHCA does not have provisions to address the mental well-being of prisoners. It does have provisions, such as Section 113, that provide for a prisoner with mental illness to be shifted to the psychiatric ward of the medical wing of the prison. According to the Model Prison Manual, there is ‘one’ Psychologist/counsellor for every ‘500 prisoners’.

To get a closer understanding of the mental health conditions of prisoners, The Leaflet asked a few questions from the team of Project 39A based at the NLU-D. These questions have been answered by Dr. Anup Surendranath, Executive Director of Project 39A and an Assistant Professor of Law at the NLU-D; CP Shruthi, Mitigation Associate; and Medha Deo, Programme Director for Fair Trial Fellowship.

Project 39A aims to trigger new conversations on legal aid, torture, forensics, mental health in prisons, and the death penalty by using empirical research to re-examine practices and policies in the criminal justice system.

Excerpts from the interview:

Q: Project 39A published various empirical studies on the mental health of prisoners on death row. Please tell us about the findings of those reports. Also, what all categories of prisoners require mental healthcare facilities?

A: ‘Deathworthy’ is a first of its kind empirical and descriptive study to take a psychosocial approach to understanding the mental health of death row prisoners in India. It presents empirical data on mental illness and intellectual disability among death row prisoners in India and the psychological consequences of living on death row.

Also read: 62.2% death row prisoners diagnosed with at least one mental illness: Study

As a part of this study, we interviewed 88 death row prisoners and their families across five states (Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Karnataka, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh).


We also found that an overwhelming majority of death row prisoners interviewed (62.2%) had a mental illness and 11% had an intellectual disability.

The report essentially charts out the life of these prisoners, the implication of poverty and other vulnerabilities that they are exposed to and what happens to them when they come to prison. We found that there were high instances of certain kinds of mental illnesses, what we also call the pains of death row.

We also found that an overwhelming majority of death row prisoners interviewed (62.2%) had a mental illness and 11% had an intellectual disability.

The proportion of persons with mental illness and intellectual disability on death row is overwhelmingly higher than the proportion in the community population.

I think all categories of prisoners require access to mental healthcare facilities. The prolonged period of incarceration and harsh conditions may exacerbate several other vulnerabilities, such as substance misuse problems, poor physical and mental health outcomes, learning difficulties, histories of trauma etc., among the prisoners. So the quality of care should encompass not only treatment but also therapy and care so as to minimize the chances of re-traumatizing individuals with a history of trauma.

Q: It’s said that people with mental illness are more likely to be victims of crime than perpetrators of crime. There are two concepts here-the mental illness and the legal capacity (defence of insanity) to commit the crime.

Can you explain to us the difference between the two in terms of being a mitigating factor in the commutation of sentencing?

A: The defence of insanity is what Section 84 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 [IPC] deals with. It is the “act of a person of unsound mind.”

This is a purely legal concept that deals with the ‘mental state’ of the person at the time of the commission of the act and exempts the individual of any criminal responsibility for the act as there is a loss of reasoning power with reference to the offence in question.

The threshold for claiming the insanity defence is so high that one needs to show that the individual was unable to appreciate the nature of the act or wrongdoing or that it was contrary to the law as it completely exempts them from any criminal responsibility.

While abnormality of mind or partial delusion, irresistible impulse or compulsive behaviour of a psychopath are recognised as psychiatric conditions, it affords no protection under Section 84 IPC.

On the other hand, when a mental health concern is presented as a mitigating factor, it is not a justification or an excuse for the crime but it is a fact or circumstance that in fairness or mercy, may be considered for reducing the degree of the defendant’s culpability for a death sentence. So, it looks at a much broader spectrum of mental health issues and concerns and not just psychiatric illness.

It involves taking a psycho-social approach to understanding the multitude of factors like adverse childhood experiences that an individual may have been exposed to, traumatic events that they have witnessed, previous history of physical and mental health issues, and any mental illness developed during the period of incarceration(post-conviction) and other vulnerabilities.

Q: I want to draw your attention to two specific cases- first, the acquittal of Momin, Jaikam and Sajid who spent eight years in prison including six years on death row. Project 39A has also covered this case. Second, recently the Supreme Court set an accused free by accepting his claim of juvenility after he had spent 17 years in prison. These are just two horrendous cases out of the many where the criminal justice system has failed its people.

We often say that the aim of the criminal justice system should be rehabilitation but is that really possible? Is there any post acquittal mental healthcare facility given to such types of persons who have been a victim of the unfairness of the Indian criminal justice system?

A: Project 39A was involved in the preparation and arguments of Momin, Jaikam and Sajid’s appeal at the Supreme Court. The last eight years have not been easy for these three men and their families. While they were pushed to the margins from multiple sites and it has had an impact on their financial, emotional, and mental well being, there is no specific institutional support that caters specifically to those wrongfully convicted or imprisoned.

The Model Prison Manual 2016 provides for steps to be taken to ensure the continuation of psychiatric treatment after release and provisions of social psychiatric after-care but it does not seem adequate to address issues such as re-adjustment and rehabilitation into the society after a long period of incarceration.

Providing mental healthcare for such prisoners would need a more holistic and trauma-informed approach that focuses not only on clinical recovery but social re-integration.


The threshold for claiming the insanity defence is so high that one needs to show that the individual was unable to appreciate the nature of the act or wrongdoing or that it was contrary to the law as it completely exempts them from any criminal responsibility.

Q: The suicide rate of prisoners is constantly rising. Many prisoners commit suicide because of the custodial settings we have. I want to refer to one of the convicts in the Nirbhaya gang-rape case who committed suicide before he was to be given the death penalty. How do you think the type of imprisonment impacts mental health, especially for those who are on death row or have suffered solitary confinement?

