I am Malala: I believe in education! As a little girl, I loved to go to school. Life dramatically changed for the worse when the Taliban took control of my hometown in the Swat Valley. They banned many things, including television and playing music. Those who defied their orders were given severe penalties. They did not allow the girls to go to school. Sadly, I had to leave my friends in 2009 when I was just eleven years old. At that age, I became an activist. I spoke out publicly on behalf of girls and their right to learn and began blogging about my experiences for BBC Urdu. In a speech which was widely covered by the media, I said, “How dare the Taliban take away my basic right to education?” Yes, we must communicate; we must tell our stories loudly and clearly!

I am Malala: The Taliban, of course, did not like what I was doing. All fundamentalists have the same DNA; just look around you from the Ku Klux Klan in the US, to the Lehava in Israel, to the Hindutvadis. They are all the same! They feel threatened when someone stands up to them and is able to expose their heinous crimes. On that fateful day (9 October 2012), a masked Taliban gunman boarded my school bus whilst I was on my way home after writing my exam. He asked, “Who is Malala?” Recognising me, he shot me on the left side of my head. I woke up ten days later in a hospital in Birmingham, England. I was just fifteen then. My world had changed! My life given a second chanced I vowed never to look back!

I am Malala: Of the book ‘I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and was Shot by the Taliban’. It is the story of my life, from the time I was born till I was shot by the Taliban. It was co-written with Christina Lamb. Published on 8 October 2013, it became a bestseller all over the world. Though I know that it was banned in some places. The book has plenty of my own thoughts and insights.

I am Malala: So you can imagine my dismay when a prestigious school in Ahmedabad withdrew from its selection of additional reading, my book. ‘I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban’ together with the much-celebrated book ‘The Diary of a Young Girl’ by Anne Frank. It is certainly within the right of any school to prescribe the books for their children. The sad part about this case is that the books had to be withdrawn after orders from the educational authorities and a fine imposed on the school. Imagine to what a rotten state education has fallen. It is not about ‘my’ book; but the fact is that the students are deprived at an early age of experiencing pluralism in thought. Ironically, it will be the parents of these children who will be desperate to send their children abroad for higher education.

I am Malala: It is heartening to note that a civil society group comprising more than 150 citizens from Gujarat and elsewhere issued a strong statement condemning the withdrawal of these two books and demanded that there should be no external interference in providing the students with the much-needed holistic education. The statement said, “We believe that both these books remain very important and timely resources for students to access. Yousafzai’s memoir recounts her fight for women’s, children’s and girls’ education rights in Pakistan, while Anne Frank’s diary stands as a historically significant personal account of life under Nazi occupation and the Holocaust”.

I am Malala: The Student and Youth Collective Ahmedabad must be applauded and appreciated for organising in Ahmedabad on 27 August ‘A Silent Reading Session’ in a public park. The young organisers made a very meaningful poster for the event which said, ‘Ban the Censorship, Not the Books’, and adding ‘for education free from fear, interference and conformity.’ Several (mainly students and other youth) participated in this unique protest. They read books that mattered, demonstrating to others the significance of these books and why they must be popularised in today’s India. The power of the youth was simply amazing!

I am Malala: Then the goons of the Hindutva brigade came in! There are striking similarities between them and the Taliban. They were shouting and yelling, not willing to listen. Of course, their levels of comprehension are below average. They came armed with sticks and hockey sticks. They beat some innocent citizens. They were able to prove just one thing: they were fascist thugs determined to destroy the idea of a pluralistic and secular India.

I am Malala: The attack has naturally been condemned by all except by their mentors. The Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (Gujarat) has issued a strong, unequivocal and detailed statement on this assault on democracy. The statement concludes, “The right to sit in a public garden and read a book is sacrosanct. People were hospitalized women were assaulted, and a young woman was threatened with disappearance for filming a crime. This did not happen because anyone at the reading broke the law, but because of the books in their hands and the religion the mob suspected they belonged to. A national anthem sung to calm a mob was answered with more violence, not less. PUCL Gujarat will closely monitor this case and expects the police to correct the record before this diluted version of events hardens into the official history.”

I am Malala: Because I am ME – I have dared to take on the fascist, fundamentalist, fanatic, feudalistic forces that tried to prevent my growth as a person! They did their best to put fear in me and in the lives of others! I fearlessly took them on! Today I tell them in no uncertain terms that I believe in freedom, justice and truth! I am not afraid to stand up to them. There is nothing that confines me! The world is my home. I have dignity, I have freedom!  I am inclusive and believe in the equality of all! We are all created in the image and likeness of God; we are all his children. I am yesterday, today and tomorrow. Remember, I will always live!

I AM MALALA:  but NOT the Malala you think I am. No, not the Malala who is a Pakistani or a Muslim. Though she is truly my inspiration and for millions of others too. I am Indian! I believe in the idea of India. I am the youth of India: The Gen Z and even the Gen Alpha. I am neither a coward nor violent. I do not hate; but yes, there is an honest rage in my heart and mind. Too much has been happening, and I am being throttled and excluded. You call me what you want: ‘cockroach’, ‘Dimagi Naxal’, ‘tukde tukde gang’, whatever. I am not afraid. You have destroyed our beloved nation with your corruption, communalism, casteism and crony capitalism. You have kept dividing, denigrating, discriminating, demonising us. I say ‘enough is enough’. Your time is up! I believe in the values enshrined in the Constitution: justice, liberty, equality, fraternity; unity, diversity, the rights and freedoms guaranteed to all! We will not stop! With the millions who are with me, I am convinced that ‘we shall overcome’! Satyameva Jayate!

August 29, 2026

(The author is a human rights, reconciliation and peace activist, writer & trainer.)

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The post I AM MALALA! Afghanistan or Ahmedabad why are fundamentalists wary of the right to education? appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The Isanpur area of Ahmedabad remained tense on Friday after residents of Bhagwan Nagar society in the Govindwadi area found a bag with the decapitated head of an animal at about 8:30 in the morning. Another bag containing around 50 kilograms of animal meat was also found outside a jewellery showroom near the Insanpur overbridge.

