Monthly Archives: February 2021

Clique aqui para Portugus

This is our latest article aboutCovid-19 and its impacts on the favelas.

Since their beginnings, the popular history of Rio de Janeiros samba schools was built on the ritual of sociability of black people after abolition, mainly in favelas and carioca suburbs. The songs, the dancing, the storylinesthis entire traditiontakes shape and is built as a championship in the first half of the 20th century, more specifically in 1932, hosted for the first time in Praa Onze, the cradle of the citys Little Africa, with a competition between samba associations organized by the Mundo Esportivonewspaper.

Today the contest is divided into distinct regions of the city. The most famous one is held between the corners of the balana mais no cai (sways but does not fall, a well-known structure erected in the mid 1940s as a housing project, and thus nicknamed due to a purported fault in the construction) and the Post Office headquarters, in the Central Zone of Rio, and the space that became known as the Marqus de Sapuca Sambadrome, built in 1983 and opened the following year, in 1984.

Rio de Janeiro, the birthplace of samba, and also popularly known as the stage of the greatest show on Earth, has a popular saying: the year only begins after Ash Wednesday. The saying is based on the historical, symbolic and cultural relevance that is given to the holiday. In 2021, the days reserved for King Momos festivities felt different. This time, the spectacle built by samba schools did not have allegorical floats, samba dancers, the segments representing each samba schools community, and the nostalgic old guard parading down the avenue.

By now, the schools would have completed their rites in the avenue drunk on happiness, to paraphrase Unio da Ilhas 1989 samba. The Sambadrome is given great economic and media visibility every year. With most of the tickets being unaffordable for the citys poorer population, the bleachers are mostly occupied by the wealthy. On the other hand, Rios suburbs never fail to put their show on the road. It is in the North Zone, where the neighborhood of Campinhos is located, that the samba schools of the Srie Prata and Srie Bronze access groups (silver and bronze series, respectively) parade. Even with less funding, the samba schools of Intendente Magalhes, in Campinhos, do not fail to show their beautiful parades and to embrace their people year after year.

But this year, the heroes of the barraces(the samba school sheds where floats and costumes are made)as Estao Primeira de Mangueiras samba A Bedtime Story for Grown-ups sang in 2019will not be coming through. The sound, the dance, the colors, and the countless stories told throughout the nights of carnival, both in Intendente Magalhes and Sapuca, give way to the dimming of lights and of sparkles, anxiously awaited by so many.

In an attempt to contain the bitterness of the biggest health crisis of the last centurywhich has already claimed 238,532 lives (as of February 14) in Brazil, including many samba school membersthe citys official carnival is not brightening Rio de Janeiro, popularly known as the capital of samba, for the first time since 1919. With no sound, no storylines, no abre alas, and no baianasthat is how Sapuca and Intendente Magalhes are going to spend the carnival holiday.

On March 11, 2020, right after the Rio samba school parade, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the world was living the new coronavirus pandemic. After this day, the lives of many were reshaped and lived new uncertainties in the face of a scenario that had to be redrafted day after day, including in the world of samba.

These uncertainties, and the worsening of the pandemic, led the parade, officially scheduled for February 2021, to be canceled and postponed to July by acting governor Cludio Castro, though the mayor of Rio, Eduardo Paes, announced the cancellation of carnival in July as well. With all the unease that began to encircle society, countless craftspeople, seamstresses, ironworkers, carpenters, and professionals from various other segments of samba schools, were not paid their salaries and began to live on help, emergency aid, or attempted to reinvent themselves during 2020 to survive.

The precariousness of samba workers is no different from the precariousness of countless Brazilian workers who were abandoned to their own fates, some with resources and others without, as is the case of members and workers of samba schools.

It was also in this context that countless members and workers of samba schools lost their lives to the virus. It is Brazils poorest that disproprtionately lose the unequal fight for survival across the nation. And it is from these faces that, most of the time, the various facets of samba associations are built.

The prominence gained by the special group samba schools sometimes makes people forget about the access groups. One of the symbols of such local identity in Acari, in the North Zone, is the Unio do Parque Acari Samba School. The popular community group, still quite young in comparison to other carnival associations, carries all the expertise and experience of other bambas (masters).

The recreational organization emerged from the merger of sister and neighboring samba schools, Coraes Unidos do Amarelinho and Favo de Acari. Both schools were born as street blocos, until they managed to get their papers in order and become affiliated with the samba school associations. With the union of these groups, Unio do Parque Acari was founded in 2018. Despite its young age, the school was a growing hit on Intendente Magalhes until its last parade, in 2020, with the theme, In the Beginning There was Creation, the Sky, the Earth and the Sea, With This the Union Each One Has Their Pair. Long Live Love!

Its name is a tribute to the community of Unio do Parque Acari, which is nothing more than the union of the areas of Acari (favela) and Amarelinho (public housing).

In 2021, were it not for the pandemic, the school would have made its third appearance in the Srie Prata, at Intendente Magalhes, with the theme: A Coroa Imperiana nos Braos do Acariense (The Imperial Crown in the Arms of the Acari Native), in honor of Madureiras Imprio Serrano.

ndio, 22, a resident of Acari, is a member and worker of the Unio do Parque Acari who paraded under the Favo de Acari flag before the merger. Now with Unio do Parque Acari, he regrets not being able to parade in 2021, and recalls all the problems the coronavirus has brought the country and samba workers: I see this year without parading as a very difficult year. It was a fatal blow for many in the samba world, for everyone in Brazil. This pandemic is destroying families, its destroying many jobs for people who need to work to survive, and its also affecting carnival workers.

ndio is the schools muse and has been parading in carnival for eight years, in addition to taking on other roles within the samba school. At Unio do Parque Acari he also works in the secretariat and makes costumes. Currently, after the 2021 carnival was canceled, he has been supporting himself with income from another job until official preparations for the 2022 carnival return. Carnival is everything to him.

I have a prominent position. I am the muse, but I didnt just dance samba. That was also my work. Thank God, I have my job today, but I used to live off that. And without carnival, I dont live. I was born to dance the samba, I was born for the samba, I grew up in samba, and in samba I will die, for sure, says ndio.

ndio also talks about the relevance of the samba school for the community: The school is important to carry the communitys name out into the world. To show people what a samba school is, to show people that the community of Acari wants fun, joy, and above all respect.

Despite his optimism regarding carnival, he points out that it is necessary to look at the festivity fearing that the spectacle might not even be held next year. I hope that when it does come back, the income will be high because, wanting it or not, the schools will have to pay for it out of pocket, because of the losses and expenses theyve had. And if they dont want to pay the samba schools, there wont be a parade next year again, he concludes.

