Toy Story!: Channapatna's toys and handicrafts were able to ward off the threat from the whole mass-produced Chinese shebang,

thanks to some combined public private enterprise. NK Suprabha walks into toy town

After Irom Sharmila last year, Anna Hazare wins IIPM's 2011 Rabindranath Tagore Peace Prize of Rs. 1cr. To be handed over on 9th May

'The market is flourishing; there is enough demand. It is up to us how fast we finish an order and get to another one,' says Mujeeb, a craftsman of Channapatna, or what is known as the Toy Town of Karnataka. Wherever you look in this town, you will find toys, wooden crafts and people with toys in varying degrees of completion in their hands. Channapatna, situated in Ramanagaram district and 60 km away from Bangalore, is home to more than 5,000 skilled craftsmen who produce wooden and ivory craft including bangles, earrings, toys, even beaded car sear covers.

Channapatna's legacy of toys goes back to the time of Tipu Sultan. More than two centuries back, Tipu had invited Persian artisans to train the locals of Channapatna. They started with carving toys out of ivory; later they switched to rubber, cedar and teak.

A 200-year old legacy however found itself on shaky ground when the markets were flooded with 'Made in China' products; low cost Chinese toys and plastic playthings soon replaced indigenous toys. Livelihoods were threatened, but thankfully not for long. The government and NGOs were able to rein in the damage and transformed Channapatna's state of affairs. 'My friends back home working on toys earn much more than what I do, here in Bangalore. They earn Rs 250 to Rs 300 per day,' says Lokesh, a resident of Channapatna, employed as an office assistant in Bangalore.

Today, many who had migrated to big cities in search of jobs have returned to Channapatna to bolster its lost-and-found glory.' Earlier, it was difficult to find work orders owing to the absence of an organised system in place. Now we get encouragement and work orders from both government and private organisations. That is why residents of Channapatna are happy to stay back,' says Shami Ulla, a local craftsman.

At a government craft complex that TSI visited, nearly 20-25 members were engaged in paring wood on machines to make it easier for craftsmen to carve designs on them. A few craftsmen were on the floor giving final touches to toys and other pieces of art. A major buyer of these handicrafts ' since 40 years ' is Cauvery Emporium; rest of the goods are either sold to local shops or are exported. An area of six acres, with more than 250 families working away at chiselling, making, designing and colouring the handicrafts, is set aside to meet the Cauvery Emporium order.

The land is provided by the government and spending Rs 150 for electricity is not a big outlay, but a major problem is load shedding. 'The government has not fixed salaries. They have just given us a place to work. We arrange wood, lacquer and other necessary materials. It is a good thing that the government buys our product,' says Shami Ulla. Shami Ulla volunteered to take us around town to show us more houses engaged in toy-making. We visited Hanumanthiah and his family who were busy with designing and colouring dolls and idols. His children also helped out after their school hours. 'We earn a minimum of Rs 5000 to Rs 6000 per month. We are required to colour and design and fix the half done art pieces,' says Hanumanthiah. The next house was Rukkamma's ' she and her son were so busy with preparing wooden beads that they answered our queries without taking eyes off the hand driven machine! Rukkamma was rotating a wooden stick and skillfully cut the tip of the stick in the shape of an oval bead with a thread; in 15 minutes she had finished making 15 beads.

As in any other cottage industry, the middlemen here too walk away with the best deal, while the manufacturers make only a meager profit. Rukkamma gets only 75 paisa per bead; the middleman sells the same for Rs 1.50. These beads go to cover car seats that retail for Rs 800-Rs. 1000.'

Decades back, toys were booming business in the country, but that was of course before the Chinese took control of the market. The local produce was pushed to obscurity; it's only in the last 3-4 years that the market is looking up again. 'NGOs are training us; we are learning new designs. We get orders on a regular basis. I earn Rs 200 to Rs 300 daily here. We are however allowed to work only from 10am to 5pm. All other private factories work day and night. If the government allowed us to work late nights, we could earn more too,' says Mujeeb, who works in a government shop floor.