Suspecting the meat to be bovine, there was anxiety among residents, and the neighbourhood remained tense. According to the Indian Express, the Isanpur Police Station took cognisance of a complaint filed by one Rohit Desai, a resident of the neighbourhood who is involved in animal husbandry, and filed a First Information Report (FIR) under section 278 of the Indian Penal Code (making atmosphere noxious to health) and sections of the Prevention of Cruelty against Animals Act and Gujarat Animal Preservation Act.

Times of India reported that Desai’s FIR alleged that the man was on a scooter and fled from the spot after dumping the carcass-filled bag, and that Desai believed the decapitated head to belong to cow progeny.

On Friday evening, Ahmedabad Police’s Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) detained 26-year-old Mohammed Faizan Sheikh, from Rakhial based on CCTV footage and technical inputs. Meanwhile, the animal remains and meat were sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory for examination.

Now, police say it was discovered that the meat was not that of cow progeny.

Police inspector DD Gohil told TOI, “Shaikh is a licensed seller. He used to ferry meat on his scooter from Rakhial to his shop in Vatva. On Friday morning, one of his bags dropped from his scooter. Some people saw this and began thrashing Shaikh.” He added, “In his bid to evade public fury, Shaikh hit a bumper and fell on the road,” and this was when “the head of a goat dropped on the road.”

The subject of meat consumption is extremely sensitive in Gujarat and attempts have been made to bring about varying forms and degrees of bans on the sale and consumption of non-vegetarian food.

SabrangIndia had reported previously that on November 12, 2021, Gujarat State Revenue Minister Rajendra Trivedi had said that open non-veg food stalls along the road serve as an act of “land grabbing”. Trivedi’s statement came around the time municipal corporations of Bhavnagar, Junagadh, Vadodara and Rajkot resolved to remove non-vegetarian food selling vendors from public places so as to not “hurt religious sentiments.” Following this, for days, footpath vendors of non-vegetarian food in these cities and even Ahmedabad, feared losing their well-established spots along city roads, after some municipal bodies declared that non-veg food should not be sold out in the open.

National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI) Gujarat Coordinator Gurunath Sawant had at that time, told SabrangIndia that cities like Ahmedabad had declared that vendors within 100 metres of schools cannot sell non-veg food. This despite Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel assuring hawkers there would be no discriminatory action against non-veg food.

Then, in December 2021, Gujarat High Court came down heavily upon the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) for taking action against street vendors selling non-vegetarian food on the streets of Ahmedabad. The AMC claimed that this was done as selling non-vegetarian food on the streets creates a health hazard as it is unhygienic and also harmful to the environment. However, 20 street vendors moved the Ahmedabad High Court challenging the non-implementation of the Street Vendors [Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending] Act, 2014 and the rules. They also challenged how the AMC seized their carts, other equipment and raw material without following due process.

After hearing the matter, LiveLaw reported that the Bench of Justice Biren Vaishnav asked, “You don’t like non-veg food, it is your lookout. How can you decide what people should eat outside? How can you stop people from eating what they want?”

Related:

Hate Watch: Hindutva group raises slogans outside Muslim-owned shop in Gujarat
Guj HC raps AMC for prohibiting sale of non-veg food on streets
Understanding the layers of “hate” in Gujarat’s non-veg ban
Gujarat Minister likens non-veg food vendors to land grabbers

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A shamefull act of caste-based violence played out at Ahmedabad’s Viramgam Taluka where a 11 people attacked a Dalit man because he was “sporting a long moustache”. Suresh Vaghela (22), the victim who belongs to the Scheduled Caste, alleged in his police complaint that he was attacked by 11 people belonging to an Other Backward Classes (OBC) group. His ‘fault’ according to the mob was “sporting a moustache”.

Vaghela was admitted to Shiv Hospital late Sunday night. He had suffered a head injury in the attack, Deputy Superintendent of Police DS Vyas told media persons. Suresh Vaghela, according to a report in The Indian Express, is from Karakthal village and works with Voltas in Sanand GIDC area of Ahmedabad.

Vaghela recalls the attack in his police complaint saying, “Around 10 pm on Sunday night, my parents went to sleep after dinner and I received a call from Dhama Bhai who asked me why I was sporting a moustache. Within a few minutes, Dhamabhai and nine others came to my house with sticks and rods. They used derogatory language against me and assaulted me. I was later taken to a primary health centre for first aid and then admitted to Shiv hospital.” He later told media persons, “I had no enmity with the people who assaulted me. They just called me and asked why I was sporting a moustache.”

Vaghela, said that the mob had him for sporting the moustache and issued death threats, reported the Ahmedabad Mirror. They allegedly beat up Vaghela’s family members as well. Once the mob left, an ambulance was called in and Vaghela and his sister were rushed to Viramgam government hospital, stated the news report, adding that their father has also suffered minor injuries. The report quoted Vaghela as saying, “I have been sporting a moustache for quite some time now. I had been living elsewhere since the place was closer to my office. I returned to my village last December. The accused would often stare at me angrily and taunt me when I would pass by. I ignored everything but when they assaulted my family, I decided to call the cops.”

Police have lodged an FIR in the case on Monday against “six named and four unnamed people” who have been charged under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (SC/ST) Prevention of Atrocities Act. The accused have been identified as Dhama Thakor, Kaushik Valand, Atrik Thakor, Sanjay Thakor, Anand Thakor and Vijay Thakor, all residents of Karakthal village, stated the news report.

This is not the first incident reported from the state, where divides on caste and religion run deep. On rare occasion, the law catches up with the attackers. In April this year, a Bhavnagar court has convicted three men for assaulting in 2013 Dalit farmer and RTI activist Amrabhai Boricha with swords. The court sentenced them to 5 years in prison, and acquitted the eight other accused due to lack of evidence. Notably, the three convicts in the 2013 case, Jayrajsinh Gohil, Bhaylubha Gohil and Virmadevsinh Jadeja are also accused in the murder of Boricha, who was hacked to death, reportedly, by a mob of men at his home in Sanodar village of Ghogha taluka in Bhavnagar earlier this year. On March 2, the assailants barged in with spear, iron pipes and swords and hacked Boricha to death. It is believed this attack was in response to a complaint filed in court against the Kshatriyas usurping his land.

