By TCN News
Aligarh: Dr. Binayak Sen, renowned human rights worker and Chhattisgarh based public health professional, delivered the IG Khan Memorial lecture in Kennedy Auditorium on Sunday to a rapt audience of students and faculty members. Citing data and facts from his work on tribal and poor workers in Chhatisgarh, Dr. Sen presented the grim reality of the state of the nation’s dispossessed. He pointed out that almost 33 percent of the country’s population lived in a state of famine that translates to a third of the population of one sixth of humanity living in India.
He further added that survival of the marginalized depended on access to common resources of forests, land and rivers. By cutting off their access to these resources and handing them over to private corporations and international financial capital, the government was pushing the tribals further to the edge. While concluding he deplored the violence of both the state and the Naxal forces but added that while all wanted peace, we did not desire the peace of the graveyard, but a just and equitable peace. “If only a few ask for justice, maybe things will never change. But if all of us demand peace and justice then maybe we can make an impact,” he added.
Eminent Gandhian activist Mr. Himanshu Kumar highlighted the situation in Bastar area of Madhya Pradesh. He pointed out that the Salwa Judum militia was an instrument used to clear adivasis off from their land, which is rich in minerals and resources. He pointed out that the clash between the elite and the dispossessed was a fight between those who benefit from the power structure and those who are at the receiving end. “This war is between the twenty percent of the beneficiaries against the eighty percent who are at the receiving end”, said Mr. Kumar.
The lecture was followed by an interactive session and panel discussion by noted journalists Praful Bidwai and Jawed Naqvi. Responding to students’ queries, Mr. Bidwai said that while things had changed over the time in certain areas, there was an urgent need to keep informed about protests and movements seeking to build a just and democratic society.
The day-long events concluded with an open air programme of music and poetry for peace at the IGNOU center, with noted folk musician Susmit Bose performing his resistance-poetry style songs, as well as a brief performance by Delhi-based group DrChef.
The event was organized by the I. G. Khan Memorial Trust established in the memory of late Dr. I. G. Khan of the Department of History, Aligarh Muslim University working for the welfare of the underprivileged, particularly for the health and education of rickshaw pullers and their families.