On the other hand, Paraso do Tuiutis 1st porta-bandeira(woman who carries the samba school flag), Danielle Nascimento, talks about her work in 2020 helping members who underwent difficulties. Danielle, along with her partner, mestre-salaMarlon Flores, were invited by the mestre-salaDiogo de Jesus and porta-bandeiraRuth Alves to be a part of the Dance in Solidarity project along with eleven other couples of mestre-salas/porta-bandeirasof the special group in support of other members of the same segment who were going through financial difficulties.

1st Couple of Mestre-sala and Porta-bandeira from Beija-Flor samba School.@claudinhoms10 and @selminhasorriso#TwelveCouples # OneOnly #Flag

In the project, Danielle helped raise funds through contributions and auctions to buy food baskets and make donations for those who were left without any income. The porta-bandeira, who has a rich history in the world of samba, has been parading in front of samba schools for 32 years and had never stayed a year off the greatest of samba stages. About not parading in 2021, Daniele says, Its right not to parade down the Sambadrome during a pandemic. Its not just carnival thats stopped, its the world, and it is for a greater cause, for a just cause. Its alright, and yes the best decision is not to have parades.

She also talks about the impact of the Dance in Solidarity project in a moment of helplessness in the lives of carnival workers, Thank God we were able to help more than 200 families directly. We received very positive feedback from the families that, in addition to support given through food baskets at a delicate moment, received all of the groups affection and attention. Everyone felt remembered, and valued. But Danielle ponders: Thats our job what I regret is that most of us were left without help and support during this period. The world stopped, we dont know when we will have carnival, but the bills still come in.

Read the rest here:

No Rio de Janeiro Carnival in 2021: Voices of Carnival Workers in Acari and Beyond - RioOnWatch

Alisha Saint-Ciel|The Enterprise

BROCKTON Your professors probably didn't teach youhow influential these African Americans with ties toBrockton were. Here is a list of fivepeople that contributedto historical change.

If you're a Brockton resident you might be familiar with the Mary E. Baker school. The Baker school is named after Mary E. Baker, the first African-American to work at Brockton City Hall. She was an advocate for affordable housing and racial integration in education. She helped establish two affordable housing complexes in Brockton and assistedwith the integration ofBrockton High School. Baker herself graduated from Brockton High school in 1941, going on to get her undergraduate degree fromUMass Boston and hermaster's in education from Cambridge College.In 2008 the city of Brockton honored her by naminga freshly built school after her, the firstAfrican American woman to be so honored.

Free: Subscribe to our News Alerts or Daily Briefing to get stories like this in your inbox

Marrow was the first African-American principal at Brockton High School, serving the district from 1999 until he retired in 2005. He worked for the city for 43 years.Since retiring, Marrow is spending his free time volunteering at the Howard Foundation, which is a Brockton nonprofit that assists the elderly. In addition to his volunteer work, he is a board member of the Brockton Redevelopment Authority.

More: Black History Month: 10 Black New England history-makers and their stories

During the pre-Civil War period, renowned abolitionist Frederick Douglass spoke to people gathered under what came to be known as the Liberty Tree on High Street in downtown Brockton. The city renamed it Frederick Douglass Avenue in May 2004 in events attended by his descendant, Frederick Douglass IV. In December 2004, the storm-damaged Liberty Tree was taken down and later a plaque was dedicated there. Douglass had theremarkable experience of being born a slave but dying a free man. The social reformerand writertook the the narrative that slaves cannot integrate into society as independent citizens due to their lack of knowledge and proved it wrong. His autobiography, "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave," which was a bestseller, introducedan entire generation of African Americans to the ideas of abolition.

Jacob Talbot was a farmer from West Bridgewater and served in the 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry. He was the first African American regiment soldier in the Civil war. The 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry was an extension of the Union Army and the second African American regiment. The Second Battle of Fort Wagner was their most famous battle and gained popularity in the award-winning film Glory.

Moises Rodrigues made history in Brockton when he served as the first mayor of color after the unexpected death of Mayor Bill Carpenter. His current position is city councilor at-large. He has 25 years of experience as an administrator in operations and social services and also served as the Director of Communications and Community Services for Brockton.

Originally posted here:

5 influential African Americans with ties to Brockton area - Enterprise News

Burma

Thousands of Mandalay residentsstage a sit-inprotest against the military regime on Sunday, following a deadly police crackdown aday earlier. / The Irrawaddy

By The Irrawaddy 21 February 2021

YANGONA nationwide general strike against Myanmars military regime has been called for Monday with the aim of accelerating the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) against the repressive military regime, which overthrew the elected civilian government three weeks ago.

Its likely that millions of people from all walks of life will pour out onto the streets across the country, as the regimes recent deadly crackdowns against ongoing protests have outraged many people.

If it happens, Mondays general strike will go down in the countrys modern history as the second nationwide popular uprising, after the one on Aug. 8, 1988 (Four Eights), when millions of people took to the streets to defy the then Socialist regime.

The planned strike is now popularly known as the Five Twos revolution, as it will be staged on 22.2.2021. On that day, nearly every business in the country will halt operations as people join the strike. Activists and celebrities are calling on every citizen to join in.

Many shop owners and market vendors have been informing their customers since Saturday morning that they will close on Monday to join the strike.

Myanmars largest retailer, City Mart Holding, as well as Thai wholesale center Makro in Yangon and several other popular local private businesses also announced on Sunday that their businesses will be closed on Monday.

The Southeast Asian country has already seen hundreds of thousands of people take to the streets over the past two weeks to oppose the regime.

The military regime has stepped up its crackdowns on street demonstrations, beating and opening fire directly on peaceful protesters in several cities. On Saturday, at least two civilians, including a young man, were shot dead in Mandalay when riot police opened fire with live and rubber bullets on residents protecting striking government shipyard workers who had joined the CDM.

Arrests of protest leaders and civil servants who refuse to work under the military regime have also intensified this week

With the numbers of deaths and detentions at the hands of the military continuing to rise, several netizens posted on social media that the more you oppress, the more we rise.

Despite the threat of being shot, or getting arrested, thousands of Mandalay residents staged sit-in protests, and protesters across the country continued their marches and rallies on Sunday, showing their determination to take down the regime.

A General Strike Committee involving 25 organizations from different fields including political parties, labor unions, student unions, farmers unions, religious groups, womens groups, monks, doctors, lawyers and writers groups was also formed on Saturday to work for the end of military dictatorship, the abolition of the 2008 Constitution and the establishment of a federal democratic union.

The committee will form local strike committees and arrange the collective peoples struggle against the military dictatorship across the country, said committee member U Aung Moe Zaw, who is also chairman of the Democratic Party for a New Society (DPNS).