A: The death row population is precariously vulnerable to mental illness and to severe psychological harm in state custody. The long and harsh conditions of solitary confinement and lack of medical care further complicate their mental health condition. The findings of our report Deathworthy indicate that among the 88 prisoners interviewed during the course of the fieldwork, the main psychiatric illnesses found were Major Depressive Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Substance Use Disorder.

Also read: Mental Healthcare Act: issues of intersectionality and stigma need to be addressed

Prisoners also reported having psychotic episodes in prison – one of whom had a psychotic episode while in solitary confinement. Close to 50% of prisoners had thoughts of dying by suicide and eight attempted to die by suicide. This raises serious concerns about the responsibility of the State to provide for quality mental health care facilities to prevent and address the mental health crisis among the death row population.

Q: Lastly, I want you to address the current mental healthcare facilities provided to prison inmates as per the Model Prison Manual. Also, please tell us about the Supreme Court’s guidelines on the detention of mentally ill undertrial prisoners and how far those guidelines have been successful.

A: Prisoners with mental illness are kept in a separate ward according to the Model Prison Manual and there are psychiatrists checking up on them regularly but they are mostly prescribed general medicines which keep them feeling drowsy throughout the day so as to keep them from causing trouble.

Recent Supreme Court judgments have pushed for psychological evaluation of a prisoner but in the lower courts, there is still a substantial delay in getting that done despite the under trial prisoner showing overt symptoms of mental illness. In one case, the prisoner was diagnosed having schizophrenia and shifted to the regional mental hospital for some time but then brought back and declared fit for trial even when his mental health had not improved.

Gursimran Kaur Bakshi is a staff writer at The Leaflet
Courtesy: The leaflet

INDIA

Kolkata DYFI Meet: From Kashmir to Kerala, Youth Pledge to Intensify Their Fight for Better Society

Unemployment, authoritarianism, and communalism, are the biggest challenges ahead, say most delegates.

Sandip Chakraborty
15 May 2022

Renowned journalist Sasikumar inaugurating the DYFI conference.

Kolkata: It was a meeting point for youth from all parts of the country to gather and share their experiences and they all went back with the resolve to fight for their dreams of a better society – this was the takeaway for most delegates to the 11th National Conference of Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) held recently in Kolkata.

After the opens session of the conference, Nijil, 34, from Kochi in Kerala told NewsClick that the youth youth in his state had forged a strong connection with tribal, dalit and transgenders to build a better society. One transgender had also been made a member of the DYFI Kerala state committee, he added.

In Kerala, where a Left-led government is in power, “we have fostered youth organisations who are arranging regular job fairs, holding ideological campaigns along with developmental works,” he added.

Youth from Jammu and Kashmir, in complete contrast to those from Kerala, shared their experience of facing state repression. “In the name of law and order, the police and military are hurting the secular, democratic fabric of the country, as night searches, harassment of DYFI workers are quite common in Jammu and Kashmir. The situation is more alarming in Kashmir, MD Abbas, a DYFI delegate, told NewsClick.

Kulbinder Singh of Punjab spoke about the work DYFI did behind the scenes during the farmers’ movement at Delhi’s borders. While the farmers were sitting on dharna, their family matters were taken care of by their neighbours, and DYFI played a big role in that, he said.

Singh said age-old parties of Punjab have been wiped out in the recent Assembly elections and a new force (Aam Aadmi Party) has come to power. “If they do not perform, they too will be wiped out,” he said.

He said 339 DYFI comrades had been killed by militants in Punjab during the decade-long militancy and an attempt was made by religious fanatics to paint DYFI as an “anti-Sikh” organisation. But, all this propaganda has proved wrong and the role of DYFI in the farmers’ agitation and other movements has been hailed across the state.

Priyanka Murugeshan, 32, from Tamil Nadu pointed out that after the martyrdom of their comrade, Ashok, and after the suicide of a NEET aspirant, a strong protest movement took placed In the state, in which DYFI played a major role. A huge cycle rally was held in Tamil Nadu just before the conference, she said, adding that “we are in the forefront of movements and struggles on various local and national issues”.

Several youth delegates from Bharatiya Janata party-ruled states complained of saffronisation of education and spreading of communal venom.

“Everywhere there is a story of under-employment,” said Saptarshi Deb, a Red Volunteer and delegate from West Bengal.

“In BJP-ruled states, the government came to power promising jobs for all, and now they are saying that was a “jumla”, said Tripura DYFI leader Palash Bhowmik. He also spoke of repression by police and BJP “hooligans” on the organised youth movement in the Northeastern state.

Youth delegates from states with non-BJP government, such as Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Rajasthan, also spoke about their protests demanding jobs facing police lathicharge, as seen in West Bengal too.

Earlier, the delegate session of the conference was inaugurated by well-known journalist Shashi Kumar, who how democracy was under severe attack by the authoritarianism of BJP-RSS-led forces.

“Whenever democracy is under attack, secularism also stands a test. What is happening in the country is an undeclared emergency,” he said, pointed out that Articles 14, 19 and 21 of Constitution were under attack.

If these three Articles are not protected, then the Constitution of the country is not protected, Kumar said, adding that religious fanaticism and authoritarianism by the government had engulfed the country.

The festive spirit of the conference was evident in the Indian People’s Theatre Association or IPTA songs that were sung highlighting the rich tradition of people’s movements. The Red Volunteers also put up a stall highlighting their work during the Covid pandemic and lockdown. A book festival was held at the venue participated by multiple publishing houses. Artwork was done at the venue by well-known artists, which were given away as commemorative gifts to all states represented in the conference.

INDIA 

Songs of Equality’: Meet ‘Venal Thumbikal’, Asia’s Largest Street Theatre Movement for Children

Through children's theatre, the movement creates a space to discuss a wide range of themes: wars, racism, gender discrimination, environmental issues, child rights violations, distortion of history, scientific temper, etc.

