Equity

The Mizoram state has three types of (natural) lakes: valley lakes, tectonic/landslide lakes and artificial reservoirs, but the only lake of significance is Palak Dil, which is a natural lake in a depression in the hills. Palak Dil may possibly be a combination of valley and tectonic lakes. Locally in Mizoram, lakes are called dils. There are many such dils scattered all over the state, but they are tiny pools or marshy depressions such as Rengdil, Tamdil and Mampui Dil (Choudhury 2002). The Palak Lake is situated within the Mara Autonomous district Council, which is a region inhabited by the Mara Tribe. The Maras are distinct from the majority Mizos and in the Mara language the Palak Lake is referred to as Pala Tipa.

The paper argues that watershed management has to be fluid to take into consideration new realities like change in flow conditions, external realities like unintended impacts and the need to maintain minimum downstream flows for environmental and other purposes.

Manual scavenging is the most obnoxious and inhuman practice violating the dignity and human personhood of safai karmacharis. It involves the engagement or employment of sections of people to manually dispose human excreta from dry latrines with bare minimum aids such as scrappers, brooms and baskets.

Manual scavenging is integrally linked with caste system and is imposed on certain dalit sub-caste groups particularly on their women. As a result all persons engaged in manual scavenging are dalits, and of them 82% are women.

7th Oct

The Birsa Munda Marga - Samajik Parivarthan Yatra, started in Dibrugarh, Assam on 7th October at 3 p.m.

From Ludhiana: Bassi Pathana Town - Fathegar sagar district:

A Community meeting was held in Valmiki Mohalla. It was attended by local eminent persons from the community, Mr. Sardar Sukhdev Singh Jamagal - rtrd Additional Judge, Mr. Kaval Jit Singh Mattu, Advocate, Mr. Dholak Ram - and President,  Safai karmachari Union, and community leader Mr. Ram ji Lal, Govt Employee. 12 liberated SK women took the responsibility of organising a meeting in the basti with the support of committee people. They invited the community as well as general public to the meeting, where the mission, demands, SKA’s back ground were discussed and people’s views were taken.

This working paper by Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS), Hyderabad deals with the issue of right to drinking water, an issue that has assumed greater significance in India in recent years. Declarations by the United Nations and other international organisations, and judic

This study by CISED is a review of the rights discourse in the context of water, based on academic and popular literature on rights and civil society initiatives as well as government documents regarding water and related subjects.

I, on behalf of the local people bringing to your notice that we have a 300 years-old pond in our  locality which is known as Bhabani Pathak Dighi which is declared as a Historical and Heritage Site by the West Bengal Heritage Commission.It is in the City Centre area adjacent to the Ambuja Housing.

The total 8.48 arcs of pond and its surroundings (area not known) have been declared as a. A tunnel was found when a construction work was going on beside the pond and some renovation work has also been done there accordingly by West Bengal Heritage Commission (annexure no 13). Now the pond is only approx 3.5 arcs left and rest has been filled.

This awesome site has shot to fame by the novel Durgesnandini of great Bengali novelist Bankim Chattopadhyay.The novel describes the best featuring and intricacies of these tunnels and the pond.

Saharanpur (9 Oct) :  History was created in Saharanpur once again.  Today, Paondhoi had thousands of visitors (e.g.

The historical ‘Samajik Parivarthan Yatra’ (Rally for Social Transformation), has been started to consolidate the gains of the movement for total eradication by liberated safai karmacharis who for the first time are bonding with one another began the  journey for social change  together, to inspire others who are still engaged in manual scavenging to free themselves from the obnoxious practise and regain their sense of dignity, and also to achieve their rightful claims for the rehabilitation package and dignified alternative livelihoods on the one hand; and on the other, to motivate civil society to reject the heinous practice of manual scavenging. The Bus Yatra has been planned to start from five different corners of India, and traverse through 160 districts in 20 states and finally culminate in New Delhi with a large rally. Each route has been named after an eminent person who contributed to social change in a revolutionary manner.