We cant collapse. If we drew back at this point, the military regime would intensify its crackdown. Therefore, I think it is important to unite between organizations and intensify the strike.

Here is the original post:

Millions Expected to Join General Strike in Myanmar on Monday to Oppose Regime - The Irrawaddy News Magazine

In January, ARD, German public television, aired Season 3 of the series Charit, dealing with the history of Berlins famed hospital during the Cold War and, specifically, at the time of the building of the Berlin Wall in the early 1960s.

The series was scheduled to be broadcast last year to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the reunification of East and West Germany. Filming was held up, however, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The first season of the series dealt with the institution at the end of the 19th century and Season 2 featured the hospital and its operations under the Nazi regime. The series has attracted millions of viewers across the globe.

Like its predecessors, Season 3 features a gripping, well-researched story line portrayed by a largely compelling array of actors depicting a combination of real and fictional characters.

Historically genuine figures include the German-Jewish paediatrician Ingeborg Rapoport (Nina Kunzendorf) and her Russian-Jewish husband, the renowned biochemist Mitja Rapoport (Anatole Taubman). The latter played a key role in developing the Charits biochemical institute from 1952 onward. The Jewish pair had been driven out of Germany by the Nazis and were then persecuted as Communists in American exile during the McCarthy era. In the early 1950s, they decided to move to East Germany (German Democratic Republic, GDR), where they did outstanding medical science work at the Charit.

Another genuine character is the head of the gynaecological clinic, Prof. Dr Helmut Kraatz (Uwe Ochsenknecht), who worked as a doctor at the Charit under the Nazis, but was able to retain his post after the war in East Germany due to his internationally recognised qualifications. The Austrian forensic physician Prof. Dr Otto Prokop (Philipp Hochmair) is also a real figure who, after the war, transferred from Bonn University to the Charit in 1956 to become the head of forensic medicine. Following German reunification in 1989-90, his autopsy protocols were used in trials concerning deaths at the Berlin Wall.

The fictional character at the centre of the series is the young doctor Dr Ella Wendt (Nina Gummich), who is transferred from Senftenberg in Brandenburg to the Charit in Berlin. She is overjoyed at the change and seizes the opportunity to advance her research into early cancer detection alongside Prokop.

The Wendt character is used to illustrate the dramatic consequences for the hospital, its staff and Berlins population resulting from the virtual overnight construction of the Berlin Wall in August 1961. Prior to the Wall, the Charit was open to patients from all of Berlin and was renowned for its excellent medical treatment. The clinic buildings in the centre of Berlin were located directly on the territory occupied for the construction of the Wall and all of their windows facing west were bricked over. Charit doctors and nurses residing in West Berlin were forced either to move to the GDR or resign.

The series, however, leaves out the historical background of the Walls construction. The fact that Season 3 restricts the Charits history in the GDR to the period when the Wall was built is problematic. Key aspects of life in the Stalinist-dominated GDRin particular the Berlin Wall, the East German secret police (the Stasi) and its economic deficienciesare regularly cited by anti-communists. It would be incorrect, however, to reduce the GDR to such features.

One cannot understand the character of the GDR and the building of the Wall without comprehending the unbridgeable gap between Stalinism and socialism. The GDR was no more socialist than postwar West Germany, dominated politically by former Nazis, was a haven of freedom and democracy.

Stalins dictatorship in the Soviet Union embodied the rule of a bureaucracy that used state nationalised property relations to advance its own privileges and stood in irreconcilable opposition to the Soviet and international working class. In the Great Terror of 1937-38, the bureaucracy murdered a whole generation of Marxist revolutionaries, and in 1943 Stalin dissolved the Communist International.

The GDR and the other Stalinist regimes of Eastern Europe were products of the postwar Yalta and Potsdam treaties, in which Stalin pledged to suppress the socialist aspirations of the international working class with the help of Communist Parties worldwide. In return, Stalinism was given control of a series of buffer states in Eastern Europe to protect the Soviet Union from encirclement by the imperialist powers. Only after the US and its allies intensified their conflict with the Soviet Union in the form of the Cold War did the bureaucracy in Moscow give its approval for the elimination of capitalist property forms in the East European buffer states, including the GDR.

The nationalisations and the introduction of a planned economy formed the basis for a number of social, cultural and scientific advances, the significance of which many people only really understood when they were wiped out following German reunification. Unlike in the Soviet Union, however, such social advances were not the result of a proletarian revolution. When the GDR regime tried to solve the problems created by its economic isolation by attacking the conditions of the working class, the latter reacted by challenging the regime. Contrary to Western (and Stalinist) propaganda, workers did not take to the streets in the GDR on June 17, 1953 to demand the restoration of capitalism. Rather, it was a genuine uprising against the Stalinist regime.

Eight years later, the building of the Wall reflected the profound crisis of the Stalinist bureaucracy. The reactionary sealing of the border between East and West, carried out by the Walter Ulbricht regime, was designed to stem the growing movement of professional workers to the West and stabilise the GDR bureaucracy.

At the same time, the Wall served to divide the working class. Contrary to the impression given in the series, the West was by no means an economic paradise. Toward the end of the 1950s, mass protests by miners took place in the Ruhr region, which lasted for years and led to the fall of the Erhard government in 1966. Seven years after the Wall was built, the biggest general strike of the postwar period took place in France, precipitating in turn mass class struggles internationally, including in Eastern Europe.

The GDR bureaucracy feared such struggles as much as the capitalists in the West. In private, both the West German government and its allies approved of the Wall and had their own interest in a stable GDR At a meeting between Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and US President Kennedy in June 1961, the latter gave his approval to the measures taken by the GDR to prevent the flight of citizens from East to West. At the same time, of course, the Western powers and the West German government were quite prepared to use the building of the Wall to propagate anti-communism.

None of this background is even hinted at in the Charit series. Although the filmmakers strive to portray the characters and their motives with a certain degree of complexity, their dialogueduring such an intensely political periodremains conspicuously apolitical. The series ends up adapting to the falsification equating Stalinism with socialism.

One has to give the filmmakers credit, however, for dealing with the medical advances made in the GDR East Germany was largely cut off from access to some important international technical developments (for example, Charit had only one antiquated iron-lung machine) and medical staff continually confronted the obstructive behaviour of the state Stalinist bureaucracy, represented by the repeated appearances in the corridors of the clinic of the apparatchik Lehmann (Nicholas Reinke). Nevertheless, following the abolition of capitalist property forms, the East German health system was no longer subject to the profit motives, which dominated the pharmaceutical industry in the West.