Abhivad
16 May 2022



Thiruvananthapuram: Around 4,000 child artists, 209 troupes, in over 4,000 venues singing songs of equality and telling stories of justice. Kerala's 'Venal Thumbikal' is Asia's largest street theatre movement for children. Organised every summer by Balasangham, a progressive cultural forum for children, the theatre groups at block levels traverse through the length and breadth of the state, including remote and rural regions.

After a two-year break following the Covid pandemic, 'Venal Thumbikal' are back to the business this summer. 'Venal Thumbikal' means 'Dragonflies of the Summer'. The name is a metaphor, comparing the vibrance, enthusiasm, and curiosity of children with dragonflies. Through children's theatre, they discuss a wide range of themes: wars, racism, gender discrimination, environmental issues, child rights violations, distortion of history, scientific temper, etc.

When NewsClick met ‘Venal Thumbikal’ at Technical Higher Secondary School, Muttada, Thiruvananthapuram, the young performers were busy on stage. Not just on stage, they were everywhere - setting up the stage, arranging props, and even giving instructions to the mic operators. The majority of the audience was also children. With a brilliant blend of sharp social critique and wit, the performers engaged the audience throughout the show.

After the performance and a brief gathering with the team members and mentors to discuss how they fared on stage, some little artists talked to NewsClick. Shabana Shoukath from Karakulam, Thiruvananthapuram, who is one of the youngest members of the Peroorkada block team, was seen as very excited about her experience at the rehearsal camp and the tour. She and her friends got to learn many things from the camp and from the plays they performed. “We should oppose all sorts of injustice, like child labour, superstitions, etc. That's what we learned,” the 7th-grade girl said.

Meera Krishna from Nalanchira, who has joined the team after completing her 10th-grade exams, elaborates this further. "We could very well relate to all those issues that we discuss through our performances. For example, equality among girls and boys in school is the theme of one of our plays. Similarly, in my school, we have seen such an attitude of discrimination. They don't even want girls and boys to be close friends. At Balasangham camp, there were no such restrictions" – said Meera Krishna.

The play she donned the major role discusses the concept of gender-neutral uniforms. In the play, girls want to play Kabadi alongside boys. But the teachers and some of the boys oppose saying girls are too weak to play with boys. But in the end, the girls win the game as they decide to wear comfortable outfits like boys, abandoning their skirts which are not suitable for outfield activities. Through their play, the children's theatre group gives a fitting reply to those who opposed when some government schools in Kerala decided to implement a common uniform- pants and shirts- for girls and boys in December 2021.

Another play upholds scientific temper, passing a jibe at superstitions related to COVID-19. "During the pandemic outbreak, we saw several superstitions like asking people to chant 'Go Corona Go' or to clang utensils to fight Covid, and fake claims that Gomutra (cow urine) can cure Covid. We study science in school; we know that the Coronavirus is a micro-organism, and the only way to stay safe is to wear masks, sanitise or wash hands, and get vaccinated on time,"- said Adarsh, a 9th grader at St Thomas School, Thiruvananthapuram. Alphin and Brinda joined, saying they had got new friends from the camp.

During the summer vacation, when they miss friends from school, they could make new friends from the training camp. The activities and training at the rehearsal camp were fun; training and staying with friends was a very special experience, said the children.

The form and content for 'Venal Thumbikal' theatre groups are carefully crafted with contributions from children's writers, playwrights, theatre artists, musicians, etc. State-level workshops of experts and mentors are held every year to devise content for the year. Block-level teams of up to 20 members are selected through selection camps for children of 8 to 14 years of age. The selected team members attend a training camp for five days. Besides the training, it is an opportunity for the children to stay together and get to know each other better.

The mentors in charge of the camp are children's theatre experts like Biju Nadakappura, who trained four teams, including Peroorkada block 'Venal Thumbikal' at Govt UPS Konchira,Nedumangad, Thiruvananthapuram. Biju Nadakappura had been part of the same theatre movement as a child, which ignited his interest in children's theatre.

“Children's theatre is a great medium to work with, and children are fun to work with. Moreover, Venal Thumbikal raises socially relevant issues and children's issues through them their language. Children's street theatre groups across the state for over 30 years. This is an unparalleled feature,” said Biju Nadakppura, who also trains children's theatre groups for school youth festivals.

Sarod Changadath, state secretary of the Balasangham and a state-level coordinator of ‘Venal Thumbikal’ told NewsClick that the theatre movement envisions a just society through children. “We uphold constitutional values of unity, fraternity, and secularism through street theatre” – said Sarod.

Inspired by several children's theatre experiments during summer vacations that 'Balasangham' had been organising, the children's organisation gave form to 'Venal Thumbikal' in 1990. The theatre odyssey of children has only grown tremendously ever since. The movement, which started with one state-level theatre group travelling across Kerala, later began with district-level teams, and now the movement has 203 theatre groups across the state at block levels. In regions of linguistic minorities, the name and content of 'Venal Thumbikal' change: 'Besika Thumbikal' speak Kannada in Kumbalam, Manjeshwaram regions of Kasaragod district whereas 'Tamil Thumbikal' parade Munnar, Marayur regions of Idukki district.

India

Activists Object to Distribution of Fortified Rice Through PDS

Experts worry that with the government aggressively promoting a "singular reductionist corporate-controlled silver bullet solution" like fortified rice, a myriad of diverse local and natural solutions will get neglected and even eroded.

Newsclick Report

16 May 2022


Synthetic fortification of rice is not proven to be effective and can be toxic to many Indians, according to a report prepared by the Right to Food Campaign. The report was released following a three-day fact-finding visit to Jharkhand by the Right To Food Campaign (RTFC) and Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture (ASHA). The activists have urged the Jharkhand government to stop the distribution of fortified rice in the state immediately.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi revealed the ambitious plans of the Government of India to supply fortified rice in all food schemes of India by 2024 in his Independence Day speech in 2021. Earlier in 2019, the Union government had initiated a pilot scheme for "Fortification of Rice and its Distribution under Public Distribution System" for three years, with an outlay of Rs 174.64 crore, and this scheme was expected to unfold in 15 districts of 15 states until March 2022.

