According to a press release of the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), 28 tribal children have become victims of malnutrition in Madhya Pradesh. The AHRC believes that the families of the children were deprived of their right to food under existing government schemes and right to health. Attributing its information to field reports by MP Lok Sangharsh Sanjha Manch and the state’s Right to Food Campaign, the AHRC has expressed...

What have the poor tribals of Orissa in common with the latest Hollywood hit Avatar? Apparently, there are uncanny similarities between the 3D animation movie and a documentary made on the Dongria Kondh tribe of Orissa by Survival International (SI). The ten-minute documentary is titled ‘Mine: story of a sacred mountain’ brings out the plight of the indigenous people. The SI has appealed to Avatar’s director James Cameron through media...

Vedanta Resources is under fire from heaven and earth, and even Hollywood has been asked to join in. Tribal rights campaigner Survival International has appealed to Avatar director James Cameron, through an advertisement in US entertainment magazine Variety, to help it stop the company from mining for bauxite in an Orissa forest. The ad drew parallels between the Na’vi tribe in Avatar, who try to stop humans from mining under their sacred...

Though many migrant workers from south Madhya Pradesh have died of the incurable workplace disease called silicosis contracted from inhaling quartz dust in stone crushing factories in Gujarat, the public health system has carried out no comprehensive survey to identify the disease, which is often passed off as tuberculosis, many factories have not installed anti-pollution systems, and the NHRC has been sitting on the case since 2006 “He kept coughing…became more...

A FEW SLEEPY villages in the hills, about an hour’s drive from Pune, are suddenly buzzing with activity. Lavasa Corporation, a subsidiary of the Hindustan Construction Company (HCC), is spending Rs 140,000 crore to ‘clean out’ these villages (read tribals and marginal farmers) and build a world-class city in its place. Those pushing the project argue that urban India, bursting at its seams, just cannot cope with the large-scale migration from...