Private enterprises do good business out of this art; fifteen to twenty of such companies get orders from overseas as well. 'There is great demand from UK and the US. Private companies earn around Rs 5 lakh per month by exporting. They get business with their own efforts,' says H.K. Sahukaiah, Planning Officer of the government workshop in the town. The traders still carp about the Chinese deluge though. 'We used to get positive responses from buyers 5-6 years back. But nowadays Chinese items are the rage. People obviously like cheaper goods,' says MP Mariswamy, a trader of toys in Channapatna.

For the locals, income of Rs 5000 to Rs 6,000 per month holds good to lead a fairly decent life in this small town. Besides, nearly 1000 registered members also avail benefits from government schemes to encourage the cottage industry, which include the central government fund for training on new designs, and health scheme, apart from the loan recommendations for providing craftsmen with more facilities.

Channapatna is a fine model of public'private enterprise leveraging local talent for the welfare of the community and to the benefit of the exchequer. May its tribe increase'

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Silent for a cause: Silence is his voice

After Irom Sharmila last year, Anna Hazare wins IIPM's 2011 Rabindranath Tagore Peace Prize of Rs. 1cr. To be handed over on 9th May

Protesting against the selling of drinking water, Amrut, a social worker, is completely silent for the last five years, confident that his silence would soon transform into a thousand cries.

At times silence can be more powerful than a thousand words. Cinema and theatre regularly use this tool to sprinkle the element of drama. In real life, too, we use silence to register protest when we are miffed with somebody. But for how long? Hardly a few minutes or may be hours if the case is too extreme. Bute here is a man who is silent for the last five years' five-and-a- half-years to be precise. Why? Well, he is protesting against the price tag some money minded companies have attached with the drinking water. Water is a basic need of human beings and it must not be sold for profit making, feels 53-year-old Amrut. A post-graduate from Bangalore University, Amrut is on his 'Satyagraha of Silence' since March 1, 2005, protesting against the selling of drinking water.

A few books, one set of cloths, a pen and a writing pad to interact with people around and a shawl that protects him from cold are the total belongings of Amrut alias Ambrose. With no permanent house, he usually sleeps on the road side. And yes, he wears no shoes. But unlike MF Husain' the other famous guy who goes without footwear' he hardly gets to walk on expensive carpets and fancy flooring.

Amrut interacts by writing on a piece of paper and through gestures. His passion is more visible in the latter mode. 'Selling of drinking water is a new phenomenon that these profit mongers' the multi-nationals' invented in the era of globalization. New and unique problems need new and unique ways of protest. The ready made protest models won't work here,' he explains of his way of protest.

He recalls the incident that forced him to take up this struggle five years back. It was a hot Bangalore afternoon. A few labourers at a construction site asked for water from a local resident. But the person refused to give them any water. The poor labourers' pockets did not allow them the luxury of buying bottled water from the nearby shops. Amrut, who was watching all this, came forward and fetched water for them. The incident enraged him enough to launch a protest against the selling of water. 'Water is nature's gift and selling it is a crime. Several local and multi-national companies are minting money through this crime,' he writes.

The passionate social worker hates packaged drinking water so much that if he finds mineral water bottles on the stage in any programme he attends, he does not hesitate in raising voice against it. Once he was even beaten up for this and that too by his own party men. It so happened that a few years after the demise of MD Nanjundaswamy, the leaders of the warring factions of the Karnataka Rajya Raita Sangha (KRRS) met in Bangalore to discuss the possibilities of a merger. What terribly irked Amrut there was the presence of branded water bottles bought to be served during the meeting. He instantly wrote a placard and displayed it outside the venue, exposing the leaders' real face. (The leaders had promised to wage a resolute struggle against the sale of drinking water just a year ago). 'They brutally assaulted me. I had honestly worked in KRRS for a cause for so many years and this was the way they treated me,' he jots down. He has worked with many other social organisations too. Since 2007, Amrut has intensified his struggle by cutting his food down to one meal a day. He doesn't take even a glass of water till five in the evening! He usually takes his supper at the roadside food venders' in the city or at any farmer's house if he is in the countryside.

Amrut participated in the recently concluded Congress party's padayatra and walked from Bangalore to Bellary barefooted, taking a single meal a day. He became the centre of attraction throughout the walk as the word about him spread. 'I am not a Congressman. I participated in the walk just because they have raised an important issue concerning the ordinary people of the state. For me it was an opportunity to spread awareness about my cause,' writes down an excited Amrut.