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UP: Dalit youth brutally attacked, 3 men arrested
Bihar ADGP raps police force for slow progress in SC/ST cases
Jignesh Mevani demanded suspension of policeman involved in murder of Dalit activist
Dalit RTI activist hacked to death in Gujarat

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On August 6, 2020, a massive fire broke out in a designated Covid 19 Hospital in Ahmedabad, killing 8 patients in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

It was later reported by SabrangIndia that the said Shrey Hospital did not have a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the fire department of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation according to Ahmedabad Fire and Emergency Services Chief Fire Officer M F Dastur. The hospital director, and prime accused Bharat Mahant, and later, an unidentified ward boy, were held for interrogation.

All hospitals are required to renew the No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Fire department annually. Following the fire at Shrey Hospital, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation ordered a fire audit at 72 Covid care facilities. 20 have been found to be lacking the NOC as of August 7, revealed SabrangIndia reports.

Four months later, Times of India has reported that police are yet to find any evidence of negligence by the hospital authorities. Assistant Commissioner of Police M. A Patel told Times of India, “We have been investigating on the basis of reports of the FSL and fire department but no substantial evidence was found against Mahant and the other three other accused, who are out on bail.”

Another Police officer added that there was no negligence on part of the Hospital and that the fire was caused due to a spark in the electric socket which spread rapidly because of the oxygen supply in the Hospital. “The oxygen supply was essential for Covid 19 patients and the fan was kept in the ward on request of a patient. So, there was no negligence on part of the Hospital authorities”, the official said.

Justice K A Puj’s Panel

On August 11, the State Government had set up a judicial inquiry commission headed by Retired Gujarat High Court Judge K A Puj, to probe the fire incident at the hospital. The commission was expected to submit its findings in three months.

The term of the commission ended on November 11, and it is yet to submit its report on the incident. The commission was supposed to bring out the details of the incident, identify those who were responsible for the loss of eight patients and other injuries and seek remedial measures to prevent such incidents in the future.

Minister of State for home and law Pradipsinh Jadeja told TOI, “The commission has yet not submitted its report. I will check the status of the inquiry report.”

Fire Safety Equipment

Soon after the incident, on August 10 the Chief Electrical Inspector H H Khoja submitted to the State Government that a staggering 76% of hospitals of the 365 Covid 19 designated hospitals in Gujarat were found to have defective wiring and overloading issues, making them extremely susceptible to fire caused due to short circuits.

On November 28, Times of India reported that around 11% of the hospitals in Ahmedabad lack fire safety equipment. The Municipal Commissioner had ordered the fire department to carry out checks on all Covid Hospitals to see if their fire safety facilities are in a proper condition.

Ahmedabad, at the moment, has 99 hospitals that are treating Covid patients. Fire NOC for Covid hospitals are mandatory too, but was not strictly implemented until the Shrey Hospital fire incident. Fire Department officials have apprised the media that once the 99 hospitals are thoroughly inspected, it would be clear how many have fire equipment in working condition.

Allegations by victim’s family

Before the police investigation was handed over to ACP Patel, an FIR had already been registered on August 10 under the Indian Penal Code sections of 304 A (causing death by negligence), 336 (endangering life or personal safety), 337 (causing hurt by negligent or rash act endangering life) and 338 (causing grievous hurt by act endangering human life).

SabrangIndia had reported about the despair amongst the family members of the victim who perished in the fire. Human Rights Advocate Suhel Tirmizi who lost his wife Ayesha in the incident informed SabrangIndia that the charges against the perpetrators were not serious enough. As per him, the hospital owner and others were just booked under section 304 A of the IPC instead of 304 which deals with culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

The punishment stipulated under section 304 is more than section 304A which is a mere 2-year period or fine or both. The other issue raised was that the CCTV cameras in the hospital were not functioning, and the one that was, its view was blocked by an opaque curtain. Moreover, fire-fighting equipment was neither available in the ICU, nor were staff trained to handle it. It has also been alleged that the mobile phones of a few victims were missing. Investigation of all these claims are still underway.

As fate would have it, Gujarat reported another tragic fire incident at Rajkot’s Uday Shivananda Hospital where five Covid 19 patients were killed on November 27. A three judge Bench of the Supreme Court has taken suo moto cognisance of the fire and sought responses from the State of Gujarat and Centre.

Related:

Another fatal inferno in Gujarat Covid hospital!
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Shrey Hospital case: Victims’ families demand CBI inquiry
Ayesha Tirmizi was recovering when her life was cut short

The post Shrey Hospital Fire: Four months on, no evidence yet! appeared first on SabrangIndia.

With 572 fresh cases on June 24, 2020, the Gujarat Covid-19 count breached the 29,000 mark. There are currently 6,169 cases in the state, with the death toll having reached 1,736 percent. However, what has come to light is that within a month, in Ahmedabad, the caseload of the patients has shifted from the walled city of Old Ahmedabad which falls in the Central Zone to the posh West Ahmedabad area, reports The Indian Express.

Spike in West Zone

Old Ahmedabad was recently freed of containment and it was reported that the west zone had sprouted the most cases. On June 20, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) identified new micro-containment areas. Out of the 30 new spots, 10 were in the west zone, including areas in Sabarmati, Chandkheda, Naranpura, Ranip and Nava Vadaj with a population of over 2,550 people. The northwest and southwest zones added nine more micro containment areas including in Vejalpur, Bodakdev, Thaltej and Jodhpur. These included residential societies such as Galaxy Apartment and Satellite Centre in Bodakdev, where nearly 380 households with an approximate population of over 1,400 persons have been contained, and another 1,200 persons contained in Sachin Tower in Jodhpur. Two floors in a single block of Malabar County in Chandlodia and one entire block in Shrinandnagar of Vejalpur, too, were included under micro containment zones.