In the GDR, for example, there was a compulsory polio vaccination program for newborn babies based on a drug developed in the Soviet Union. Infant mortality rates were extremely high in both parts of Germany after the war, but were reduced earlier in the GDR than in West Germany, which had no comparable program. Doctors from different medical disciplines worked closely together in polyclinics. There was even the possibility of gender reassignment for transsexuals at an earlier period in the East than in West Germany, as the film demonstrates with one case at Prof. Kraatzs institute.

Above all, the third season movingly depicts the commitment and humanity of Charits staff, who did everything in their power to care for patients, in the face of considerable political adversity. The gruff but kind-hearted head nurse Gerda (Hildegard Schroedter) is exemplary in this respect. Those who flee to West Berlin, after the construction of the Berlin Wall, are viewed as individuals only concerned with their own welfare and careers.

Particularly noteworthy is the role of the paediatrician Rapoport: she fights for a holistic treatment for pregnant women and newborns against resistance from Professor Kraatz. Kraatz does not hide his resentment toward Rapoport, whose dissertation was not approved by the Nazis in 1937 because of her Jewish mother.

Rapoport stresses to Kraatz the necessity of merging the two parts of the clinic, which were only connected by long pathways after the construction of the Wall. One scene in the series features a dramatic rescue operation of a premature baby with jaundice.

In an interesting conversation with the babys mother, who wants to move as quickly as possible to West Berlin to join her husband, Rapoport explains why she moved from American exile to the GDR: I never really wanted to go back to Germany, but her husband had convinced her East Germany was a different state from the country that murdered six million Jews. To the objection that this new state was not fully developed, she says: That may be, but I like the approach, the idea of togetherness, of being there for one other

In fact, Rapoport eventually achieved a breakthrough and the merger of the two hospital departments. In 1969, she was awarded the first chair of neonatology in the whole of Europe. In 2015, after a period of almost 80 years, the University of Hamburg retroactively recognised her dissertation, which Rapoport, born in 1912, personally defended in front of a panel of three professors. She died at the age of 104 and retained her socialist convictions until the end.

Dr Wendt also decides to stay at the Charit. At a cancer congress in West Berlin, she stands in for Dr Prokop and enthusiastically presents her research results. She is immediately wooed by West Berlin chief physicians who try to recruit her and, during a break, a Berlin clinic director makes the young researcher a tempting offer to work in a clinic sponsored by the pharmaceutical company Bayernaturally with a correspondingly higher salary than at the Charit.

The fact that the series third season coincides with the deadly intensification of the coronavirus crisis has a surprising, perhaps unintended effect. Viewers must unavoidably recall the desperate situation in hospitals today when Dr Wendt is suddenly faced with a triage decision. A farmer with an advanced lung condition needs penicillin as does the popular hospital caretaker Fritz, who has contracted blood poisoning. Due to a supply shortage, however, there is only one dose available. You dont want to let our Fritz die, do you? asks head nurse Gerda with a horrified look.

Back in the GDR, shortage was the reason for the lack of medicine . Today, intensive care beds, testing capacities and vaccines are lacking because of a deliberate policy of putting the profits of banks and corporations before the lives and health of the population.

Thirty years ago, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the GDR were celebrated as the end of socialism and a victory for capitalism. At that time, the current horrific toll of coronavirus deaths was unimaginable. Television audiences will draw their own conclusions. On October 3, 2020, on the anniversary of German reunification, the WSWS wrote: The Wall separated two great lies. In the East, the Stalinist bureaucrats claimed to have built socialism, and in the West, the capitalist rulers who were in personnel continuity with the Nazis, celebrated themselves as liberal and democratic.

A genuine socialist society, allowing economic, scientific and medical cooperation in the interest of all humanity, requires the collaboration of workers around the globe and the worldwide elimination of the profit system. The coronavirus disaster places this task urgently on the agenda.

See original here:

Charit, Season 3: Berlin's famed hospital during the Cold War - WSWS

I found an anecdote towards the end of The Road to 1945, the late historian Paul Addisons history of how the second world war changed Britain. It centres on Winston Churchill, Ernest Bevin then minister of labour in the wartime coalition government and thousands of soldiers setting off to mainland Europe. In June 1944, two days before the D-day landings, Churchill and Bevin went to Portsmouth to say farewell to the troops. They were going off to face this terrific battle, Bevin recounted, with great hearts and great courage. The one question they put to me when I went through their ranks was: Ernie, when we have done this job for you are we going back on the dole? Both the prime minister and I answered: No, you are not.

Despite the self-evident caveat that wars and pandemics are very different things, the parallels between the uneasy historical moment that story captures and the current phase of the Covid crisis are obvious. The past 12 months have seen a mixture of unprecedented deaths and huge collective sacrifice. Moreover, as the crisis has gone on, profound social questions that have been rattling around British politics for at least a decade about poverty, inequality, work, and housing have roared into the foreground. If some people are asking questions about a return to normal and the dashed hopes that would represent, that hardly seems unreasonable.

Eighty years ago, in the wake of campaigning and political work that had bubbled away between the wars, we all know what happened: a drive to decisively tackle want, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness led first to the report on social insurance and allied services authored by William Beveridge, then to the programme enacted by the Labour government elected to power in 1945. The convulsive crisis of our own times, by contrast, has so far not produced anything even remotely similar. Worse, after a 40-year journey away from the postwar social settlement, a society of benefit sanctions, tent encampments in city centres, in-work poverty and so-called holiday hunger remains essentially unchanged, even though Covid has made the consequences for public health and our national resilience so clear.

The political conversation about these subjects is comically small. The government affects a belief in levelling up, but has not even dedicated a minister to the policy, if thats what it deserves to be called. In his supposedly big speech, Keir Starmer referenced Beveridge, the 1945 spirit and a determination that our collective sacrifice must lead to a better future, but offered nothing that really matched such grand words. A few days later, Boris Johnsons former homelessness adviser Louise Casey said it was time for a new Beveridge report, focused on the fact that the nation has been torn apart. But the current politics of poverty seem to extend little further than the pre-budget argument about the fate of last years 20 increase to universal credit, which is the only sign of a huge elephant in the national room: a welfare state that too often both sustains and deepens scarring inequality, and a benefits system that needs to be drastically changed.

Last week, I read the Joseph Rowntree Foundations latest report on UK poverty. Even before coronavirus, it explains thanks partly to the cruelties of a four-year benefits freeze incomes were falling, and falling fastest for people at the very bottom of the income hierarchy. In 2019, more than one in five of us was living in poverty, and 2.4 million, including more than half a million children, were destitute at some point in the year, an increase of about 50% compared with 2017. The proportion of people in work who were classified as also living in poverty was 13%, and among certain social groups that number was much higher: people from Pakistani and Bangladeshi backgrounds, for example, registered a figure of 34%.