Amrut's protest against the anti-begging law was also unique. To register his protest he started begging on the streets of Bangalore. Then he organised his co-beggars and marched to Delhi, begging all through the way, to oppose the law. 'It is the state that has created the circumstances where a section of people is forced to beg. If the government is really concerned about its citizens and is feeling ashamed of having such an inhuman practice on its land, it should address the conditions that have given rise to begging,' he opines.

For the last one year or so, he has started selling revolutionary and progressive books in public programmes, mass protests and demonstrations. He feels that it is not just a means of filling his stomach, but an effective medium of spreading awareness among the people. 'A year back, I was just distributing some progressive literature in front of the Lawyers Bhavan in Bangalore. Some people claiming to be from the Sangh Parivar snatched the papers from me, physically assaulted me and handed me over to the police accusing me of distributing anti-Hindu literature. I took it as a challenge and thenceforth started selling all kinds of revolutionary and progressive books to spread awareness. I sell the books keeping a little profit margin to earn a few bucks for a cup of tea and a roadside meal in the evening,' he conveys with a note of triumph. He is confident that one day his silent protest will translate into thousands of voices for his cause. 'Till then, I will keep it up. I may not be able to see it in my lifetime, but the future generations will surely do,' he concludes.

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Assam's camps of hell

After Irom Sharmila last year, Anna Hazare wins IIPM's 2011 Rabindranath Tagore Peace Prize of Rs. 1cr. To be handed over on 9th May

Even after 12 years of the Bodo-Santhal clashes, victims have to live in horrible camps, battle hunger while their girls are trafficked away and forced into the flesh trade
'God sent us as men only for fellow humans to deprive us of basic rights. A piece of bread or a dish of rice is the farthest our imagination can travel. We are those citizens of the largest democratic country of the world who don't posses a pair of dress, don't get a glass of clean drinking water, don't have a proper shelter, not to mention education, sanitation or health care. We are trapped in poverty and there seems to be no wayout' '- thus goes the rant from Maya Tudu, an orphan dwelling in the refugee camp of Kokrajhar.

Maya is a victim of clashes that erupted between Bodos and Santhals during 1996-1998. She often fills her empty stomach with leaves of trees from the nearby forest and quenches her thirst by drinking water from the ponds or the river. Safety, security, peace are words excluded from the vocabulary that describes her life and that of her fellow tribals. This is the fate of thousands of refugees in the districts of Kokrajhar and Bongaigaon of western Assam. Thousands of families from both sides have lost their dear and near ones. Many are quietly suffering from physical and mental handicaps. Those who had taken shelter in the camps as children have now become youths. These youths have nothing to do in the camps. The refugees want to work hard but there is no opportunity. The Bodos, comparatively, have a stronger social and economic status than the Santhals. Hence, many have returned to their villages and have started their lives anew. The refugees left in the camps are mostly Santhals. The government announced some schemes for rehabilitation of the refugees but at the same time declared inhabitants of the camps as encroachers of forest land, thus denying them of the benefits.

Ravi Tudu, an inmate of the Kokrajhar camp, tells TSI, 'Hundreds of armed people raided our village and torched our huts. Many were brutally killed. I somehow managed to escape.'

Since then, almost 70,000 (unofficial figures) unfortunate tribals are believed to be living amid the horrible conditions in refugee camps. Twelve years have passed without any ray of hope.

Lakshmi is a girl of 23. She just has a dirty frock to cover her body. She narrates her experience, 'It was August of 2005. A group of people with a lady came to our camp. They gave us some food and clothes. They tried to lure us by promising work at Kanpur. At first we did not believe them. But after a few days our parents were convinced and 8 girls and 7 boys left with them for Kanpur.' She continues, 'I had dreamt of a good life there. I started working in a house. I was happy. But my happiness was shortlived. The owner of the house started to torture me. He sold me to sex racketeers. For one whole year, I stayed in a red light area. One day I managed to escape. I came to Kanpur railway station. There I met one kind-hearted person. He took me to his home and contacted an acquaintance of his at Kokrajhar. Some days later, the surrendered Cobra Militant Force contacted me and they arranged for my return journey.'