અગાઉ જાહેર કરવામાં આવેલ ૩૫ માઈક્રો કન્ટેઈન્મેન્ટ વિસ્તારો પૈકી 6 જેટલા વિસ્તારોને માઈક્રો કન્ટેઈન્મેન્ટ વિસ્તાર તરીકે ચાલુ રાખી, 29 જેટલા વિસ્તારોને માઈક્રો કન્ટેઈન્મેન્ટ વિસ્તાર તરીકે રદ કરવામાં આવેલ છે. તેમજ વધુ નવા 30 જેટલા વિસ્તારોને માઈક્રો કન્ટેઈન્મેન્ટ વિસ્તાર તરીકે જાહેર pic.twitter.com/WddwGWo7Tf

— Amdavad Municipal Corporation (@AmdavadAMC) June 20, 2020

Out of the total 3,113 active cases in the city, the West Zone currently has 678 active cases or 21.8 percent of the city’s caseload. This, while the Central Zone has the lowest cases at 213 or 6.8 percent, as per the AMC.

Protests by West Zone residents

The announcement of these micro-containment areas, which see a high population of middle and upper caste Hindus, saw residents protesting over them becoming targets on social media due to the same. The residents of Sachin Tower and Galaxy Apartments complained to the AMC about the ‘stigma’ on account of being listed on the website, IE reported.

However, speaking to the Indian Express, AMC deputy municipal commissioner of South West zone, GH Solanki, said, “The residents of Sachin Tower were not aware of the guidelines of micro-containment zones initially and they objected. They complained that they were being targeted on social media. But after officials met them and made them understand, they agreed to abide by the norms,” adding that an auxiliary nurse midwife and domestic help residing in the nearby slums had tested positive.

Yet, on social media, residents of Sachin Tower have been opposing the containment saying that due to rumours, their society had been put under containment.

Ahmedabd – Sachin tower as on date zero case. Two have been discharged today. Out tower is in micro containment zone- why? No answer from AMC. rumour in market as 55 cases in Sachin tower. #COVID19India #PMOfIndia #cmgujrat residence of Sachin tower are in panic mode.#PMModi

— Heena Mistry (@HeenaMistry3) June 22, 2020

TV Gujarati too reported on the issue saying that residents were protesting about the move as they claimed there were no active cases in the society. They said that it was difficult to carry out daily tasks due to the restrictions. Residents said that while on some app it was reported there were 28 active cases, on social media it was reported that there were 50-100 cases. Accusing the government of committing a mistake by giving in to rumours, residents said that it was now covering up by saying that the residents weren’t cooperating with the authorities.

No active case, yet Sachin tower in #Ahmedabad included under ‘micro-containment’ zone #COVID19 #coronavirus #Gujarat #TV9News pic.twitter.com/NXnd8LCfWD

— tv9gujarati (@tv9gujarati) June 23, 2020

Residents of Galaxy Apartments in Bodakdev ward where 10 cases were reported, also objected, but Kantibhai Patel, the councillor said that he had spoken to them and assured them that the step had been taken for their safety.

Hinting at discrimination, Imran Khedawala, the ward councillor for Jamalpur which was one of the worst affected areas in the Central Zone, told IE, “When Jamalpur and other walled city areas were under containment, the entire area was sealed with barricades and metal sheets. When I was tested positive, the entire area was sealed and residents were not even allowed to go out for essentials. That is not the case now. We were watched under 24 hour police vigil, while there is no police deployment outside micro containment zones now. The rules seem different for residents in the western parts of the city.” The area had seen strict containment after residents there were found to have taken part in the Tablighi Jamaat congregation which became a hotspot and target of communal hatred by the media and society alike.

Possible reasons for spike

Ahmedabad Mirror had reported that the Central Zone in Ahmedabad comprising areas like Jamalpur, Dariapur, Kalupur and Khadia among others was under strict lockdown from March 24 to May 31. The ability to cordon off large areas due to the spatial arrangement led to a gradual decrease in cases, from 1,348 cases on May 8 to 382 active cases on June 9. One reason for the spike in cases in the West Zone, officials told Mirror, could be the lax of safety exercised by residents due to Unlock 1. Deputy Municipal Commissioner Om Prakash Machhra told Mirror, “We carried out active surveillance in the Central Zone during the lockdown. Besides, cases were being reported from specific pockets here. So, we were able to demarcate containment zones effectively. But in the western areas, the cases are being reported from scattered locations and so, creating containment zones is not easy. However, the surveillance is on. Our Dhanvantri mobile vans also visit 400 locations across the city to carry out testing of suspected cases.”

Overall situation in Gujarat concerning

On June 24, 2020, the State saw 575 people being discharged and 25 people succumbing to the virus. The state had conducted 5,754 tests on Wednesday. Ahmedabad had reported 205 new cases taking the total caseload to 19,601, Surat, 162 with total cases going up to 3,712 and Vadodara, 35 taking the total cases to 1,985, the Health Department said. It also reported that 70 people were on ventilators currently while 6099 patients were stable.

The Hindustan Times also reported that traces of the virus had been found in sewage samples in Gujarat, prompting the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to consider strengthening surveillance and study on whether contaminated sewage could cause infections. The agency is using the same lab and its surveillance system which it used in its fight against the poliomyelitis virus.

An official told HT, ““Studies show that the virus does travel to the gut in a Covid person with a high viral load. It is not unexpected to find the presence of this virus in sewage. What the surveillance system will be monitoring, however, is that if the contamination in the sewage system is happening to the extent that it will lead to transmission of the disease.”

Prior to this, scientists from the Indian Institute of Technology in Gandhinagar who had collaborated with the Gujarat Biotechnology Research Centre had found traces of the virus in the wastewater collected from one of the wastewater treatment plants in Ahmedabad.  

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The Coronavirus crisis has now hit home for the BJP with the party’s Ahmedabad president Jagdish Panchal testing positive for the virus. 46-year-old Panchal is the MLA from Nikol constituency and had been experiencing symptoms for a few days. According to the Indian Express Panchal and his family are now in quarantine at the Apollo Hospital.

