--  AHRC Press Release, September 27, 2005

(Hong Kong, September 27, 2005) On September 24 & 25, 2005, staff of the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) together with colleagues from Howrah-based Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (Masum) and a group of Indian jurists saw and heard of the desperate hunger and government neglect in the area of Jalangi, Murshidibad district, West Bengal, India, where as the Padma River rapidly erodes, it is literally eating up people's livelihoods and homes, and with them, their lives.

"I tied my father's corpse to some boulders and let it go into the river," Sanjeev Karmakar told the AHRC.

"It was his last wish. The river Padma has taken everything from us. When we lost all that we had, my father was not able to withstand the shock. He said that the river has taken all that we had. He asked us that when he died to give his body to the river. I did as he wished," Sanjeev said.

Sanjeev and his father had run a small blacksmithing workshop in a place that was suddenly swallowed up by the river, together with all their tools and equipment, on September 10. His father died from the loss some three days later.

The local authorities, which have been aware of the growing tragedy caused by the river's movement, gave the surviving nine families members a polyethylene sheet and few kilogrammes of rice. The food is gone now.

"By tomorrow or the day after, we will shift to the paddy fields. We will build a hut there. I do not have any idea how we will survive. By the way, can you give me some food?  Maybe you have something left over from yesterday… It is ok even if it is bad or left over. My family is hungry," Sanjeev said.

Nujera Bewa, a 30-year-old widow, told of raising her three young children alone after her husband died of bronchial illness.

"I do not have any property. My children hang around other people's houses and if these people feel kind enough they might give some food to them. Other than that there is no possibility for my children to have any food. But of course I feed them whenever I get some money to get something to cook. So as of now, I have no option other than to beg," Nujera said.

Nujera is herself suffering from chest problems that prevent her from doing hard physical work. She has no way to get effective treatment.

"The government hospital, which I am told should provide free medical help, does not have any medicine or machines. They do not have doctors too. So I had to approach a private hospital and get my x-ray done [with the help of some others]. Since I am not recognized as a person living below the poverty line, I am not entitled to free treatment also," Nujera told the AHRC.

Like Sanjeev, she complains of sheer neglect by the local authorities.

"All that we received… was 12kg of wheat some six months before for the entire family, and one blanket for my husband. When it is raining and when the whether goes cold we have nothing to cover us up. We use old newspapers collected from the road to keep our bodies warm during winter nights," she said.

Although the government authorities were notified and invited to attend the public hearings, none were present.

Nujera has refused to send her children away to a centre run by a charity for fear that they will be sold or adopted against her will.

"Even if my children starve, I cannot sell them. May be when things go so bad, that I cannot hold anymore we might end our lives," she said.

"As of now we have no hope. I do not know what is there in store for me in the future. I do not know whether my kids will survive. But as things are now and as things have turned out for me, I wish that if they also will face the same future then it's better that they never survive to face it," she said.

"We witnessed human misery and absolute despair on the face of every one in Jalangi," retired Bombay High Court judge Justice H Suresh said.  

Suresh, who for many years has been a key participant in India's people's tribunal movement, was visibly shocked by the suffering he found in Jalangi.

"Starvation, we found, is writ large on the face of men, women and children everywhere. No one is sure of his or her next meal. There is no regular source of income, no proper jobs for many. Erstwhile land owners have become landless labourers with no particular vocation available to them. The way the erosion is going on, we have been shown, there is no land left in that region at all," Suresh said.

"We had the pathetic sight of a house owner situated very close to the river dismantling his own house to save as much as possible, perhaps only to land him in other surroundings and in another place [of equally bad circumstances]," Suresh observed.

"We also found that quite a number of people are illiterate and they just do not know how to meet the situation. Some of them had been to government offices but there is nothing to show that the government has given them proper information. In fact many women demanded from us whether we could give them a BPL [Below Poverty Line] card, which could entitle them to only ten days of food and nothing beyond," he said.

"It is an irony that this district happens to be under the national programme for food for work," Suresh commented.

"Starvation is a fact [in Jalangi] and a visit to the site and talking to the people would convince all who are concerned with people's right to live with dignity," he concluded.

Among the food-related deaths reported to the AHRC, Masum and others present was the death of a hungry child who in the absence of her mother ate lime, thinking that it was curd. The child was taken to the local doctor who suggested that she be taken to the government hospital. Again, the government hospital stated that they had no equipment to treat the child.

In another case, an elderly man refused food after learning that there was none left for the other members of his family. Three days later, he too died.

The AHRC and Masum have repeatedly called upon the government authorities to take action to address the worsening conditions in Jalangi. The AHRC is also raising its concerns in international forums.

Full documentation of the September 24 & 25 hearings will be released shortly.

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About AHRC The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional non-governmental organisation monitoring and lobbying human rights issues in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984.