Mahanirban Calcutta Research group

Next Year          Previous Years

Policies and Practices 37
 
Between Ecology and Economy :  Environmental Governance in India
The discourse on environmentalism has incorporated the issue of sustainability in such a manner that both developmental practice and governmentality take on the subject as an inherent component to deal with. This paper puts forth some theoretical aspects of sustainability. The paper deals with two prominent issues – economic growth as well as sustainability – both from an economic and ecological perspective.
Essay by Sutirtha Bedajna
 

Policies and Practices 36
 
Bengal-Bangladesh Border and Women
This number of the Policies and Practices series contains three research papers, entitled ‘Bengal-Bangladesh Borderland: Chronicles from Nadia, Murshidabad and Malda’ by Paula Banerjee; ‘Narrated Time and Constructed Space - Remembering the Communal Violence of 1950 in Hooghly’ by Anasua Basu Ray Chaudhury and ‘Voices of Women in Borderlands’ by Aditi Bhaduri. These studies are based on the CRG-ICSSR research programme on Women and Borders in South Asia. These articles intend to study the border both as a metaphor and in reality and these studies aim to take a hard look at the interface of gender and democracy.
Essays by Paula Banerjee, Anasua Basu Ray Chaudhury and Aditi Bhaduri
 

Policies and Practices 35
 
Right to Information in A Globalising World
The post colonial nation states have adopted various strategies to govern populations and law has been a crucial tool to manage, control, or conversely, empower the rights of the people. Sabyasachi Basu Ray Chaudhury in his paper “Right to Information as a Means of Mass Persuasion in a Globalising India” discusses how the enactment of Right to Information (RTI) reflects a substantial shift in the predominant view (among citizens and elites alike) of the state’s role from trusted guardian to merely that of an agent of the people that requires careful monitoring of citizens. Sibaji Pratim Basu in his paper “Globalisation and Right to Information: The Indian Scenario” examines the function and reach of Right to Information Act and says that the rights discourse in India attained its ‘Human Rights’ phase in this decade of transition (i.e. 1990s), which also marked the end of the ‘cold war’ and emergence of a new world order.
Essays by Sabyasachi Basu Ray Chaudhury and Sibaji Pratim Basu
 

Policies and Practices 34
 
Globalisation and Labouring Lives
Newer production processes with changing global spaces have produced newer division of labour and work categories. The two studies presented here draw our attention to the shrinking space for articulation of labour rights in the latest phase of globalization. Swati Ghosh in her study on “Labour Out-flow and Labour Rights: A Case-Study of West Bengal” indicates how some of the labour migrants have been able to escape poverty through outmigration and not participating in the employment opportunities created through NREGP. Ishita Dey in her essay on “Negotiating Rights within Falta Special Economic Zone” examines if “rights” have acquired a new meaning in the context of SEZs. Her study is based on interviews with contract workers, management employees and union leaders inside and outside Falta Special Economic Zone, West Bengal a former export processing zone in West Bengal.
Essays by Swati Ghosh and Ishita Dey
 

Policies and Practices 33
 
Endangered Lives on The Border: Women in the Northeast
This volume contains three research papers, entitled “Heat of the Barbed Wire: Engendered lives along the borderlands of West Garo Hills” by Anjuman ara Begum; “Sanitized Societies and Dangerous Interlopers: Women of a border town: Moreh” by Chitra Ahanthem and “Sanitized Society and dangerous interlopers: A case of borders making ‘brothers’ illegal? The Chin population in Mizoram” by Sahana Basavapatna. This volume is an offshoot of the CRG-ICSSR research programme on Women and Borders in South Asia. These articles intend to study the border both as a metaphor and in reality and these studies aim to take a hard look at the interface of gender and democracy. These three studies tell us the tales of marginalization of women along the borders in India’s Northeast.
Essays by Anjuman Ara Begum, Chitra Ahanthem and Sahana Basavapatna
 

Policies and Practices 32
 
Two Studies on Asylum Seekers and Other Immigrants in Finland
The two papers in this issue, looking at migration situation in Finland, are result of study visits by two Winter Course Participants to Finland in February-March 2009. Sahana Basavapatna’s research studies Finland’s asylum policy, especially in the context of the Finnish Alien’s Act 2004. This paper further seeks to see if the Finnish asylum policy is any different from the overall attitude portrayed by the European Union, and if so, why? Geetisha Dasgupta’s article researches the skilled migrants in Finland, separated from the asylum seekers by capacity of work. This study researches how Finland performs as a new destination for the skilled migrants in the traditional atlas of labour migration.
Essays by Sahana Basavapatna and Geetisha Dasgupta
 