Meanwhile situation remains grim across the state. As per the official Covid data website of the Gujarat government (https://gujcovid19.gujarat.gov.in/), there are 6,599 active cases of coronavirus infection in the state, out of which 5,233 are in Ahmedabad alone. The total number of confirmed cases (active + recovered + dead) stands at 15,562 for the entire state and 11,344 for Ahmedabad.

3,13,729 people remain in quarantine across Gujarat, of these 82,368 are in Ahmedabad and 51,974 in Amreli. Amreli had managed to managed to keep the infection at bay for a long time, but with migrants returning home from Surat and Ahmedabad, a larger number of people began to be placed in quarantine as a precaution. However, so far, only 6 active cases are recorded in Amreli.

Meanwhile, 13 active cases and has placed over 25,000 people in quarantine. 8 deaths have been reported from this region. Kutch with 48 active cases have over 18,000 people in quarantine. It has reported 2 deaths so far. Meanwhile, capital Gandhinagar has 92 active cases with 13 deaths so far. 4,137 people are in quarantine in the capital city.

But hey, at least matters in Gujarat, as per the state government’s own submission before the HC, are not as bad as Italy or France! In fact, the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital that was dubbed “as good as a dungeon” recently by the Gujarat High Court, has found a patron in the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO).

On Friday, May 29, the official twitter handle of the CMO tweeted this glowing endorsement video of the hospital saying, “Doctors at the world-class dedicated COVID-19 facility at Ahmedabad Civil Hospital share their experience of treating Corona patients who also have high regard and appreciation for the entire team of doctors & health-care staff for their personalized, efficient & empathetic care.”

Doctors at the world-class dedicated COVID-19 facility at Ahmedabad Civil Hospital share their experience of treating Corona patients who also have high regard and appreciation for the entire team of doctors & health-care staff for their personalized, efficient & empathetic care. pic.twitter.com/tstCJ3kt37

— CMO Gujarat (@CMOGuj) May 29, 2020

But then, if the Ahmedabad Municipal Hospital is “world-class”, one wonders why it wasn’t good enough for the Ahmedabad BJP city president and his family and why they chose to be quarantined at the privately run Apollo Hospital?

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Ahmedabad Civil Hospital “as good as a dungeon”: Guj HC slams state gov’t
Fake machines, theft and apathy mar Gujarat’s Covid-19 fight
Gujarat reopens: Have economic considerations overtaken health concerns?
Healthcare crisis brewing in Ahmedabad
Is it enough to be ‘not as bad as Italy or France’?

The post Ahmedabad BJP city chief tests Covid-19 positive appeared first on SabrangIndia.

In the wake of Ahmedabad city entering a complete shutdown from May 7 to May 15, five companies of paramilitary forces from New Delhi arrived in Ahmedabad on Thursday after the state government requested the Centre for assistance, reported The Indian Express.

Nowhere in the country has there been implemented such a strict lockdown which involves the use of paramilitary forces. According to the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, there are about 2,000 ‘super spreaders’ working in vegetables, fruits and grocery shops, supermarkets and ice-cream parlors and also those engaged in home delivery of items.

According to police officials, apart from as many as 38 companies of the State Reserve Police (SRP) and the paramilitary forces already being deployed of old city Ahmedabad, four companies of the Border Security Force (BSF) and one company of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) were flown into Ahmedabad on Thursday to man the streets of the walled city area, which reported the most number of COVID-19 cases in the state.  

#Ahmedabad now would have a total of 38 companies of state police, State Reserve Police (SRP) and paramilitary forces. – Shivanand Jha @dgpgujarat #Lockdown pic.twitter.com/L7zRF2Obfs

— Amit Panchal (@AmitHPanchal) May 6, 2020

Armed personnel of the BSF, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the CISF were deployed from Thursday at the Delhi Darwaza in old city Ahmedabad, where they also conducted a flag march. The paramilitary forces have been deployed in Dani Limda, Madhavpura, Isanpur, Maninagar, Asarwa, Gomtipur and Shahibaug.

“Paramilitary force has been deployed in the containment areas of Ahmedabad and Surat where there is high spread of infection. At the behest of the request of the chief minister, the union government has sent companies of paramilitary forces in a special plane,” said Shivanand Jha, Director General of Police, Gujarat.

A total of 57 micro containment zones have been created in the containment zones where societies and ‘pols’ have been sealed and barricaded for the stoppage of entry and exit of all residents. These areas are being watched by the police. Officials also informed that all roads and bridges in the city will be closed from 7 PM to 7 AM every day till May 15.

“Strict patrolling is being done in the containment areas and every person and vehicle entering and exiting will be checked. Medical staff, people with emergency services and those who are going to hospitals in daytime will not be stopped,” said Jha.

“We have companies of BSF, CISF, SRP and CRPF to secure the containment areas of Ahmedabad and in micro containment area, police personnel have been given personal protection equipment (PPE) suits,” said Ashish Bhatia, Commissioner, Ahmedabad police.

A similar total lockdown was also enforced by the Bopal-Ghuma municipality, a suburb of Ahmedabad, to prevent a possible influx of people from the corporation-controlled areas of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC).

The Bopal-Ghuma municipality has seen around 15 positive Covid-19 cases, mostly in the north Bopal area. It was among the first to ban the entry of food delivery agents. In the area, Star Bazaar was closed down after an employee working there had tested positive for the coronavirus.

Jigisha Shah, President of the Bopal-Ghuma municipality said, “Now that the Ahmedabad city is closed, people from corporation areas might come to the municipality. The infection can spread through vegetable vendors and if we do not close, there will be a lot of rush into the municipality from the corporation areas. There are multiple roads that connect this area with the city. So this decision had to be taken to prevent further spread of COVID-19.”