One of the stated objectives of this pilot scheme was “to evaluate the provision, coverage and Utilisation of Fortified Rice by the target population as well as the efficiency/effectiveness of the consumption of fortified rice in reducing the targeted micronutrient deficiencies in different age and gender groups.”

WHAT IS RICE FORTIFICATION?

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) defines rice fortification as the process of increasing essential micronutrients in rice so as to improve the nutritional quality of the food supply and provide a public health benefit with minimal risk to health. India is a leading rice-producing country, with 22% of the total global rice production. 65% of India's population consumes rice on a daily basis – the per capita rice consumption in India is 6.8 kg per month. Rice is, therefore, a large source of calories and a core component of agriculture and nutrition in most of India, though it is low in micronutrients.

"Milling of rice removes the fat and micronutrient-rich bran layers to produce the commonly consumed starch white rice while polishing further removes 75-90% of vit. B1, vit. B6, vit. E and Niacin. Fortifying rice provides an opportunity to add back the lost micronutrients but to also add others such as iron, zinc, folic acid, vit. B12 and vit. A," FSSAI explained in a document on rice fortification.

In India, rice is fortified using extrusion technology. In this technology, milled rice is pulverised and mixed with a premix containing vitamins and minerals. Fortified rice kernels (FRK) are produced from this mixture using an extruder machine. FRK is added to traditional rice in a ratio ranging from 1:50 to 1: 200. As per guidelines issued by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, the shape and size of the fortified rice kernel should “resemble the normal milled rice as closely as possible.” According to the guidelines, the length and breadth of the grain should be 5 mm and 2.2 mm respectively.

According to FSSAI norms, 1 kg of fortified rice will contain the following: iron (28 mg-42.5 mg), folic acid (75-125 microgram), and vitamin B-12 (0.75-1.25 microgram). Rice may also be fortified with zinc (10 mg-15 mg), vitamin A (500-750 microgram RE), vitamin B-1 (1 mg-1.5 mg), vitamin B-2 (1.25 mg-1.75 mg), vitamin B-3 (12.5 mg-20 mg) and vitamin B-6 (1.5 mg-2.5 mg) per kg.

At the time of PM Modi's announcement last year, nearly 2,700 rice mills had installed blending units for the production of fortified rice, and India's blending capacity stood at 13.67 lakh tonnes in 14 key states, according to figures provided by the Ministry. FRK production had increased rapidly from 7,250 tonnes to 60,000 tonnes within two years.

WHY ARE ACTIVISTS OBJECTING?

"Even as the Pilot Scheme is underway, without really taking off as per plan, fortified rice distribution has been scaled up to 257 districts of India in fifteen states by April 2022, covering more than 1.1 crore beneficiaries," the report by RTFC and ASHA said. It is reported that the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and other state agencies have already procured around 88.65 Lakh Metric Tonnes of Fortified Rice for supply and distribution.

Within this, approximately 4.3 Lakh Metric Tonnes have been distributed through PDS in the Pilot Districts. "This then appears to be the primary strategy of the Government to tackle malnutrition in the form of Anaemia in the country," it added.

The report highlighted that there is no consensus that fortification works. "Evidence published in the Cochrane Review in 2019 shows that iron-fortified rice failed to impact anaemia in several countries. Excess iron is known to create oxidative stress, and even small amounts of iron are contraindicated in the case of diseases like Thalassemia, Sickle Cell Anaemia, and acute infections such as Malaria or Tuberculosis," it said.

The number of Indians with such diseases is significant, and most are not even aware that they have such conditions, said the activists. They added, "In this one-size-fits-all solution, fortified rice is being pushed onto unsuspecting citizens who have not given their prior informed consent."

According to experts, when the government aggressively promotes a "singular reductionist corporate-controlled silver bullet solution" like fortified rice, a myriad of diverse local and natural solutions get neglected and even eroded. The diverse local and natural solutions primarily revolve around the enhancement of dietary diversity and providing adequate calories for the affected. The report highlighted that nutrition cannot be approached through a micronutrient by micronutrient formula and needs a holistic approach.

Moreover, it pointed out large scale fortification will lead to irreversible market shifts, with concomitant infrastructure changes in the supply chain. On the other hand, protein-rich diets, millets, healthy fats, traditional kinds of rice that are nutritionally superior, staple grains that are traditionally processed to preserve their nutrients, local (uncultivated) greens, diverse forest foods, and other materials can come from millions of kitchen gardens and other locally-led efforts, will all be neglected by such a policy.

Food fortification is a multi-million-dollar corporate-controlled industry. The report said, "In the government-promoted reductionist approach, profits will be reaped by big MNCs, that too a handful of them, since the global supply of micronutrients for food fortification is an industry controlled by a few mega-corporations. India will have to import these many synthetic vitamins since most are not produced in the country. In this import-dependency approach, in the name of tackling under-nutrition, our food chain will get more corporate-controlled and out of the hands of communities."

The fact-finding team found that there is no information to, or prior consent obtained from, communities which have been recipients of this fortified rice. PDS dealers have not been informed beforehand, nor have village-level frontline workers of various departments made aware of fortified rice.

"It appears as if the Government of India wanted to implement this program quietly if not clandestinely, and that the Government was under the misapprehension that Fortified Rice Kernels (FRK) blended with regular rice will go unnoticed and, therefore, consumed by citizens without any questions," the report said.

The team found that a vast majority of women are picking out and throwing away the FRK added to rice, and this includes women who are cooking for Anganwadi and School meals. Such FRK is clearly identifiable amongst the real rice kernels and is picked out by hand and later during the washing of the rice before cooking.

