Statement on the Health and Well Being of Tribal Women in Chhattisgarh (Medico Friend Circle, Feb 2016)
Praveer Peter (India)
Medico Friend Circle: February 2016 Statement on the Health and Well Being of Tribal Women in Chhattisgarh
The Medico Friend Circle, a reputed national organization of health professionals, has been contributing for the last 43 years towards developing appropriate models of health care in order to reach the goal for ‘Health for All’ as well as deepening understanding on the various concerns of public health in India.
Members of the Medico Friend Circle met at Raipur for the 43rd annual meet from 19-21 February 2016. In the period of three days when the MFC met at Raipur, we read the following in the news:
1. Malini Subramaniam, the independent reporter who wrote about the plight of tribal women in police attacks was first threatened and hounded out of Jagdalpur. She left fearing the lives and safety of those around her.
2. The Jagdalpur Legal Aid group (Jag-LAG), consisting of two lawyers Shalini Gera and Isha Khandelwal were also hounded out of the region through threats to their landlords.
3. Soni Sori, the survivor of horrific sexual assault by police officers and at present a tribal rights activist and representative of the Aam Aadmi Party, was attacked and smeared with unknown chemical substances by masked men on the night of 20th February while on her way home. Although fearing for the safety of her children, Soni had to be transported out of Chhattisgarh on the 21st of February for treatment.
It is widely known that the present NDA Government is following the tracks laid down by the earlier UPA government in pursuing armed operations against the indigenous tribal population (adivasis) to clear the Bastar forest regions for industry that would like to mine the region for its riches. ‘Anti-naxal’ operations have been the screen behind which tribal villagers are systematically denuded of any right or capability to survive in the forests. There is a concerted effort to completely discredit any tribal resistance or attempts at self preservation. The police have been brutal in their systematic attack on adivasis, especially tribal women in their programme to purge any kind of resistance from Chhattisgarh. Recent reports (such as the submission to the NHRC by WSS- Women against Sexual Assault and State Oppression) have shown again that the police brutality especially on tribal women have surpassed all limits. It has been reported that the police have entered villages in Sukma and Bijapur, stripping tribal women, conducting gang rapes, looting food supplies and destroying homes and granaries.
What is evident in all this is the ferocious drive by the government to industrialize the tribal belt with no regard for the Provisions of Schedule V of the Constitution. The situation is effectively one of an internal war conducted on adivasis who are people of India, and yet seen as the enemy toward whom all sympathy and compunction are withdrawn. The government is now set to clear the area of tribal resistance at all costs within a period of one year. The war in Central India has been on since 2005, and this is one of the most militarized zones in the world with over 75,000 security personnel.
There is a systematic attempt to black out news about the Chhattisgarh tribal region in the mainstream press by the central and state governments. It is well known that the journalists are not allowed to go into areas to report; in the past too, journalists, activists and researchers have faced risks, been attacked and prevented from entering that area while trying to garner information. Therefore it is crucial to keep up circulation of information about the area through social media and e-groups that will alert us to the severe abrogation of the right to health of adivasis in general and tribal women in particular by the government of Chhattisgarh.
While the problem is surely political, the widespread state-sponsored violence against adivasis is a determinant of health along with the crumbling public health situation in these tribal belts. Currently it is extremely difficult to find medical personnel who will work within this area which is notorious as a conflict zone, even though the medical personnel are usually never attacked by either party. Thus the people from hundreds of villages are unable to access health services and their very survival is threatened by state refusal to recognize their basic rights by failing to ensure provision of health care.
MFC's mandate compels us to focus on the well being, health and sexual dignity of tribal women in Chhattisgarh and denounce the large scale and systematic violation of the fundamental right to health for adivasis in Bastar region. This statement is an expression of our solidarity with the tribal women in Chhattisgarh who are being subject to such immense physical and sexual abuse, mental pressure and threat to life. We at MFC express our anguish and strong condemnation of these atrocities call upon all social activists and health workers to pay attention to and discuss the conditions in Bastar as part of our general understanding of the social and economic determinations of physiological and psychological morbidity.
In addition, we call for –
· An immediate stop to the systematic police action resulting in physical abuse and violation of sexual dignity of tribal women in Chhattisgarh; provision of medical service and psychological counselling to treat the survivors of physical abuse
· An independent inquiry into and criminal action to be taken against the perpetrators of the recent attack on Soni Sori as well as the widely reported cases of sexual violence against Adivasi women in Sukma and Bijapur in Chhattisgarh.
· The State government of Chhattisgarh to immediately take all necessary steps to ensure that lawyers practising in district courts, including lawyers from Jagdalpur Legal Aid Group, are allowed to practise and represent their clients without any interference or harassment
Signed
Jashodhara and Srivatsan
Convenors,
Medico friend circle