The lockdown in the Bopal-Ghuma municipality came into enforcement on May 7 and will last for two more days after the lockdown in Ahmedabad which ends on May 15. In Bopal-Ghuma, milk shops will be allowed to operate from 7 AM to 11 Am and medical stores will be open throughout the day. Asking about why the lockdown in Bopal-Ghuma was extended to May 17, Shah said, “When the AMC areas open (on May 16), we do not want any old vegetable stock to come in to our area. The two extra days gives us a buffer time and will help only fresh vegetable stocks to enter our area.”

However, despite the notification from the municipality shops were seen to be open. People had also queued up in front of roadside vegetable vendors.

Speaking about it, Shah said, “This notification was issued at late night yesterday after the AMC’s notification. So I need to give some time to the people in Bopal and Ghuma areas to make urgent purchases before the entire place closes down for 10 days.”

While Gujarat is blaming the common man for being ‘super spreaders’, it has readily ignored its folly in organizing the ‘Namaste Trump’ event, which got millions of people together even when Covid-19 was declared to be a global health emergency. As journalist Mahesh Langa of The Hindu put it in an interview to The Wire, “The Gujarat government was busy preparing for the Namaste Trump event and then in winning over the Congress all the while the threat of coronavirus was looming over the state. It didn’t make any preparations knowing what was to follow. In portraying the Gujarat Model which is all about industrial development, the government completely sidelined the education and public health sector which are in shambles now. Currently, there are 65 percent vacancies in government hospitals and the onus of public health is completely in the hands of the private sector. There is no staff in government hospitals, even in the rural areas. The result of ignoring public health is now in front of the citizens and they are now facing the repercussions of the same.”

Related:

Gujarat Congress to move HC over BJP’s “criminal negligence” in organizing ‘Namaste Trump’ event
Dangerous dilution of labour rights underway in UP, MP and Gujarat

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A left-wing students’ union in Gujarat went in for a massive signature campaign in Ahmedabad in support of the anti-fee hike movement of Jawharlal Nehru University (JNU) students. The All-India Democratic Students’ Organisation (AIDSO) organised the campaign near the main gate of the historic Gujarat College, whose students had made a major mark during Independence movement.

AIDSO secretary Rimmi Vaghela claimed, “In spite of University examinations going on, a large number of students supported the JNU students, signing up the huge banner, which will be sent to the JNU Students’ Union.”

Though the programme was taking place outside the campus of the Gujarat College, the college principal ordered removal the banner and threatened AIDSO activists that if they did not do it, he would call the police. “When we discussed this with matter him, he said he had received a phone from a government secretary, seeking his intervention, Vaghela said.

Courtesy: counterview.net

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development and planning, two important pillars of India’s economic growth and development pathway, were given importance in the ‘New Urban Agenda’ adopted at the Habitat III conference in 2016 to help achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11 – safe, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable cities. India’s urban development journey over the last two decades has coincided with increasing marginalisation, exclusion, conflict, and everyday violence in the cities. This violence has gone unnoticed and unanalysed in the urban planning and policy-making world.The economic reforms of 1991 increased urban inequalities, which have worsened through inequitable urban planning. As an instrument of planning, the Master Plan has also deemed many areas of the city to be illegal and, as a result, the Indian state has engineered the “elite capture” of urban spaces. It has also subverted pro-poor provisions of Master Plans.

The poor thus find spaces in the cities through “occupancy urbanism”, a gradual process of informal land occupation under political patronage, while living in fear of the constant threat of eviction. By being deemed “illegal”, the informal urban living spaces created by the poor themselves are denied the provision of basic services.

Governance is not just about what the state does in implementing plans, but also what the state does not do. A good example relates to the provision of basic services. The denial of essential urban services to the poor – because governments lack the political will, capability, or capacity to meet the needs of low-income communities – has also led to the emergence of non-state providers operating as mafias. These informal sector entrepreneurs and middlemen – often with links to government functionaries and the police – use the vulnerability and unmet needs of the poor to manipulate them.

The inability of the State to provide services, employment, and access to the corridors of power for the poor also leads to a failure to provide justice and protection. This failure introduces and sustains a system of violence, coercion, and extortion in urban areas. Such processes emanating from urban governance are not only forms of structural violence, but also cause non-state actors to threaten or use physical violence. The fact that the means of violence are no longer monopolised by the state and that non-state actors either collude or conflict with the state is interlinked to urban planning and governance processes as well.

Local design issues can also create opportunities for perpetrators of violence, conditions for tensions to escalate to violence, or an environment that invokes fear. Paved streets with streetlights and multiple activities throughout the day can create safe environments. In a culture such as India’s, where machismo is valued, everyday conflicts can escalate into violent confrontations. Geographic concentrations of low-income populations can create ghettos where criminals can find shelter.

Ahmedabad is the brand ambassador for the Gujarat Development Model of high growth accompanied by low human development, entrenched communalised polity, and social exclusion. In Ahmedabad, the focus areas and case-study locales were:
 

1. conflicts linked to land, housing, and basic services in urban informal peripheral localities, which are also religious (Muslim) ghettos (focusing on one such locality populated by more than 25,000 families)
2. conflicts linked to land, housing, and basic services in slum resettlement sites constructed using Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) funds (focusing on three slum resettlement sites on the urban periphery)
3. women’s safety in traversing public spaces and in accessing and using public transport (focusing on two low-income localities).

Land as a driver of structural violence

In Ahmedabad’s Bombay Hotel area, located in the informal urban periphery, a decade went by with the state being completely absent and residents having no political voice in the city due to the combined effects of living in an informal development and their identity as Muslims in a city and state dominated by a right-wing Hindu political party. Informal developments have grown up on agricultural land through informal land transactions and devious behaviour by land developers without development permissions.

Bombay Hotel’s development into a large and dense Muslim neighbourhood has a violent history. Muslims displaced due to state-engineered communal riots in 2002 (Concerned Citizens Tribunal – Gujarat 2002) either purchased a plot/house in the locality or were resettled there by charity organisations. The nuclearisation of Muslim families living in the old city areas also led to the search for affordable homes to purchase, which they found in Bombay Hotel as builders floated low-instalment-based housing schemes.