This fact-finding team has established that they are of the firm view that in a large scale approach to rice fortification like the one being adopted by governments right now, even a screening process prior to fortified rice distribution does not resolve the problem of at-risk individuals because, within a household, it is unlikely that two different kinds of rice (fortified and unfortified) will be cooked for every meal for the contra-indicated cases and healthy persons. It is also unlikely that the government would be able to put into place any mechanisms by which entitlements of each person in a household can be distributed distinctly in the PDS system as fortified and non-fortified rice to cater to individual needs and medical conditions.

"While that is about (lack of) capabilities of the state to deliver in a tailor-made fashion to patients separately from healthy persons in a community, it is also very apparent that most households are deeply dependent on the entitlements that they access from the PDS system. It is clear that avoidance of risk to the vulnerable contra-indicated persons requires the stopping of the supply of fortified rice itself in Jharkhand," the report said.

INDIA
Ban on Wheat Exports 'Anti-Farmer' Move, say Punjab Farmers' Unions

Union government not letting farmers reap gains due to higher prices of their crops in the overseas markets, say farmers.

PTI
16 May 2022

Representational Image. Image Courtesy: Telegraph India

Chandigarh: Farmers' unions in Punjab on Monday dubbed the Centre's decision of banning wheat exports as an "anti-farmer" move, saying that the Union government is not letting them reap the gains due to higher prices of their crops in the overseas markets.

They also slammed the Centre for not announcing a bonus of Rs 500 per quintal of wheat, as demanded by them to compensate the drop in the yield on account of shrivelled grains due to intense heat wave in March.

The Union government has banned wheat exports in a bid to check high prices amid concerns over lower wheat output this year.

According to the government, the decision will help control retail prices of wheat and wheat flour, which have risen by an average 14-20 per cent in the last one year, besides meeting the foodgrain requirement of neighbouring and vulnerable countries.

A number of farmers, especially big wheat growers, in Punjab have stored the crop in anticipation of fetching higher returns later, said farmers.

"It is an anti-farmer decision," Bharti Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan) general secretary Sukhdev Singh Kokrikalan said on Monday.

He said the export ban will hit those farmers who had stored the crop in anticipation of fetching higher returns when the prices would increase in the domestic market.

Bharti Kisan Union (Lakhowal) general secretary Harinder Singh Lakhowal too condemned the Central government's decision.

"This decision is not in the interest of farmers," said Lakhowal, adding that the government should have continued with the export to take advantage of higher prices in the international market.

Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal on Sunday had slammed the Centre's decision of banning wheat exports, saying that this move will cause a drop in demand for the crop and farmers will be the worst sufferers.

The Punjab government on Sunday ordered continuation of wheat procurement operations at the Minimum Support Price (MSP) at 232 mandis in the state till May 31.

The state's food and civil supplies minister Lal Chand Kataruchak on Sunday said that the restriction on wheat exports was likely to result in a dip in prices of the food grain in the domestic market.

"As a result, some farmers who had stored the wheat produce in anticipation of fetching higher prices later, might have a rethink now and opt to sell the wheat. Therefore, it was important that the facility of government purchase at MSP continues to be available to them in order to avoid distress sale," Kataruchak had said.

Wheat production in Punjab is expected to drop by around 30 lakh tonnes to 147 lakh tonnes against the projection of 177 lakh tonnes on account of adverse impact on crop yield due to sudden high temperature in the month of March.

Wheat procurement from Punjab is also expected to miss the target of 132 lakh tonnes due to lower yield.

Out of a total arrival of 102.27 lakh tonnes in grain markets so far, the government procurement agencies have bought 96.17 lakh tonnes while private traders purchased 6.10 lakh tonnes, according to official data.

Punjab Roller Flour Millers Association president Naresh Ghai, however, hailed the Centre's move, saying that the ban on exports would help in stabilising wheat prices.

He said wheat prices in Madhya Pradesh and other state mandis have risen to Rs 2,200 per quintal.

The Centre has earlier relaxed procurement norms to allow up to 18% shrivelled wheat grains in Punjab and Haryana.

Wheat Exports Banned One Month After PM Modi Said ‘India Can Feed the World’

Ban comes into immediate effect as domestic prices skyrocket. Onion seed exports restricted.

PTI
14 May 2022

Image Courtesy: Business Standard

New Delhi: India has banned wheat exports with immediate effect as part of measures to control rising domestic prices, according to official notification.

However, the export shipments for which irrevocable letters of credit (LoC) have been issued on or before the date of this notification will be allowed, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) said in a notification dated May 13.

"The export policy of wheat … is prohibited with immediate effect…," the DGFT said.

It also clarified that wheat exports will be allowed on the basis of permission granted by the Government of India to other countries to meet their food security needs and based on the request of their governments.

In a separate notification, the DGFT announced the easing of export conditions for onion seeds.

"The export policy of onion seeds has been put under the restricted category, with immediate fact," it said.

The export of onion seeds was earlier prohibited.

Official data released this week showed that retail inflation surged to an eight-year high in April due to high prices of fuel and food items.

The ban on exports also comes amid disruption in global wheat supplies due to the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine which are major exporters of the foodgrain.

India's wheat exports surged to 7 million tonnes, worth $2.05 billion, in 2021-22 due to strong global demand. Of the total wheat exports, around 50% of shipments were exported to Bangladesh in the last fiscal, according to the DGFT data.

The country exported around 963,000 tonnes of wheat this year against 130,000 tonnes in the same period last year.

India was looking to export 10 million tonnes of wheat in 2022-23. The commerce ministry recently stated that India would send trade delegations to nine countries - Morocco, Tunisia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Turkey, Algeria and Lebanon - to explore possibilities of boosting wheat shipments.

India's wheat purchase have also declined sharply by 44 per cent to 16.2 million tonnes as of May 1 in the current Rabi marketing season due to heavy lifting by private traders and low arrivals in Punjab and Haryana.

