|
No man's land'Civilising the uncivilised'
By Geetashree Around 40% of the children evacuated by the Salwa Judum to camps in Chhattisgarh are not in school. Some of them are being “adopted” by ashrams like the Chhattisgarh Jana Kalyan Sangh which aims to “civilise the uncivilised tribal children”. Eleven-year-old Naampodium Lacchu is now called Akash, and is well on the way to losing his tribal identity More...
'What wrong have we done?'
By Geetashree On January 9, 2009, police in Bastar announced a historic victory over the Maoists. They had killed 19 of them in an encounter. Geetashree travelled to four villages of Dantewada district and was told a different story – of 19 tribal men randomly rounded up and shot More...
Fire in the forest
By Geetashree As many as 3,800 civilians in Dantewada and Bijapur districts – tribals and non-tribals – have joined the Salwa Judum as special police officers. Most of them are young men, but there are plenty of children too. This part of our ongoing series from Chhattisgarh describes how ordinary villagers have been drawn into the pitched battle between Salwa Judum and the Maoists More...
Inside the camps: "We have been left to die here"
Geetashree journeys through Dantewada district, Chhattisgarh, through deserted villages and into the government camps where the herded tribals are literally starving, with no healthcare, no sanitation and almost no way to earn a livelihood. This is Part 2 of a series on the tribals of Chhattisgarh caught between the Maoists and the Salwa Judum More...
Caught between the Maoists and the Salwa Judum
By Geetashree In forest- and mineral-rich Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh, at least 300,000 tribals have been displaced in the face-off between the Maoists and the state-sponsored Salwa Judum. Their villages have been “evacuated” and some 50,000 moved to “safe” government camps. The rest have migrated to neighbouring states. This is the first in a series researched as part of the Infochange Media Fellowships 2008 More...
|