Now, 5.8 million people are experiencing the impossibility of life on universal credit, up from 3 million just as the pandemic began. Rates of destitution have skyrocketed. Covid deaths and infections map tightly on to patterns of disadvantage, and the governments Joint Biosecurity Centre traces severe outbreaks in poorer parts of the country to unmet financial needs. The disproportionate effect of the pandemic on black and Asian people, linked to the grimly enduring way in which race overlaps with material disadvantage, is obvious. This is the kind of scourge that mere numbers cannot capture, along with the way the benefits system sits at the heart of a culture in which people have no choice but to take on precarious and often dangerous work, something manifested lately in thousands avoiding the test-and-trace system for fear of lost earnings and reprisals from their employers, and the overlooked issue of workplace outbreaks.

A conversation about a fundamentally different welfare state ought to fall two ways: between immediate answers to the cruelties of our current systems, and longer-term ideas about how to completely reinvent it. The former might include an end to universal credits built-in five-week wait, the abolition of the cruel and arbitrary benefit cap, and no more sanctioning. It should extend to a recalibration of housing benefit so that people including key workers can afford to live in even high-cost areas, a watershed rise in our miserable rates of statutory sick pay, and the upgrading of the minimum wage and national living wage to the so-called real living wage (9.50 across the UK and 10.85 in London), with an ongoing link to inflation.

But as a means of pushing the conversation towards fundamental change, we really need to take things back to first principles. A good example is contained in the Scottish Social Security Act of 2018. It covered only the limited range of grants and payments devolved to Holyrood, but began with a set of starting-points that, in the context of Westminsters conversations about welfare, still seem almost heretical. Social security, said the legislation, is an investment in the people of Scotland, a human right essential to the realisation of other human rights, something founded on respect for the dignity of individuals, and a public service explicitly aimed at reducing poverty.

Policies that might make such ideas a reality are not hard to find. The central place of housing in any viable welfare state ought to be restored by a long overdue drive to build hundreds of thousands of homes for social rent. A first step towards a basic income might guarantee that, say, a family of four could count on a minimum of 10,000 a year. Seizing on the logic of Rishi Sunaks furlough scheme, we might consider a European-style way of helping unemployed people back on their feet whereby benefits for those who lose their jobs are not set at a level that does not even cover basic subsistence, but calculated as a proportion of lost earnings.

A 21st-century system should reflect peoples lives not just as workers, but carers, members of support networks and volunteers. Because ours is an age of participation rather than deference and diktat, it ought to originate not in the designs of politicians and bureaucrats, but the experiences of people in the everyday world, not least those who intimately know the welfare state and how it works. This, surely, is the only convincing response to one of the key stories of the last year: people with much the same hearts and courage that Bevin observed, being let down by systems that had become so inhumane and threadbare that they were always going to lead us to disaster. If we do not start to change them now, we will not have learned even the most basic lessons of the Covid era.

More here:

What British politicians won't admit we need to transform the welfare state - The Guardian

Viewpoint by Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN | TOKYO (IDN) Like the United Nations, the global community-based Buddhist organisation Soka Gakkai International (SGI) is a beacon of hope to a world shrouded by dark clouds of unprecedented crises. An international association of the Soka Gakkai and an NGO in consultative status with UN ECOSOC, SGI has members in 192 countries and territories around the world. SGI President is Daisaku Ikeda, a Buddhist philosopher, peacebuilder and educator.

Every year since 1983, he has issued a peace proposal, which explores the interrelation between core Buddhist concepts and the diverse challenges global society faces in the effort to realize peace and human security. In addition, he has also made proposals touching on issues such as education reform, the environment, the United Nations and nuclear abolition.

In his latest 39th annual peace proposal, titled "Value Creation in a Time of Crisis", released on January 26, 2021, marking the anniversary of the founding of the SGI, President Ikeda calls for further global cooperation to address the key issues of our time: extreme weather events that reflect the worsening problem of climate change and the onslaught of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic which continues to threaten social and economic stability throughout the world.

Besides, more than 13,400 nuclear weapons in the current arsenals of nine nuclear-armed states and 32 nuclear-weapon endorsing states are an existential menace. Their explosive yield has grown exponentially since 1945 when atomic bombs razed to the ground Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The SGI President recalls that, amid the Cold War's accelerating nuclear arms race, Josei Toda (19001958), second president of the Soka Gakkai, issued a declaration in September 1957 calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons. "Inspired by this, our organisation has worked for the comprehensive prohibition of nuclear weapons and to make this a norm governing international relations," he adds.

To this end, SGI has actively collaborated with such organisations as the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). In light of this history, the award of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize and the TPNW's entry into force about three years later has been an unparalleled cause of celebration for SGI too.

Dr Ikeda notes with apparent satisfaction that despite the continuing complex of crises, "progress in efforts to build a global society committed to peace and humane values has not halted". An example of important progress is the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) on January 22, 2021.

The Treaty maps a clear path to the achievement of the long-sought goal of nuclear weapons abolition, an issue that was addressed at the UN in 1946, one year after its founding, in the very first resolution adopted by the General Assembly; it has remained pending ever since.

Still reeling under the catastrophic pandemic's impacts

Notwithstanding progress on the TPNW front, the world is still reeling under the catastrophic pandemic's impacts. More than 99 million people had been infected with COVID-19 as of January 25, 2021. Of these, over 2.12 million have died. In slightly more than one year, the number of COVID-19 fatalities has far exceeded the total number of lives claimed by large-scale natural disasters over the past two decades.

"One cannot begin to fathom the depth of grief experienced by those who have lost their loved ones in this unforeseen manner; and this pain is deepened by the fact that, due to measures to prevent the spread of the virus, so many of the victims have been prevented from spending their final moments with family by their side," mourns Dr Ikeda.

He emphasises the economic devastation brought about by the pandemic, estimated to be threatening the livelihoods of 1.6 billion people half the world's workforce and emphasises the need to promote global social protection initiatives.

In his latest annual peace proposal, the SGI leader focuses on three main issue areas.

Strengthening global governance

The first relates to strengthening global governance and establishing global guidelines for combating infectious diseases.

Because of the possibility of new infectious diseases emerging in the future, the SGI President calls for convening a high-level meeting and collaboration among the world's governments to adopt international guidelines governing pandemic response.

Crucial youth role

He also pleads for a "beyond COVID-19" youth summit to discuss what kind of world young people would like to see in the aftermath of the current crisis. "This summit could utilise online platforms, thus enabling the participation of many young people from diverse backgrounds," says Dr Ikeda.

In 2020, the UN launched the UN75 initiative an ambitious attempt to listen to the world's people's voices through surveys and dialogue. Of the suggestions detailed in the UN75 Report, Dr Ikeda highlights, in particular, the idea of establishing a UN youth council with the role of communicating to the UN leadership ideas and proposals developed from the perspective of young people.