The government had procured 28.8 million tonnes of wheat in the year-ago period. The rabi marketing season runs from April to March.

Private players have bought wheat at a price higher than the minimum support price amid increased demand for the grain for export.

The Centre has set a target to procure a record 44.4 million tonnes of wheat in the 2022-23 marketing year as against an all-time high of 43.34 million tonnes in the previous marketing year.

Amid lower purchase for the central pool, the Centre has stopped the sale of wheat under the Open Market Sale Scheme (OMSS) to bulk consumers and asked them not to wait for recommencement of the scheme for buying the grain.

Wheat production is pegged at a record 111.32 million tonnes in the 2021-22 crop year (July-June), as per the second advance estimate of the agriculture ministry.

INDIA
Mundka Fire: Should We Expect Justice for Those who Lost Their Loved Ones?

The numerous agencies in the city appear to be quick in initiating a probe to fix responsibility, however, as recent history shows, there is only hope and no guarantee.

Ronak Chhabra
16 May 2022

Image Courtesy: ANI


New Delhi: The Mundka factory blaze, which has so far claimed the lives of 27 people while several are still reported to be missing, has brought to the fore the burning controversy surrounding the continuing prevalence of illegal factories on village land in Delhi, the absence of required approvals for the buildings that house them, and overall scant regard for the norms relating to occupational safety of the workers – for yet another time.

Days after a purported short circuit led to an inferno – the worst that the national capital has witnessed in the last three years – in a three-storey building on Rohtak Road in West Delhi’s Mundka, the numerous agencies in the city appear to be quick in initiating a probe to fix responsibility.

On Saturday, the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) sought a detailed report, asking the concerned authorities to furnish details on the legality of the said building; the civic body has also ordered detailed surveys in zones that come under its administration, which are tasked to find out within 10 days if any prohibited activity is going on in non-conforming areas.

A magisterial inquiry, to be conducted by the district magistrate (West), which the Delhi government’s home department ordered on Sunday, has received the required approval by Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal on Sunday. The Delhi Police have registered a case under charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, among others, against the two company owners and the property owner – three of whom are arrested as of Monday.

The initial probe has revealed that the “entire building was illegal,” with Delhi Fire Services (DFS) Chief Atul Garg claiming in the media that the factory owners never sought a fire NOC (no objection certificate), nor was their a clearance to the building from the civic authorities. The building that housed a CCTV and WiFi router manufacturing and assembling unit might be on Lal Dora land, according to officials, where commercial activities, apart from those involving small shops, are by and large deemed non-conforming.

And yet, it took the lives of several workers and the heart-wrenching cries of their family members for the above-mentioned agencies to treat the brazen flouting of safety norms and other legal provisions, which proves too costly for those who are made to grind out for a pittance, as a concern.

“The safety of Indian workers is systematically being increasingly jeopardised, as they are forced to make their living working for such firms that have been flourishing and carrying out their production without minimum safety measures,” said the Delhi Chapter of Working Peoples’ Coalition (WPC), a coming together of organisations within the informal sector, in a statement.

More importantly, as pointed out by the platform of Joint Trade Unions in Delhi, the Friday’s fire in Mundka underscores that no lessons from previous such incidents in industrial quarters have been learnt by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) – led government in the national capital which, thereby puts its state Labour Minister “directly responsible for the accident.”

To be sure, soaring cases of accidents in industrial and commercial establishments is not a phenomenon that is restricted to a particular city in the country.

In 2021, the Union Labour Ministry informed the Parliament that at least 6,500 employees died on duty at factory ports, mines, and construction sites in the last five years, with over 80% of the fatalities reported in factory settings between 2014 and 2018. Factory deaths rose by 20% between 2017 and 2018. While, an average of seven industrial accidents per month were reported across the country in 2021, according to the estimates published by Geneva-based IndustriAll Global Union.

As for Delhi, the same organisation reported last year that the national capital recorded the highest number of industrial accidents in the country between 2014 and 2017, with the infamous figure crossing 1,500.

In the last five years, the city has witnessed three deadly inferno cases in which 77 people lost their lives. Seventeen people died after a firecracker warehouse in North Delhi’s Bawana caught massive fire in 2018. The following year, 17 more were killed as fire engulfed several hotel storeys in Central Delhi’s Karol Bagh. Months later, a major blaze in North Delhi’s Anaj Mandi claimed the lives of 43 people.

The Narendra Modi government appears to be addressing the issue of industrial accidents through its reform-oriented four Labour Codes, which, ironically, are flayed by the trade unions for further diluting the existing provisions that empower the labour department to keep an oversight on the workplaces and carry out inspection drives.

Be that as it may, under the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020, enacted after amalgamating 13 central labour enactments, the labour ministry set up four expert committees in April last year to review the rules and regulations about safety, fire, and other working conditions in factories, among other workplaces.

However, when it comes to the national capital, there is often more to it than just adherence to legal norms that ensure a lackadaisical approach to ensuring justice, leading to an absence of deterrence against flouting safety protocols, more so those pertaining to fire.

A high-power committee appointed to investigate the Bawana factory fire had concluded that there was a “failure of agencies” that led to the disaster, according to a report by the Times of India. The committee had blamed five agencies – Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (DSIIDC), Labour Department, DFS, NDMC, and Delhi Police – however, it is not clear whether individual officers responsible for the incident were identified or any action was taken against them. Meanwhile, the outcome of the committees constituted to probe the incidents in Karol Bagh, and Anaj Mandi is still unknown.

Likewise, getting bail in such cases also doesn’t seem to pose any difficulty for the alleged wrongdoers, as recent history involving the above-mentioned incidents shows.

Crucially, violations by the factory owners continue in Delhi unabashedly even as there is a Supreme Court order that has directed all the industrial units in the city’s residential areas to be closed because they significantly contribute to polluting the capital’s air and water.