All the land transactions are on sale agreements made on stamp papers, which are quasi-legal documents that record the monetary exchange but not the transfer of ownership. The legal ownership of the lands thus remains with the original farmers.

In 2013, planning came to this locality through the Town Planning Scheme, which is a land pooling and readjustment mechanism. The mechanism mandates that up to 50 per cent of the original land be vested with the planning authority for uses categorised as ‘public purposes’ such as roads, water, and sanitation infrastructure; education and health facilities; and Socially and Economically Weaker Section (SEWS) (low-income) housing known in the global literature as social housing.

The implementation of two Town Planning Schemes as an urban planning tool would have demolished about 10 per cent (2,200) of the houses in the area. Since the residents do not hold legal land rights, they do not qualify for compensation. This led to tensions, followed by mobilisation and protests.
 

“This lane is supposed to be demolished under [the] TP [Town Planning] Scheme. We don’t know whether we will get a house or not. We have invested all our life savings in the house and have just completed paying our instalments and now this fear lingers above us.” (Resident of Bombay Hotel Area, Ahmedabad)

In recent years, slight shifts in politics in the city and the state saw Ahmedabad’s right-wing Hindu political party attempting to woo voters from among the Muslim community. Demolishing such a large Muslim neighbourhood would have attracted bad press and therefore the demolitions under the Town Planning Scheme were put on hold.

Further, the boundaries of electoral constituencies were changed during the 2010–2012 period, bringing a change in local elected representatives. Centrist party (Indian National Congress) candidates won the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation and state assembly elections for this locality, leading to pressure from local leaders and residents on the elected representatives to halt demolitions and extend basic services to the locality. The residents were successful on both counts. Significantly, the conflict over eviction was mitigated when the elected representatives intervened, causing the local government to modify the implementation of its Town Planning Scheme to address people’s concerns.

However, the process is incomplete, and conflict over eviction could arise again as the Town Planning Scheme implementation progresses. In the meantime, municipal services, such as drainage and water supply, are being extended to the locality. This has the potential to alleviate some of the conflicts and violence emerging from the informal provision of services as well as structural violence resulting from deprivation.
Housing as a driver of structural violence

The lack of an affordable housing policy and related schemes led to the development of informal housing. Low-income households prefer to live in locations where they can easily access a livelihood and do not have to incur commuting costs. If the formal housing is expensive in such locations, they tend to live in informal housing. In Ahmedabad, for example, informal housing emerged on lands in central areas of the city close to opportunities for work, such as on the banks of the Sabarmati River that divides Ahmedabad.

The riverfront development project displaced between 12,000 and 15,000 households of which approximately 11,000 were resettled at various JNNURM housing sites. Many were resettled at the Vatwa resettlement sites on the urban periphery, along with evictees from other infrastructure projects. The Vatwa sites comprise 9,200 dwelling units across seven sites that were selected due to their low land prices. We selected three of these sites, Sadbhavnanagar, Kusha Bhau Thakre (KBT) nagar,5 and Vasant Gajendra Gadkar (VGG) Nagar for our research.

Here, we found that urban planning has been used as a tool to displace low-income households from core areas of the city to the underdeveloped periphery, rather than bringing them into the urban mainstream and providing them with a wider set of opportunities. This is a typical case of reproducing and, in many cases, deepening inequalities through the urban planning process and further entrenching structural violence. The constrained mobility and stressed livelihoods faced as a result of relocation have deepened the structural violence in the lives of the majority of residents.

The resettled residents, uprooted from their former homes from which they could walk or cycle to work, are now forced to use motorised transport and pay for their travel to work. Specifically, women’s livelihoods were extremely constrained due to the fear of harassment and violence in commuting longer distances. Many dropped out of the labour market or began to work from their homes. At home, they produce goods on a piece-rate basis, resulting in a decline in their income.

All of these factors together have increased housing and transport costs for the residents and have pushed them below the poverty line. Residents reported spending between one-third and one-quarter of their income on commuting, while also indicating increased housing costs. This deepening of structural violence, through induced poverty, has led to thefts of private and common property.

Robberies and burglaries became widespread at the Vatwa resettlement sites. Petrol from bikes; the tyres of rickshaws, motorbikes, and even bicycles; lids of overhead water tanks; tubing covering electric wires; and water pipes have all been stolen.

Many residents have been robbed, sometimes at knife-point, while moving in and around the sites. Residential burglaries have taken place where cash, jewellery, mobile phones, and other items have been stolen. Residents try not to leave their houses unoccupied for long. Residents described how they felt insecure; women, in particular, did not step out of their homes after dark, which was not the case where they used to live. Communities that used to be close knit have been dispersed across different sites and randomly situated within those sites due to the house allotment process.

A resettlement colony in Ahmedabad

This haphazard approach to resettlement has led to social disruption and resulted in the loss of moral authority that local leaders, elders, and residents in general were able to exercise previously. Overall, internal informal social control is now lacking at the resettlement sites, creating a “mahol” or environment in which crime is committed with impunity and youth, in particular, easily stray towards theft, gambling, and illicit activities such as selling/consuming drugs. This latter situation is exacerbated by the absence of feasible livelihood options.
 

“When there are no jobs, the youngsters get spoilt. They get into wrong activities [sic]. They do not have money for the transport fare … when a person goes hungry then he will steal; he will get into bad businesses.” (Female resident at the Vatwa resettlement site)
“If [a child’s] mother is not at home the whole day and they are hungry then they might steal. If I leave my shop unattended just now and if a child who has not eaten since morning comes by, he might pick up something.… Today he might pick up something costing INR5; tomorrow he will steal something more.” (Female resident at the Vatwa resettlement site)

The built environment at the resettlement sites has also enhanced crime. Some stretches of the main road have few activities. The lack of ‘eyes on the street’ has created opportunities for robberies and the harassment of women. Within the sites, large sections do not have functioning streetlights and, where they are present, those who engage in crime break the lights whenever they are repaired. The common passageways in most buildings do not have functioning lights due to disputes about electricity bill payments.