The TPNW a turning point in human history

The second issue on which the SGI President offers specific proposals is the prohibition and abolition of nuclear weapons.

"Removing the grave danger posed by these weapons is at the heart of both the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT)," which entered into force in 1970 and the TPNW that became a legally binding international agreement on January 22, 2021, he explains.

"The entry into force of the TPNW marks the start of an era in which the continued existence of nuclear weapons on Earth has been stipulated as unacceptable by a legally binding instrument."

In his view, attention now focuses on the first meeting of States Parties of the TPNW. Since any state is welcome to attend, a major focus will be on how to involve as many nuclear-weapon and nuclear-dependent states as possible in the deliberations.

Japan's special role

"As the only country in the world to have experienced a nuclear attack in wartime, Japan should pave the way for the nuclear-dependent states by announcing its intention to participate in the first meeting of States Parties of the TPNW and to proactively take part in discussions," emphasises Dr Ikeda.

"On this basis, Japan should aim for ratification at an early date. In light of its history and the underlying spirit of the Treaty to protect the right to live of all the people with whom we share this planet and to ensure the survival of future generations it can certainly send a powerful message to the world. In this way, Japan can make an important contribution to ensuring that the talks reach a constructive outcome."

The SDGs and Nuclear Weapons

Furthermore, the SGI President proposes a forum for discussing the relationship between nuclear weapons and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) during the first meeting of States Parties. The theme of nuclear weapons and the SDGs can thus be positioned as an issue concerning all states and serve as the impetus to engage as many nuclear-weapon and nuclear-dependent states as possible.

True meaning of security in light of climate change and COVID-19 crises

Besides, he wants the NPT Review Conference scheduled for August this year to discuss the true meaning of security in light of crises such as climate change and the pandemic. The final document, he adds, should include a pledge of non-use of nuclear weapons and a pledge to freeze all nuclear-weapon development in the lead-up to the 2025 Review Conference.

The SGI President argues that the TPNW opens a path for a nuclear-weapon state to become a State Party by submitting a plan to eliminate its nuclear-weapon program. Such participation by nuclear-dependent and nuclear-weapon states in the TPNW could be facilitated under the NPT regime by embarking on multilateral negotiations on nuclear disarmament undergirded by pledges non-use and a freeze on nuclear-weapon development. He calls for efforts to link the operation of these two treaties in ways that will put us on the path to ending the nuclear age.

Rebuilding life in a post-COVID world

The third issue on which Dr Ikeda offers proposals pertains to the reconstruction of economies and lives disrupted by the COVID-19 emergency.

As the United Nations has repeatedly emphasised, the magnitude of the COVID-19 economic shock has thrown many millions of people into financial devastation. This has driven home the urgency of strengthening access to social protection systems, a goal also supported by the members of the 37-nation Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

"I hope that OECD members will take the lead in efforts to realise all SDG targets related to ensuring universal social protection measures. I also hope that they will work together to establish and implement global policy standards for rebuilding economies and livelihoods devastated by the COVID-19 crisis," says Dr Ikeda.

Transition to a green economy

One direction this could take, he adds, is the development of new industries and the creation of job opportunities through the transition to a green economy, scaling back military spending and allocating the resources saved to strengthening social protection systems.

Social resilience

Further, notes the SGI President, OECD members have a significant role to play in enacting ambitious policies that enhance social resilience. "We are living in an era in which we need to adopt a comprehensive and simultaneous 'multi-hazard approach' to threats and challenges, with a clear understanding of the systemic nature of risk, as advocated by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction."

Dr Ikeda assures that drawing upon the network of collaborative relations Buddhist organisation has developed to date, as part of civil society, it is "wholeheartedly committed to working toward 2030 with like-minded people and organisations to accelerate the achievement of the SDGs and to realise a global society of peace and humane values".

The 39th peace proposal like his previous suggestions is eminently exhaustive, founded not only on the philosophy of Nichiren Buddhism but also on the culture of peace and the author's wisdom and diverse encounters over the years with philosophers and government and religious leaders from around the world. [IDN-InDepthNews 18 February 2021]

Photo: SGI President Daisaku Ikeda. Credit: Seikyo Shimbun

IDN is flagship agency of the Non-profit International Press Syndicate.

Visit us on Facebook and Twitter.

This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. You are free to share, remix, tweak and build upon it non-commercially. Please give due credit.

View post:

A Beacon of Hope from A Buddhist Leader in the Face of Crises - IDN InDepthNews | Analysis That Matters

When we talk about clean energy and affordable housing in America, what often gets left out of the conversation are the ways in which energy insecurity and racist housing practices intersect.

Just look at predominantly Black neighborhoods throughout the country, such as Detroit, Michigan, and Columbia, South Carolina. The median energy burden of Black households in Detroit is 54 percent higher than that of non-Hispanic white households. Black families who face high energy burdens have to make tradeoffs between utility payments and other necessities, and now that burden has made those same families more susceptible to the life-threatening impacts of COVID-19.

What these predominantly Black communities have in common is a practice known as redlininga racial residential segregation policy from the 1930s. Through redlining, financial institutions can either refuse to offer mortgages or offer worse loan rates to customers looking to buy houses in neighborhoods occupied by people of colordenying hardworking families access to homeownership and the American dream.

The racist redlining practices of the housing industry created neighborhoods throughout the United States with high energy burdens, and in those areas, Black communities often show a higher prevalence of exposure to pollution and poverty. For example, due to systematic racist targeting through redlining, much of Michigans energy insecurity is concentrated in Detroitthe largest Black-majority city in the United States. The mayor of Detroit recentlystatedthat African Americans are more likely to suffer from heart disease, asthma, and chronic kidney disease, which could be making their recovery from the virus more difficult.

In Columbia, South Carolina, many of the redlined communities are predominantly Black and experience a high energy burden. Energy expenditures remain the same regardless of income level, with some predominantly Black communities with median household incomes of $30,000 spending the same amount on energy as predominantly white communities with median household incomes of $100,000.

The United States long, shameful history of discriminatory housing policies and racial segregation is part of the reason why Black families are more likely to live in older, energy-inefficient homes that saddle them with higher energy burdens (6 percent energy burden or higher) than white families at almost every position in the income distribution. High energy burdens not only threaten a familys ability to pay for energy, but it also forces already struggling families to make tough choices between paying energy bills or buying food, medicine, or other essentials.

Fifty years after the abolition of slavery, local governments still found a way to disenfranchise Black communities by legally enforcing housing segregation through exclusionary zoning laws that prohibited the sale of property to Black people. In 1917, when the Supreme Court ruled these zoning laws unconstitutional, homeowners swiftly replaced them with racially restrictive covenantsagreements between property owners that banned the sale of homes in a neighborhood to certain racial groups.

