Maharashtrian Widow Letter to Indian PM

9 May9, 2007 in agrarian, bt cotton, campaign, children, commerce, companies, congress, cotton, data, davos, debate, democracy, demographics, development, disaster, english, farewell, farm, farmer, farmers, figures, food, forum, fuel, funds, human, hunger, husbands, imf, india, indian, inflation, stories, struggle, studies, sueddeutsche, sufferings, suicides, tracker, training, urban, vidarbha, video, visual, voice, widows, women, world, wto, yavatmal, zeitung, zubani

(THIS IS TRANSLATION OF LETTER OF ONE OF WIDOWS HAS WRITTEN TO INDIAN PRIME MINISTER FOR HELP)
To,
Dr. Man Mohan Singh,
Indian Prime Minister, Government of India
New Delhi-1100011

REF : YOUR HEALING TOUCH TO VIDARBHA FARM WIDOWS IS MISSING
SUB : PLEASE ARRANGE TO SAVE VIDARBHA FARM WIDOWS

Respected sir,

1. My husband Shivaji Betwar of Kelapur in Yavatmal district, Maharashtra, had killed himself by hanging to tree in August of last year after your announcement of package and you specially asked District Collector to give healing touch to farm widows of west Vidarbha.
Please see this photo below :

He was a cotton farmer, and he was forced to commit suicide as local bankers Bank of Maharashtra, Pahapal branch had failed to give him crop loan even though he was not defaulter.
2. Then since after the his sad death, I was told by local administration that as per promise made by you, the relief aid will be given to me as I have two small kids one age 4 and other age 7. After the death of my husband, nobody is there to look after me here at my in laws place. Nobody is there to look after our land too.
3. To day local Tahsildar has told me that Yavatmal District Collector has rejected my case as there was no crop loan, against by husband’s name when he committed suicide. It was matter of surprise that when local bank has not given us loan and credit crunch has been reason of distress to commit suicide, I am being refused the compensation.
4. In order to avoid my kid’s starvation, I went back to my mother’s place in Andhra Pradesh mandal Besa in Adilabad district. But it was very difficult for them to feed my family as my brother is farm labor and I was forced to return back to dead husband’s place in Maharashtra.
PRAYER :
Dear Prime Minister, it has been very difficult to live in these pathetic condition where as babus in local administration have not giving any help to me, I am writing to you that after your Vidarbha visit more than 1000 Farm Widows compensation claims have been rejected, in order to show the effect of your package, that suicides have declined, and we are innocent victims of your administrative politics.
You are kindly requested to save my small kids and help me.
Yours sincerely,
MANGALA SHIVAJI BETWAR

Daughters of Vidarbha – Whose responsibility ?

9 May9, 2007 in agrarian, america, analysis, andolan, asia, bahujan, banks, buniyad, campaign, commerce, common, continent, cotton, cricket, curry, data, davos, debate, debt, democracy, demographics, disaster, drought, earth, elections, ethnic, europe, famine, farmer, farmers, figures, films, food, global, human, hunger, images, india, indian, janjati, jute, kisan, knowledge, krishak, krishi, land, maharashtra, masala, minister, misery, mismanagement, monetary, movies, narratives, policy, politics, punjab, rbi, rural, sensex, slisg, spices, starvation, sthuthi, stories, studies, sufferings, suicides, tracker, trade, trader, urban, vidarbha, visual, voice, warming, water, women, world, wto, zubani

While India Makes Record Cotton Exports to United States of America. Who is benefiting from WTO ?

Three Widows

9 May9, 2007 in adivasi, agrarian, america, andhra, andolan, architecture, asia, asian, bahujan, banks, bharat, bollywood, buniyad, campaign, college, commerce, common, continent, cricket, curry, data, davos, debate, debt, democracy, demographics, disaster, drought, earth, economucs, elections, ethnic, europe, famine, farm, farmer, farmers, figures, film, films, finance, fiscal, food, fuel, global, human, hunger, images, imf, india, indian, intermedia, international, janjati, jute, kisan, knowledge, krishak, krishi, land, lenderssamaj, maharashtra, management, masala, media, minister, misery, mismanagement, monetary, movies, multimedia, narratives, news, ocean, orissa, oriya, parliament, peasnat, policies, policy, politics, population, punjab, punjabi, rbi, rhetoric, rural, sensex, shahrukh, slisg, space, spices, starvation, sthuthi, stories, students, studies, sufferings, suicides, telugu, tracker, trackers, trade, trader, trap, university, urban, vidarbha, video, visual, voice, warming, water, weva, women, world, wto, zubani

The Tale of Three Indian Widows :
Savita, Sunita and Pratibha are three women from different contexts, background and age groups, yet engulfed by the continuing tragedy that plays out in Maharashtra. The number of widows is growing at a frightening speed in the cotton country. Jaideep Hardikar reports.
http://www.indiatogether.org/2007/feb/agr-widows.htm

The most senior Indian bureaucrats and politicians, continue to deny any agricultural emergency in Indian rural areas, that calls for their attention.
Some IAS Relief Commissioners, are waxing eloquent on farmer’s folly, in pursuing high cost cultivation practices in un irrigated parts of India, while some IAS bureaucrats are issuing mental insanity certificates to suicidal farmers as “sirfira”. The Indian story of bureaucratic incompetence is tragi comic.

The Sensex Minister is following the bears and the bulls closely, while the Cricket Minister is celebrating the return to form of Saurav Ganguly in Indian cricket.