KOLKATA – A MIGRANT CITY
2. Field Visit to Priya Manna Bustee, Howrah: A Report 28 November 2019
2. Field Visit to Priya Manna Bustee, Howrah: A Report
group, a women’s micro credit bank and a health programme. Toilets and drains etc have been built in the Priya Manna Bustee under the project. Two volunteers, Amina and Binod, joined the pilot project in 1998 and emerged as the ones carrying forward the work. They have been leading the work for the last 15 years. A sewing school for women was started and they have also started a spice making enterprise for women.
The Talimi Haq school caters to children from poor households who cannot afford formal education for their children and children who work and miss out on the opportunity to attend school. It follows non formal learning and usually does not provide certificates to the students. Once they complete studying in this school, they are assisted in getting admission to usually a government school for formal education. But even after that, the students continue to come here for guidance. The school has morning shifts for small children of pre-school age and an afternoon shift for young students. In the evening vocational classes are provided to girls. The school also has a night shift for boys who could not continue their education. In the last 21 years, several thousand young boys and girl have gone through the Talimi Huq School. The school does not receive any government funding and runs on meagre resources donated by friends and well wishers. The teachers are educated and come here as volunteers working for a small stipend. Amina one of the teachers, reflected that often there is no prospect of employment after completing education. This has created disdain among the youth in the area.
Mr Ramaswamy narrating the history of the creation of the Priya Manna Bustee, Howrah
Amina discussed at length the problems faced by their community in the slum and their experience of running the school. Attitudes among the uneducated regarding female education and women’s activities outside home are conservative. Family sizes are large. Amina is an educated and unmarried woman who has been working in this field. She reflected how in Muslim society it is difficult for an unmarried woman to continue in this manner and how it also creates problems for her family. Amina along with a team of female volunteers has extensively worked on family planning and maternity health in the slum. She reflected that women in the slums lack access to adequate medical facilities.
Muslim women are afraid to go to government hospitals. Many of them do not speak Bengali and it creates a barrier. In government hospitals, they face maximum harassment in the labour room. Amina shared her experience of visiting a government hospital, when she chanced upon a visit to a labour room. She narrated her experience thus
A woman was screaming with pain, the doctor slit her with a blade to remove the child… the doctor said, how can you feel pain? You are familiar with this by now, you come here every year to give birth… the woman kept screaming in pain…
A workshop participant: without an injection (for anesthesia)?
Amina: no injection… the situation is terrible…
Amina has tried to take such malpractice to the media, but not to much avail. Private hospitals are prohibitively expensive and women prefer child birth at home. The slum has some local doctors who do not possess a medical degree or license to practice. They are quacks. Recently many women in the area are facing problems after delivery. The doctors have been implanting IUD (Intrauterine Device) without informing the patients. Following this the women face various problems leading to infection and lack access to medical aid.
The community members also discussed issues of intercommunity relations. While the Priya Manna bustee is a Muslim settlement, there are Hindu settlements just next to it. There are multi storied apartments owned by Hindus and also a Hindu working class settlement close by. Earlier members of both communities had shared cordial relations. It was customary for them to participate in each other’s festivities. For the past few years there have been some tensions.
Workshop participants and community members in Talimi Haq School, Howrah
Earlier people in the Priya Manna bustee used to participate in Holi (a Hindu festival of colour) and Diwali with their Hindu neighbours. Now visits from their Hindu neighbours have become less frequent and segregation has increased. Hindus have stopped buying candle and firecrackers from Muslim vendors during Diwali. People are living in uncertainty due to the prospect of listing of a National Register of Citizens in West Bengal. There is a frenzy to secure documents that might be required. Many of the inhabitants are trying to get school leaving certificates from the local school.
The authorities of the school are cooperating with them. One of the workshop participants enquired whether any attempts have been made to build cross community solidarity. Amina replied that theirs is one such initiative to build communal solidarity. Kids from Hindu community also come to their school.
LIFE, MOBILITY & REGION MAKING IN A
NEOLIBERAL WORLD: A SYMPOSIUM
Programme
Life, Mobility and Region Making in a Neoliberal World: A Symposium 23 December 2019
Venue: Hotel Pearl, Kolkata 04:30 pm – 05:00 pm: Registration and Tea
05:00 pm – 05:15 pm: Inauguration
Chair: Samir Kumar Das, Calcutta Research Group & University of Calcutta, Kolkata
05:00 pm - 05:05 pm: Welcome Address by the Chair
05:05 pm - 05:15 pm: Brief Reflections on CRG’s Project on Global Protection of Migrants and
Refugees: Subir Bhaumik, Calcutta Research Group, Kolkata 05:15 pm – 06:15 pm: Book Launch and Discussion:
Global Governance and India’s North-East: Logistics, Infrastructure and Society, edited by Professor Ranabir Samaddar and Dr Anita Sengupta Moderator: Samir Kumar Das, Calcutta Research Group & University of Calcutta, Kolkata
Introducing the book: Anita Sengupta, Asia in Global Affairs, Kolkata Discussion on the book by Bhupen Sarmah, Omeo Kumar Das Institute of Social Change and Development, Guwahati
Brief Remarks by Contributors:
Iman Mitra, Shiv Nadar University, New Delhi Priya Singh, Asia in Global Affairs, Kolkata Samir K Purkayastha, Senior Journalist, Kolkata
Snehashish Mitra, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru Soma Ghosal, Sri Ramkrishna Sarada Vidyamahapith, Hooghly 06:15 pm – 06:30 pm: Tea
06:30 pm – 07:30 pm: Special Lecture
Chair: Paula Banerjee, University of Calcutta & Calcutta Research Group, Kolkata
06:30 pm – 07:15 pm: Lecture by Shalini Randeria, Rector, Institute for Human Sciences (IWM), Vienna & Graduate Institute, Geneva
Demographic Panics, Ethno-nationalism and the Violence of Soft Authoritarianism
07:15 pm- 07:30 pm: Remarks by Chair and Discussion 07:30 pm – 07:55 pm: Screening of Documentary
Calcutta: A Migrants’ City
07:55 pm – 08:00 pm: Vote of Thanks: Shatabdi Das, Calcutta Research Group, Kolkata
Life, Mobility and Region Making in a Neoliberal World: A Symposium
23 December 2019 Venue: Hotel Pearl, Kolkata