In 1934, the FHA and the Homeowners Loan Coalition (HOLC), a federally funded program created to help homeowners refinance their mortgages, introduced redlining policies in over 200 US cities including Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, and others with large minority populations. The HOLC included in the FHA Underwriting Handbook residential security maps, which were color-coded according to racist, anti-Black guidelines: Green (Best) represented in-demand, up-and-coming neighborhoods where professional men lived, lacking a single foreigner or negro; Blue (Still Desirable) neighborhoods that had reached their peak but were thought to be stable due to their low risk of infiltration by non-white groups; Yellow (Definitely Declining) areas considered risky due to the threat of infiltration of foreign-born, negro, or lower grade populations; and Red (Hazardous) neighborhoods where infiltration had already occurred.

While the Fair Housing Act of 1968 explicitly ended legally sanctioned redlining policies, practices that encouraged lending discrimination, like those used by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), were difficult to eliminate and have continued even in recent years.

We will never be successful in our movement for a healthy, safe, and sustainable planet if we do not intentionally and actively fight to dismantle racism in all of its forms. If we address structural racism and inequity in the way that we combat the climate crisis, we can stop investments in aging coal power plants and gas infrastructure and drastically reduce energy insecurity and fossil fuel pollution for Black communities.

Increasing investments in energy efficiency programs and targeting those investments to Black communities can help reduce high energy burdens, make energy bills more affordable, and vastly improve worsening health disparities caused by COVID-19. There are opportunities to work with utilities, local, and state governments, and utility commissions to set energy affordability goals and track outcomes while identifying and targeting Black communities for programs to serve. Additionally, there is an opportunity to increase a homes value when energy efficiency upgrades are made.

Many of the same utilities that are holding on to coal plants and spending billions of dollars on gas infrastructure also serve Black customers that have the highest energy burdens in the country. Southern Company claims on itswebsitethat racism has no place in our company and communities. Alabama Power, a subsidiary of Southern Company, supplies electricity to 1.4 million Alabamians including the city of Birmingham. In Birmingham, a town that is over 70 percent Black, 153,330 households have a high energy burden. The 2020 ACEEE scorecard ranked Alabama Power as 52nd in energy efficiency among the countrys 52 largest utilities. The Southern Company system generates approximately 22 percent of its electric power from coal and 50 percent from natural gas.

We Energies, the electricity supplier for Milwaukee,statesthat it stands with its customers in rejecting all forms of racism. But in Milwaukee, one in four Black families has an energy burden at or above 15.5 percent. We Energies generates 45 percent of its electric power from coal and 24 percent from gas. The 2020 ACEEE scorecard ranked We Energies as 23rd in energy efficiency among the countrys 52 largest utilities.

An anti-racist climate movement gives us the foundation to build a more durable base of environmentalists who are focused first and foremost on their health, their wealth, and their community's survival. This is key to building the kind of lasting political power we need to make the changes that are necessary to confront the overlapping crises of these times. This is especially important for Black people who are being hit by the syndemic of COVID-19, energy burden, climate crisis, white supremacy, and state-sanctioned economic deprivation.

It will take a truly inclusive movement to remediate the earth from centuries of systematic racism and ultimately save our planet.

See the original post here:

From Redlining to Restorative Justice - Sierra Magazine

Kashmirs sanitation workers, who include local Muslims and Valmiki labourers, are being paid Rs. 100 or Rs. 500 per month by the government, reportsRAJA MUZAFFAR BHATfrom Srinagar. The situation has not changed for decades in the Valley or Jammu despite a High Court order and tall claims made during and after the abrogation of Article 370.

AFROZA has been a part-time sweeper in the Jammu and Kashmir Health Department for more than 22 years. Her engagement order, issued on 27 January 1998 by the Block Medical Officer at Pulwama, says that she has to keep the sub-center at Tiken clean at the dues of Rs. 100 per month.

If the wages were not already low enough, what is shocking is that even after more than two decades, her services have not been regularised though she was hired against a vacant sweeper positionand her wages have not changed either. Afroza is not even paid wages as per the Minimum Wages Act, 1948. At present, she is working at the Government Sub-Health Center, Chewa Kalan, in Pulwama district of South Kashmir.

In violation of all labour laws, Afroza and hundreds of other workers, who are known as consolidated health department workers are being paid very meager monthly remunerations. This author learned of the injustice being committed by the government of the J&K Health Department, particularly in the Kashmir valley, after researching Afrozas case.

The sweepers who work in the sub-centers, primary health centers (PHCs), sub-district hospitals (SDHs), and district hospitals in almost all the districts of J&K, particularly in the Valley, have the same fate.

When Article 370 was repealed a lot was said about how it would give the Valmiki community of Jammu the rights due to them. This community, which has lived in Jammu for the last more than 64 years, is mostly employed as sanitation workers in the Jammu Municipal Corporation or in private institutions. However, their conditions are still being neglected despite the miserable lives they are forced to live. The challenges they face at the workplace are not even recognised or documented.

Ironically, the rest of the country is hardly aware that even Kashmiri Muslims work as sweepers and sanitation workers. They, too, are paid as little as Rs. 100 or Rs. 500 per month. The government must identify all such neglected and exploited workers and address their grievances. If on the one hand, the government enacts laws to ensure social justice and empower disadvantaged communities, how can people then be used as bonded labourers in government institutions?

As she belongs to a community that has traditionally been made to perform menial tasks, Afroza accepted the job she got, but with the hope that one day her position would be regularised as she was appointed against a clear vacancy, but that did not happen.

Getting regularised is only a dream now. I ruined my youth for the government and got nothing in return. I am already 42 years old. I and hundreds of sweepers and others who work in the health department are not even paid the minimum statutory wages of Rs. 225 a day [Rs. 6,750 a month]. In Delhi the pay is higher, Rs. 596 a day [Rs. 15,492 a month], Afroza told The Leaflet.

Afroza was made to work in many government-run health institutions in Pulwama district. She was posted at the Sub-Health Centre at Tikin for six years, then asked to work as a sweeper at the PHC at Manghama for five years. She was then sent to the PHC at Puchal where she worked for two years, after which she was posted at the PHC, Newa, where she even worked during the night shift. Since 2010, she has been working at the Sub-Health Center at Chewa Kalan.

During the last 20 years, I have spent huge money on travelling [to work] using public transport. Had the doctors and other paramedical staff not been cooperative and helpful, I would have left the job long back. They have helped me a lot. On holidays and Sundays, I work on local farms to make ends meet. My husband does menial jobs like removing dung from the cattle sheds and carrying it to the fields. Even in our abject poverty, we did not compromise on our childrens education, she says. Her sons are in classes X and III and her daughters study in classes IV and VII. I have only one dream now, and that is to give my children the best education, Afroza says.