Overall, the physical environment is intimidating, especially for women. Thus, we see structural violence leading to increased crime. Emanating from it is everyday fear of crime and violence among the residents. Lack of proper policing, due to the overall failure of local security governance at the site, has deepened these fears among residents, which have a strong gender dimension.

Water supply systems as a driver of structural violence

Conflicts related to water are primarily due to the lack of a formal water supply in informal settlements. This is an urban planning issue. However, conflicts have emerged: in Bombay Hotel, these are due to the supply by informal water providers; in the Vatwa resettlement sites, they are due to the local government’s approach to the design and governance of water infrastructure.

In Bombay Hotel, the absence of a municipal water supply has led to the emergence of many different kinds of informal water supply arrangements, such as builders or better-off residents providing water from private bore-wells and residents fetching water from surrounding factories. Some of these arrangements mitigate extreme deprivation and conflicts around water, but many lead to a variety of conflicts:
 

• among residents of a neighbourhood
• between residents of different neighbourhoods
• between residents and water suppliers
• between residents and the local government.

The conflicts often involve verbal and low-intensity physical fights on a daily basis. The informal water suppliers are motivated purely by profit; their approach to supplying water reflects this, with fixed territories of supply to protect profits and coercive practices. They collect monthly charges whether or not they are able to supply adequate water. Residents are unable to oppose this due to a lack of alternative sources and the high-handedness and threats from the suppliers.

In fact, residents cannot even complain about these operators without raising their ire. Multiple types of everyday conflicts emerge from the coercive management of water supply systems by these non-state actors. All conflicts have the potential to result in violence between residents and the water suppliers as well as among the residents themselves.
 

“In one of the societies [a community], a local leader complained to a politician about the poor quality of water being supplied by the bore-well operator. This angered the operator who then stopped supplying water to the residents which in turn led to an argument between the residents and [the] local leader as the former felt that the latter should not have complained to the politician as this had totally cut off their access to water.” (Resident of the Bombay Hotel area)

Municipal officials have been aware of unregulated groundwater extraction, its sale in the area, and the consumption of this contaminated water by residents. These facts point to the local government’s complicity in the situation. In recent years, the local government has started to send water tankers into the locality. However, this method of supply is wholly inadequate, leading to violence at the tankers, frequently among women who usually bear the family responsibility for water collection:
 

“Sometimes, these fights are bad. A few days ago, two women physically attacked each other and pulled each other’s hair. We had to call the police. One woman was sent to the hospital and the police arrested the other woman. Women fight with each other because only one tanker comes here for so many people and we cannot be certain that each of us will get water.” (Woman from Bombay Hotel)

In a couple of rare instances, residents have managed to collectively dig bore-wells to make arrangements for water, freeing them from the water suppliers and associated conflicts. This collective effort is an important bottom-up practice, but it still does not ensure good quality water and does not totally address the issue of deprivation and structural violence. At the Vatwa resettlement sites, water provision was arranged without sufficiently resolving outstanding governance questions. This led to a lack of potable water and inadequate running water due to leaking and blocked water pipes.

The structural violence created by resettlement on the urban periphery through socially disruptive processes has made the possibility of residents managing, maintaining, and sustaining the water supply extremely rare, thereby perpetuating structural violence. Municipal officials sometimes intervene, either out of benevolence or due to political pressure, but this generally results in uneven and inadequate interventions, furthering micro-local inequalities.

Some officials are also unsympathetic towards residents because they consider resettlement to be an act of charity. As a consequence of insulting them in this way, residents have retaliated by vandalising public property at the municipal office, exhibiting counter-violence against the state. Here, despite residents’ protests, the local government has remained unresponsive and has withdrawn the low level support that it was providing to keep the water supply system working.

Residents have almost completely stopped making demands on the government in the face of its increasingly uncompromising stance. But with access to water not resolved, the point of conflict has shifted to conflicts among the marginalised: among residents and between residents and water operators over maintenance and repairs. Furthermore, inequities are also reproduced as women and children regularly bear the brunt of gathering adequate amounts of water for the household.

Public transport as a driver of women’s insecurity

Ahmedabad has good public transport coverage through buses operated by Ahmedabad Municipal Transport Services (AMTS) and the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS). However, there are issues related to frequency, connectivity, and affordability of public transport in Bombay Hotel and the Vatwa resettlement sites. Women were forced to commute using para-transit vehicles such as ‘shuttles’ (three-wheeled auto-rickshaws that operate on a shared basis). Many women perceived the shuttles to be unsafe when sharing them with male passengers or when they had to take them alone because they feared the male driver.
 

“She used to go from here to the BRTS road in a shuttle and then from there to Dani Limda in another shuttle and then walk from there to school. The driver would keep a watch on her and would not take any other passenger when she was in his rickshaw; he would tease her and take her through different routes every day. Out of fear, she stopped going to school.” (Resident of Bombay Hotel regarding her niece’s experience)

In Bombay Hotel and Vatwa, walking to public transport stops was also challenging for women. They often face insecurity and harassment in public spaces. There are multiple drivers of this insecurity, many of which stem from the built environment: poor lighting; uneven roads and the absence of footpaths; and vacant spaces and structures along access roads that can be used by goons for illicit activities such as manufacturing, selling, and/or using alcohol and drugs or gambling.

Multiple causes, including a lack of good employment opportunities, draw many male youths into illicit activities, which then lead them to harass girls and young women. As such, women in Bombay Hotel and Vatwa will only undertake a trip if it is a necessity.

—
*Visiting professor at the School of Arts and Sciences, Ahmedabad University, Ahmedabad; **independent scholar based in Ahmedabad, formerly senior research fellow at the Centre for Urban Equity, CEPT University

These are excerpts from the paper “Everyday violence in urban India Is planning the driver or mitigator?” published with the permission of Prof Darshini Mahadevia

Courtesy: Counter View

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In contrast to Ahmedabad, the crime data for other cities–Rajkot, Surat, and Vadodara–showed significantly fewer crimes compared to Ahmedabad. MM Mehta, ex-police commissioner, said that Ahmeda

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