Policies and Practices 31
 
Local Dynamics, Universal Context : Border Trading Through Moreh, Manipur
The paper explores the overlapping spheres of conflicts in Moreh, a small hill town in Manipur bordering Myanmar, which has emerged as an important geo-strategic place for promoting trade with Southeast Asia, driven by India’s “Look East Policy”. Right from the sixties ethnic Indians, driven out of Burma who consisted of a large number of business-people, had changed the face of Moreh from a small outpost of exchanges of local products to a flourishing centre of trade networks spanning over India and the major economic centres of Southeast Asia. The scenario had been complicated by the decision of ethnic Manipuris, or Meities to join in the trading game; the bloody Kuki-Naga riot in early nineties resulting in the division of the state into three zones for three ethnicities: the Nagas in the North, the Kukis in the South, and the Meities in the valley in the middle; the ceasefire agreement of Indian state with NSCN (IM) agreeing to the formation of a greater ‘Nagalim’ imposing further identity and economic insecurities for the Meiteis; as well as the long running secessionist movement of the Meitei against Government of India since forceful annexation of Manipur to the Indian State in 1947. The state has failed to enjoy the social and political legitimacy among ‘citizens’ and thus the contest to get control of the economy between ‘society’ and ‘state’ has began. All the conflicting ethnic identities have joined this contest to ensure economic security of respective ethnic communities. As a result, ‘unofficial’ trade exceeds the official trade substantially. Explaining these analytically the paper concludes at the inseparability of security issues and economic issues, the indissociability of the inter-ethnic land-issue and the general developmental issue, and the manifestation of the universal into its local form as far as the development of a rationalized self-regulating liberal market sphere is concerned.
Essay by Dulali Nag
 

Policies and Practices 30
 
Environment and Migration, Purulia, West Bengal
The paper explores continuous labour migration streams from the forest belts of Purulia District (principally the indigenous peoples’ belt in Santhal Parganas) in West Bengal (Manbhum in colonial times) to nearby industrial areas. The paper, to begin with, holds into perspective the fact that labour migration from Purulia in colonial and post-colonial times has been least discussed in contemporary academic discourses. It then unfurls that environmental degradation and factors like deforestation has exacerbated labour migration from the forest district of Purulia. People have been shorn off livelihood choices and survival became tough. This ultimately forced people to opt for the surrounding brick, coal or tea industry belts where they moved as coolies. The paper explores the process of alienation from the traditional agriculture based economic setup and the consequent uprooting of the people from the familiar arboreal ecological context, where the ecology itself was destroyed without any concern for conservation.
Essay by Nirmal Kumar Mahato
 

Policies and Practices 29
 
Nation Building and Minority Alienation in India
The study analyses the roots of the minority problem in India. The author argues that increasing minority assertions probably stems out from the fallacious policies adopted in  post colonial India. Despite mechanisms in the constitution to safeguard interests of minorities, in many ways they have been disempowered by State policies, however without the violation of their civil and political rights. The author feels that for a vastly diversified country like India nothing could be more worse than attempts to create uniformity clearly when this is not possible. Policies in independent India have been framed by trying to homogenize groups by ignoring their linguistic, cultural, political and religious differences. These have only widened the gap between the ideals of legal precepts and reality of practices. In this background, the author seeks a possible solution ,pinning his hope on an inclusive effort to provide fair and just opportunities to the marginalized and minority groups so that they can participate in the decision making process of the country.
Essay by A.S.Narang
 

Policies and Practices 28
 
Protecting the Rights of the Tsunami Victims:The Sri Lanka Experience
The study on ‘Protecting the Post-Tsunami Displaced Persons: Critical Analysis of the Sri Lankan Experience’ is an analysis of the ways in which Sri Lanka has attempted to protect the victims of the Tsunami during the relief, rehabilitation and the reconciliation phases. The study is inclusive of an analysis of the human rights instruments, mechanisms established or mandates to protect IDPs, applicability of the human rights instruments and mechanisms established in the post-tsunami context in Sri Lanka and the human rights issues faced by the IDPs. The main objective of the study is to identify policy recommendations for the government and the civil society to react in a more efficient manner in a future disaster situation. The essay begins with an overview of the post-tsunami situation in Sri Lanka followed by an analysis of the international and national human rights instruments applied and the mechanisms established or mandated to protect the rights of post-tsunami displaced persons in Sri Lanka; and finally attempts to identify human rights gaps experienced by the post-tsunami displaced persons and the reasons for these gaps.
Essay by Nirekha De Silva
 

Policies and Practices 27
 
View from India: Media and Minorities in Europe
The article presents a wonderful insight to the author’s perception on media representation of minority groups in Germany, in particular the migrant minority section. The problem of accommodating migrant minorities with the mainstream German population has been a nagging issue for quite some time in the German public discourse. The most interesting part lies however in the role of media in this respect. While there is a growing awareness of recruiting migrant minorities theoretically - this remains to be done in most local media houses. The B.B.C sets an example by rendering key positions to migrant minorities in the British society but broadcasters in the European Union have not taken significant steps towards this. Hence we see a change in the situation with an explosion of the migrant-minority media in recent times. The author argues that the German media has to accept this reality first before the larger society does so. He ends his paper in optimism by claiming that with ‘improved coverage’ of migrant-minority issues there would be a scope of co-existence of both the German mainstream media and the Ethnic media.
The paper enumerates the author’s introspection that the French society has undergone a major change. A society known for its legacy of subjugation in terms of race has taken a bold step by allowing a black journalist to present a popular, prime time t.v news programme. The author uses extensive interviews conducted with nearly 100 media professionals, civil servants, academics, politicians and intellectuals to put forward his focal point. He traces the genesis of migration in France and projects the change in the pattern of the movement over the years. The problem however lies in the constant denial of France to the increasing multiethnic makeover of the society. Need of the hour is proper integration of the migrants within the fold of the larger  society. The author points out that it is time the French media starts following its much vaunted ideals of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.
Essays by Subir Bhaumik and Sumon K Chakrabarti