The so-called consolidated workers are mostly the sweepers who work in the Health Department. Earlier, they were not organised, but six months back, some workers initiated attempts to organise their tribe. Gulzar Ahmad, Abdul Ahad Sheikh and dozens of other workers have united to fight this long battle under the aegis of the Consolidated Health Workers Union J&K. They went to several districts of Kashmir Valley to get actual details of these health department workers and the remuneration they get.

Gulzar belongs to an economically and socially backward community and is employed as a driver in the Health Department, Budgam, also on a meagre wage of Rs. 3,000 per month for 15 years. As a skilled worker, he is supposed to be paid Rs. 350 per day [Rs. 10,500 per month]. Abdul Ahad Sheikh, who is 54, belongs to the border district of Kupwara and is paid Rs. 100 per month.

Had my sons not been running a smalldhabait would have been a miserable life. I am already 54 and have suffered a lot in the last 25 years of service, but I will now fight for the other people who should not be discriminated against. Even if we have to go to the Supreme Court we will fight against this injustice and bonded labour, says Abdul Ahad.

Earlier, Gulzar had been fighting for consolidated workers alone, but now he feels stronger, having got the support of colleagues and as the patron of their united front. In 2011, he met the then Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who sought a detailed report from the J&K Finance Department. The Finance Department issued a circular asking the Health Department to provide details of people working on a consolidated basis. After a long struggle, the department prepared a list of 1,541 persons (mostly sweepers and helpers).

We have no update on how many are working in the Jammu region as consolidated workers but we are trying our best to organise this [information] as well, Gulzar says.

Initially, the Finance Department raised the query whether these 1,541 workers are employed part-time or full-time. The Directorate of Health and the Drawing and Disbursing officers (DDOs), such as the Chief Medical Officers (CMOs) and Block Medical Officers (BMOs), clarified that all 1,541 were full-time workers in the Health Department, on the job from 9 am to 5 pm, and many at night too.

The Finance Department once again asked the Director, Health Services, Kashmir, about the accounting head under which these consolidated workers were being paid wages. The director responded that the workers were paid wages, and not salary in terms of the accounting head, says Gulzar Ahmad.

In 2016, the Health Department civil secretariat [Communication No: HD/NG/06/2011 dated 4 August 2016] recommended a hike in the wages of the consolidated health workers. Workers being paid Rs. 100 were to get Rs. 500 a month, those paid Rs. 500 a month were recommended wages of Rs. 1,000 a month and a wage of Rs. 1,500 was fixed for the workers who were already being paid Rs. 1,000 per month. The maximum wages were fixed at Rs. 3,000 a month, which would be paid to only a handful of drivers.

However, even this small increase has not been implemented by the government, except for a handful of drivers who now get paid Rs. 3,000 a month. On 26 October 2017, the J&K government notified [under SRO 460] the revised wages under the Minimum Wages Act. Then onwards, unskilled labourers became entitled to a minimum wage of Rs. 225 a day, skilled workers to Rs, 350 a day, and highly-skilled workers to Rs. 400 per day.

As the revised wages were not implemented for the consolidated health workers, Gulzar Ahmad gave a written representation to the Secretary, Finance, J&K government, with demand for implementation. The Finance Secretary forwarded the case to the Health Department and sought an update. The Director forwarded a detailed report and recommended the implementation of the Minimum Wages Act for part-time workers as well as consolidated cleaners and helpers.

The Director, Health Services, Kashmir, sent an official communication on 12 October 2020 requesting the Administrative Department to implement the Minimum Wages Act. He told the Financial Commissioner, Health and Medical Education, that as per the Budget Estimates for the financial year 2021-22, submitted by the subordinate drawing and disbursing officers of the department, there are 1,541 consolidated safaiwalas, part-time workers and helpers in the department, who fall in the category of unskilled labourers.

These workers do menial work like sweeping and scavenging and are paid remuneration rates ranging from Rs. 30 (thirty only) to Rs. 4,000 a month and are regularly pleading for payment of remuneration as per the rates applicable under the Minimum Wages Act, says his letter.

A petition was also filed by some workers before the High Court of J&K [Writ Petition 3840/2019, Nazir Ahmad Hajam and others vs Union Territory of J&K]. The High Court directed the government to determine the eligibility of the petitioners on the touchstone of the SRO No. 469 of 2017, read with the government order no 27-F of 2018, issued on 25 January 2018. The High Court also said that necessary orders are to be passed and the payments cleared.

The Director, Health Services, Kashmir, also referred to this petition in his letter. He sought a budgetary allocation of Rs. 12,92,64,750.00 [Rs.12.9 crore] so that the 1,541 workers could be paid wages as per the Minimum Wages Act.

As of now, the government only provides Rs. 1.50 crores annually to the Directorate of Health, Kashmir, for this purpose. Some officers in the Finance Department claim that consolidated workers such as sweepers and helpers are part-time employees and do not fall under the definition of scheduled employment. However, the respective Drawing and Disbursing Officers have already made it clear that all 1,541 workers were employed full-time and even during night hours.

During the Novel Coronavirus pandemic, sanitation workers were at the forefront of fighting the dreaded COVID-19 disease. These workers, helpers, and drivers risked their lives when most of the country did not even dare come out of their homes. These workers, along with medics and paramedics, fought COVID-19 bravely, yet their services go unrecognised.

According to section 22A of the Minimum Wages Act, any employer found in violation of the act in regards to minimum wages, working hours can be penalized for five years of imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 10,000. The government of J&K is not only violating this act but also the human rights of these workers as per the provisions of the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976.

How sanitation workers, helpers, and drivers working on a consolidated basis in the J&K Health Department are being made to work on a pittance for the last 15-20 years or more is simply criminal. The authorities can be held liable under the Bonded Labour Abolition Act for this.

The government had claimed that people belonging to the weaker sections of society would get justice after the abrogation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. However, people like Afroza and Abdul Ahad in Kashmir, and thousands of others who belong to the so-called sweeper community, continue to face gross neglect and discrimination.

If central laws have been applicable in J&K for more than 19 months since 5 August 2019, then why are people being denied their benefits? Afroza does not want a government job for the sake of it. She wants to get paid as per the Minimum Wages Act, which is her right. If this right is also snatched and she remains tied to a bonded-labor-like situation for 22 years and counting, who will take the government to task for violating its own laws?

(Raja Muzaffar Bhat is a Srinagar-based activist, columnist, and independent researcher. The views are personal.)

Visit link:

Life After Art. 370: How J&K Government Insults Covid Warriors - TheLeaflet - The Leaflet