Locking Down The Poor
by Harsh Mander
#HarshMander, #MigrantCrisis
Memory loss, extensive brain damage and internal bleeding. For the first time, the author and human rights activist shares what happened when he admitted himself to a general ward of a premiere public hospital after he got Covid-19 in October.
As strict lockdown was enforced across the country, millions struggled to cope with an overnight catastrophe with no work, wages, mobility and food to sustain themselves. Overwhelmed by hunger, helplessness and dread of the disease, migrant workers began to walk hundreds of kilometres to their home districts, despite the constant threat of police violence and detention.
“It was apparent that while some lives were to be protected, others were dispensable,” writes Mander in his new book, Locking Down The Poor, published by Speaking Tiger Books in December 2020.
AWAAZ-E-KARWAN – ARTICLES
Why the Farmers protests are a wake up call for the rest of us : Natasha Badhwar
‘Farmers protests are a contemporary example of the power of a peaceful people’s struggle against marginalisation’ writes Natasha Badhwar in tribuneindia.com
Women farmers at the Delhi protest ask, ‘What’s for us in these laws?’: Navsharan Singh
‘Though the agrarian crisis hurts them profoundly, women farmers and labourers have been written out of the debates about the sector’ writes Navsharan Singh in Scroll.in
A million reasons to march: Navsharan Singh
‘The farmers movement is now a battle not just for peasantry, but also for justice and dignity’ writes Navsharan Singh in TheHindu.com
A day spent with farm protesters on the outskirts of Delhi: Natasha Badhwar
‘The farmers of Punjab may well be the spark that will ignite the inspiration we all need to see us out of the dark tunnel that the past few years have been.’ Natasha Badhwar writes in Tribuneindia.com
The smoke of conspiracies: The targeting of Professor Apoorvanand | Harsh Mander
‘The Delhi University Hindi professor has faced a barrage of media attacks claiming he is a key figure in a conspiracy to spark riots in the city in February.’ Harsh Mander writes in Scroll.in
Gendering the Pandemic in the Prison| Navsharan Singh & Pratiksha Baxi
For women, prisons are built with stones of “patriarchal” law. It is time to campaign against incarcerated pregnancies and custodial childbirths as making for cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of women.’ Navsharan Singh & Pratiksha Baxi Writes in The India Forun
The middle class should stop playing the victim now |
Natasha Badhwar
Lockdown has pulled down the curtain on the precariousness of the social and economic design of our society. For the middle class, it is a time for both gratitude and grief and more than anything else, to reclaim our voice. Natasha Badhwar writes in Tribune India.
The 20 brave men and the TV-breaking patriots | Natasha Badhwar
In an age when propaganda passes off as news, and evil comes camouflaged as the saviour, it is easy to become victims of fatigue and confusion. Those of us who refuse to surrender our intelligence need to re-learn ways to resist this tsunami of fake news, disinformation and injustice. Natasha Badhwar writes in The Tribune
Karwan Against Hate Crime
Why I travel with the Karwan e Mohabbat | Natasha Badhwar
Why do you go to such godforsaken places?” asked my uncle, referring to the journeys I make with the Karwan-e-Mohabbat to the homes of victims of targeted hate crimes. I had just arrived at the home of close family friends in Patna after attending a literature festival in Bengaluru.The next morning, I was going to join the team of the Karwan-e-Mohabbat, a people’s campaign for solidarity and conscience that reaches out to survivors of hate crimes. Led by Harsh Mander, this group of volunteers was arriving from Delhi and would travel by road from Patna to villages in the districts of Sitamarhi, Muzaffarpur, Araria.
Who killed Rakhi? In UP’s Muzaffarnagar, justice eludes a Dalit girl who died after being raped | Navsharan Singh
On the brick wall of a nearly bare room, hung a picture of a young girl, the picture is grainy, enlarged perhaps from the school identity card. A bead garland adorns the picture frame, signalling that the young girl in the picture is dead. The young girl in the picture is Rakhi. Rakhi lived in Bhurahedi village, near Purkazi town in Muzaffarnagar district in Uttar Pradesh. She was all of 15, a Class 8 student and a Dalit. She was the second of five children – three girls and two boys – of Virpal, a daily wage worker, and Deepa, a casual labourer.
One morning, returning from visiting his sister, an 80-year-old Muslim man was lynched in Sitamarhi | Harsh Mander
There is no other part of the world that Zainul Ansari had known and loved in the eight decades of his life. This noisy, crowded, impoverished, vibrant piece of Bihar had been his only home, Sitamarhi. I guess that there would be no other place he would have wanted to breathe his last breath. But not this way: his body burned beyond recognition by a lynch mob of strangers, including children and a woman. He would not have wanted his remains to be buried furtively with only his sons and a few policemen as witness, alongside the bodies of strangers in another city, Muzaffarpur.
How the dreams of a family man from Muzaffarnagar were lynched 2,500 km away in Tripura | Harsh Mander
Zahid Khan was just 18 when he was married to Shama Parveen, who was even younger than him. The eldest of five brothers, he had many dreams. But there was no future for him in his village – Sambhalhera in Muzaffarnagar district of Western Uttar Pradesh. “We were very poor,” his wife Shama Parveen recalled. What could he earn with the two bighas of unirrigated land that fell into his share?
News About Karwan
Communities remain hungry amid lockdown, migrant workers worst hit: Study
Ninety two per cent of the respondents had lost their jobs, said the survey of Centre for equity studies in collaboration with Delhi Research group and Karwan e Mohabbat which covered both migrant and non-migrant workers.
Harsh Mander – On India’s Protests, Violence against Muslims & The Poor, and Radical Love
I spoke w. organizer Harsh Mander on his efforts to help India’s poor and Muslim communities, who have endured unspeakable violence from Narendra Modi’s government.
Artists unite to raise funds for relief work for marginalised
In the wake of COVID-19, Indian artists and gallerists are raising funds for relief work by donating their artwork. Donors are asked to transfer funds at the earliest and are expected to receive the artwork when the lockdown is lifted.
‘Karwan-e-Mohabbat reaches LOC in Uri, distributes essential items’
Karwan-e-Mohabbat, a Delhi based non-governmental organization (NGO) on Wednesday reached-out to the needy living near the Line of Control (LoC) in Uri sector to distribute essential commodities.
Communities remain hungry amid lockdown, migrant workers worst hit: Study
Ninety two per cent of the respondents had lost their jobs, said the survey of Centre for equity studies in collaboration with Delhi Research group and Karwan e Mohabbat which covered both migrant and non-migrant workers.