As of 2018, 51,837 such units were operating in the residential areas, which according to one report, “shouldn’t even be there.” Many establishments among them, if not most, are yet to be relocated, as can be rightly assumed by the growing accidents at such illegal units, which also indicate the political patronage that the factory owners enjoy within both the state and the Central government.

On Saturday, the WPC demanded to form a high-level tripartite committee to “review” all industrial units that fall under the Medium, Small, Micro Enterprises (MSME) sector and beyond in light of the fire incident in Mundka. Trade unions in the city have now given a call to protest on Tuesday to press for the resignation of Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia. He also holds the charge of the labour ministry.

However, given the crude reality, should we expect justice for the working families who lost their loved ones in Friday’s fire or any change on the ground to prevent such incidents in the future? There is always hope for it, but, sadly no guarantee.

As Planet Warms, Let’s Be Clear: We Are Sacrificing Lives for Profits

Climate change is the result of a deadly calculus: human lives are worth risking and even losing over the profits of global corporations.

Sonali Kolhatkar
16 May 2022

Representational image. : Image courtesy: Flickr

The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) recently dropped a bombshell announcement that should have garnered news headlines in the major global and U.S. media, but did not. New WMO research concludes that “[t]here is a 50:50 chance of the annual average global temperature temporarily reaching 1.5 degrees Celsius above the preindustrial level for at least one of the next five years.”

WMO Secretary-General Professor Petteri Taalas explained, “The 1.5 degree Celsius figure is not some random statistic. It is rather an indicator of the point at which climate impacts will become increasingly harmful for people and indeed the entire planet.”

In 2015, the likelihood of reaching that threshold within five years was nearly zero. In 2017 it was 10%, and today it is 50%. As we continue to spew greenhouse gases into the atmosphere in dizzying amounts, that percentage spikes with every passing year and will soon reach 100% certainty.

When average global temperatures hit the tipping point of 1.5 degrees Celsius, climate scientists predict that most of the Earth’s coral reefs will die off. At 2 degrees Celsius, all will die off. This is the reason why United Nations members coalesced around staving off an average global temperature rise of 1.5 degrees Celsius at the last global climate gathering in 2021.

The planet has already heated up by 1.1 degrees Celsius, and the consequences are dire across the globe.

India is experiencing its worst heat wave in 122 years, and neighbouring Pakistan has broken a 61-year-old record for high temperatures. Dozens of people have already died as a result of the extreme heat.

In France, farmers “can see the earth cracking every day,” as a record-breaking drought has thrown the country’s agricultural industry into crisis mode.

Here in the United States, across the central and northeastern parts of the country, there is a heat wave so large and so severe that people from Texas to Maine experienced triple-digit temperatures in May.

Even the wealthy enclave of Laguna Niguel in Orange County, Southern California, is on fire, and dozens of homes have been destroyed. Although moneyed elites have far more resources to remain protected from the deadly impacts of climate change compared to the rest of us, occasionally even their homes are in the path of destruction, indicating that nowhere on Earth will be safe on a catastrophically warming planet.

Ironically, as extreme heat waves become more likely with global warming, humans will burn more fossil fuels to power the air conditioning they need to cool off and survive, thereby fuelling the very phenomenon that leads to more extreme heat waves.

In such a scenario, it is a massive no-brainer for the world to quickly and without delay transition to renewable energy sources. Instead, President Joe Biden in April announced the sale of new leases for oil and gas companies to drill on public lands, reneging on his campaign platform’s climate pledges.

Biden did so apparently in order to increase domestic fuel supplies and thereby lower gas prices. He also raised the percentage of royalties that companies pay the federal government from 12.5% to 18.75%. But no amount of dollars saved by consumers or earned in royalties by the federal government can halt the laws of physics and protect the climate.

The New York Times’s Lisa Friedman explained, “The burning of fossil fuels extracted from public land and in federal waters accounts for 25 percent of the greenhouse gases generated by the United States, which is the planet’s second biggest polluter, behind China.” Here is one area where the federal executive branch has control, and yet financial considerations have been dictating responses rather than existential ones.

After climate activists vocally denounced the move, Biden did finally cancel the drilling leases for Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico. The Interior Department cited a “lack of industry interest” and “conflicting court rulings,” rather than pressure from activists, as the reason for the cancellation. Regardless, it is a small measure of relief for a planet that is on its way to burning to a crisp.

While Biden (and other lawmakers) claim they are driven by rising inflation and the impact of high gas prices on voters’ pocket books, it turns out the public doesn’t actually want a glut of oil and gas to help lower costs.

A new poll by the National Surveys on Energy and the Environment found that there is no longer skepticism among the public that the effects of climate change are real, as 76 percent of respondents—the highest on record since the poll started—“believe there is solid evidence that temperatures on the planet have risen over the last four decades.”

The poll also notably concluded that “Americans continue to favour reducing greenhouse gas emissions as their preferred approach for staving off the worst impacts of climate change,” and that they “remain skeptical of any pivot from mitigation toward climate policy that prioritizes adaptation, use of geoengineering or subterranean carbon storage.”

So, rather than invest in mitigating climate change or adapting to it—which is what market-driven economies favour—people, sensibly, want to stop the planet from warming in the first place.


Still, there is growing concern among climate scientists that it may already be too late for a transition to renewables. In spite of energy sources like solar and wind becoming rapidly cheaper and more accessible, overall energy consumption is increasing about as fast, as per one recent study.

Mark Diesendorf, the author of the study, explained, “it is simply impossible for renewable energy to overtake that retreating target. And that’s no fault of renewable energy. It’s the fault of the growth in consumption and the fact that action has been left too late.”

Because corporate profit-based considerations have constantly dictated our energy use and climate policies, we have effectively decided that major sacrifices of lives—most likely poor people of colour—will be worth the pain of relying on fossil fuels for energy.

