By Md. Ali, TwoCircles.net
Prof. Hasan Mansur is to be felicitated today by Slum Janandolana in Bangalore today. Prof. Mansur is being honoured for his contribution towards human rights and the dignity of toiling masses in the slums of Karnataka. The day-long programme will celebrate the struggle and culture of slum dwellers.
Slum Janandolana is a federation of slum people’s initiatives across 13 Districts in Karnataka working towards realising the rights of slum dwellers.
Prof. Hasan Mansur is the president of President of People’s Union for Civil Liberties – Karnataka (PUCL-K). He has been associated with PUCL-K since its formation.
Prof. Mansur has relentlessly and tirelessly worked for the rights of slum dwellers. In fact, for the past decade, Prof. Hasan Mansur has been the Convener for the Karnataka Kolageri Nivasigala Janti Kriya Samiti (Joint Action Committee for Slum Dwellers Rights in Karnataka), which is the federation of 40 mass organisations, Dalit organisations, slum organisations and slum groups.
TwoCircles.net talked to Prof.Hassan Mansoor in order to know more about his personality and work. He was very humble and “feeling awkward” while talking about himself. In a self-effacing way he doesn’t take credit for what he did, instead gives credit to the younger generation in the slum movement.
Essentially a University Professor and Chairperson of Department of English in Bangalore University, Prof. Hasan Mansur (78) has been in the social activism since last twenty five years. He has been associated with Left Movement since his student days.
Even though he has been associated with social activism for a log time, he has been actively engaged in the slum movement in Karnataka since 1991.
Always political in his outlook Prof. Mansur has been greatly “interested in the lives of Dalits”. He describes himself “an ardent follower of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and says that every social activist must know his Marx and Ambedkar in India.”
About the slum movement, he said that earlier there were some organizations working for the rights of the slum dwellers, but it was only since 1995 onwards that the Slum Movement as such started taking an organized form.
Talking about the issues the Slum Movement had to face he said the most important issue has been the issue of land as most of the slum dwellers don’t own the land on which they live. Second issue is the absence of sanitation, toilets and the absence of clean drinking water.
He points out that even though “you will find most of the slums populated by Dalits, the minorities particularly Muslims are at the second place, and some backward castes and classes are also there.”
Talking more about the slums he says ” I always considered the slums as a kind of mini-Bharat, because they are kind of conglomeration of various cultures and different languages, and this is what makes them unique.”
He says that “in spite of this diversity in slums people live like one entity. I mean you won’t find language chauvinism or cultural chauvinism. So a slum becomes a representative of the country itself in its diversity”
He says that the greatest threats which is always hanging on the slum dwellers is the fear of eviction, causing them lots of inconvenience. In fact he says that inconvenience is an understatement, but it is a big tragedy, the displacement of the people from slums. Even if they live at one place for 15 years they will be evicted and will have to start every thing from scratch.”
While working for the rights of slum people, it is the plight of women which moves him most, as he says that “from every point of view women are the worst sufferers in slums, their plight arising from the lack of toilets is a case in point.”
Even at the age of 78 he hasn’t retired from active social work and even today he is associated with many Dalit, human rights, Leftist, and civil liberties organization.
For instance as the convener of JAC, he has actively participated in its fight against the privatization of various kind which relates to the life of the Slum dwellers, like privatization of drinking water, and land where acres of land is given to the private industry and there is no land for the poor., anti-SEZ agitation in Nandgudi, a place near Bangalore.
But have the problems and the challenges before the slum movement decreased or changed?
He said that still the issues and problems before the Slum Movement hasn’t changed or decreased but instead they have expanded into a much wider canvass like the issue of globalisation, and economic reforms.
But does that mean that the movement for the slum rights hasn’t bore any fruit?
Prof.Mansur said, no. It is not at all the case. It is the result of the struggle that the government doesn’t afford to put the interests of slum dwellers aside. Apart from that the slum dwellers have increasingly become more and more politically conscious. They make the politicians fulfill their demands because gone are the days when a political party may buy slum people and exploit their franchise.
Today’s programme:
Slum Habba and felicitation to Prof Hasan Mansur, Prof U R Ananthamurthy, Kuldip Nayyar, Fr Claude D’Souza to participate, Town Hall, J C Road, 11 am.