There is an analogy to be found in the COVID-19 pandemic. For months, scientists sounded the alarm over prevention, endorsing lockdowns, masks, and vaccines to stop the spread of the deadly virus, just as climate scientists issued warnings against global warming for decades. Both science-based campaigns faced uphill battles, each with its own challenges in recommending the most rational guidelines to maximize public safety in spite of financial sacrifices (closing down most businesses and restaurants and cancelling major sporting and entertainment events, in the case of COVID-19; promoting solar power subsidies, switching to wind energy, and manufacturing hybrid and electric vehicles, in the case of the climate crisis). All the while, corporate interests and right-wing political opportunists successfully pushed their own agenda in the halls of power, insisting that economic growth was the most important consideration.

Today, even as COVID-19 infection rates are skyrocketing, with cases having risen by 58% in the last two weeks alone, mask mandates are being dropped all over the country and COVID-19-related restrictions are ending. This is not because the virus is under control—it is clearly not—but because it’s no longer financially viable for corporate America to sacrifice profits for lives. So, it will sacrifice lives for profit—just as is the case with the climate crisis.

It is worth spelling out this equation so that we know where we are headed.

As the climate changes, we begin to see where the bodies are buried—literally. Water levels in Nevada’s Lake Mead have fallen so dramatically that the remains of at least two human bodies were recently discovered. What other disturbing discoveries are in store for us?

Sonali Kolhatkar is the founder, host and executive producer of “Rising Up With Sonali,” a television and radio show that airs on Free Speech TV and Pacifica stations. She is a writing fellow for the Economy for All project at the Independent Media Institute.

This article was produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

INDIA
Power Engineers' Body Wants Centre to Withdraw Directive to Gencos for Coal Imports

State power generation companies are being exposed to risk of overcharging, fudging of GCV values and, having no past experience, will not be able to deal with these matters effectively, said AIPEF

PTI
13 May 2022


New Delhi: All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) has urged the Central government to withdraw its direction to states' gencos to import coal amid the shortage of dry fuel, crippling electricity generation in the country.

"Correct determination of GCV (Gross Calorific Value) is critical to avoid overcharging and over-billing. The government of India while instructing state discoms to import coal has apparently ignored the factor that most of the state gencos/thermal stations have no past experience in coal imports, particularly regarding the procedures for coal quality determination at the loading point," AIPEF (All India Power Engineers Federation) said in a statement.

It explained that these state gencos (power generation companies) have been thus exposed to the risk of overcharging, fudging of GCV values and, having no past experience, would not be able to deal with these matters effectively.

Power engineers (AIPEF) demanded withdrawal of the central government direction to state gencos to import coal, the statement said.

In case states are forced to import coal, the Centre should bear the extra burden (of coal imports), it said and sought the intervention of all the states' chief ministers.

On April 28, the Union power ministry asked state gencos to import 10% of their total coal requirement to tackle the shortage of the domestic fuel.

In a letter sent to Union power minister R K Singh, AIPEF chairman Shailendra Dubey said that if states are forced to import coal then the central government must bear the additional burden of imported coal so that already financially distressed discoms (power distribution companies) and ultimately the common consumer are not over-burdened.

AIPEF has also appealed to chief ministers of all states and Union Territories to take up the issue with the Centre with top most priority.

AIPEF letter said that the present crisis is the result of the policy failure of the Centre and lack of coordination between different ministries.

The letter said the present coal shortage is the combined result of a number of policy errors of the central government, and shortage was made worse due to scarcity of railway wagons.

The decision of the central government to take away the accumulated revenues of CIL (Coal India) of Rs 35,000 crore in 2016 crippled the development of new mines and capacity expansion of existing mines.

Had this surplus been ploughed back into the coal mine sector, the present shortage would not have occurred, it stated.

Keeping the post of Coal India CMD vacant for a year after the term of the incumbent ended showed that the central government was responsible for coal shortage and the additional charges on account of imported coal are payable by the central government and must not be loaded on states as the policy errors were of the Centre, the letter said.

Also, the additional imports must be made available to states at the prevailing CIL rates while the difference should be payable by the Union government, it said.

The power ministry's direction dated April 28, 2022 that seeks to put the financial load of coal imports on the states must be withdrawn as states cannot be penalised for policy lapses of the Centre, it argued.

AIPEF chairman said since most/all of the thermal stations envisaged, designed and constructed over the past decades on the basis of domestic coal from linked mines, there was no arrangement for blending of domestic fuel with the imported coal.

"The risk of temperature variations in boilers due to uneven mixing would increase incidents of boiler tube leakage. The business of coal is a sellers' market where the terms and conditions are made to suit the seller/exporters, particularly in GCV determination. There is no solution if the GCV tested at the thermal plant is lower as compared to the shipping port value," Dubey said.

AIPEF letter said that the state-owned thermal stations are planned and constructed only after obtaining the clearance of railways ministry to move coal from the linked mines to these units.

At this stage it would be unfair to burden the states for the high cost of import of coal when wagon shortage was one factor responsible for prevailing coal shortage, it stated.

The AIPEF, citing the railways ministry data, said that while the daily requirement of wagons for movement of coal is 441 rakes, the availability/placement is only 405 rakes per day.

From 2017-18 to 2021-22 the railways have placed orders for wagons on an average 10,400 wagons per year. For the same period, there was a pendency of up to 23,592 wagons per year, for which the orders have been placed but the wagons not supplied, it stated.

Dubey said that in the past, the process of coal import has been the subject of corruption and malpractices.

"There are recorded instances of over-invoicing of imported coal and in fudging of coal testing/GCV determination at the port of loading. These cases were taken up by the Department of Revenue intelligence (DRI) which is under the finance ministry.

"The DRI pursued these cases before the Bombay High Court and then before the Supreme Court. These cases taken up by DRI deserve to be taken to the logical conclusion. When the government of India is stressing on coal imports, the deterrent measures to prevent fudging and over-charging are nowhere in evidence," he added.