The fourteen other girls and boys are still untraced. There are hundreds of Lakshmis in the refugee camps who are falling prey to sex racketeers. Some have managed to return, most have come back pregnant. They gave birth to their babies in the middle of the most unhygienic conditions. Nobody has bothered to offer them any help. Some of the girls who returned to the camps are Sumita Bale (20), daughter of Paltan Mardi, Phailaguri camp (presently closed), Maya Mardi (24) of Sapkata camp, Manju Tudu (21) of Kochugaon camp and Sushila Kishku (24) of Kochugaon camp. Among them, Sumita was a student of class IX when she was pushed into the sex trade. Another girl, Rumila Murmu (23), daughter of Pradhan Murmu of Kachibari camp, was also sold in UP. Till date, no one has heard from her. Similarly Sushila Kishku (24) was exploited as a sex worker in Haryana. She somehow managed to escape in a pregnant condition. An unfortunate Nita Hembrom (15) of Damrapara camp was brought to Gujarat and she is still untraceable. Maya Mardi tells TSI, 'They lured us on the pretext of jobs in the textile industry at Kanpur. They took ten girls from the camp. At Kanpur, I was forced into flesh trade. I don't know about the fate of the other girls. I was subjected to sexual torture for many months. But one day, I got lucky and managed to flee.

Zebrius Kha-kha, chairman of the Cobra Militant Force, told TSI, 'We took to arms to protect the rights of tribals. We are observing a ceasefire since September 15, 2001. Our main demands are the proper rehabilitation of the victims of the ethnic clashes between Bodos and Santhals in 1996 and 1998. The state government had declared an aid of Rs 10,000 for each of the affected families. It is too meagre. We demand for its increase to Rs 2 lakh. Of late, we met Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and requested him to fulfill our demands.'

Kha-kha says, 'It is true that since the clashes of 1996, about 20,000 tribal boys and girls have gone out of the state in search of employment. Many of them were forced into taking up immoral and anti-social activities. We are trying, to the best of our ability, to rescue those unlucky boys and girls.'

A visit to the camps will prove that governmental aid for the victimised families is inadequate. The district administration distributes ration for only 10 days a month. So the refugees face extreme hardship for the rest of the days. Carol Narzary, deputy commissioner of Kokrajhar, says, 'We have taken some steps for rehabilitation of the refugees. We have given Rs 10,000 to each of the families to rebuild their houses on their own land. Many have already constructed them. But the remaining tribal refugees do not own any land. Most of them are possibly encroachers of forest land.'

'The massive increase in human trafficking is a matter of great concern to us. Poverty is the most crucial factor,' says Bosko Sarmako, president of All Assam Adivasi student Association (AASA). Reiterating that AASA has taken the matter seriously, he goes on to say, 'We have rescued many girls during 2005-2007 from different places of the country. Many of them were rescued at various railway stations of the state during the time of transit to other parts of the country. Yet, a large number of young girls are yet to be rescued.'

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Puja Awasthi pays a visit to Ayodhya to gauge people's hopes and apprehensions

After Irom Sharmila last year, Anna Hazare wins IIPM's 2011 Rabindranath Tagore Peace Prize of Rs. 1cr. To be handed over on 9th May

'Faith is a wavering thing'

Sometime before October gets underway, a long awaited verdict that has kept Ayodhya, the small temple town, firmly on the map of the world's trouble spots will be announced by a three-judge bench in a courtroom of the Allahabad High Court. Three questions will be answered: Is the disputed spot in Ayodhya the birthplace of Lord Rama? Was the Babri Masjid built after the demolition of the temple that stood there? Was the mosque in question raised according to the tenets of Islam?

But for purely personal reasons, no one waits perhaps more eagerly than the likes of 56-year-old Shakuntala Gupta who lost her husband to what has since been dubbed the 'Temple movement'. In a pale green sari, her voice raspy, Gupta insists she told her husband not to go out on that October day in 1990 when the first kar seva was announced. 'I told him you are all we have, who will look after our five children if anything happens.' But her husband, a devout Ram bhakt who would not start business at his sweetmeat shop without a darshan of the Lord brushed aside her fears. 'I am in the duty of the Lord,' he said.

The city was under curfew and Gupta sat in their narrow home peeping from a window. 'Then a helicopter bearing Mulayam Singh Yadav came. The single light on it was red. It turned green. And there were sudden blasts of firing. The helicopter turned away.' Only later would some boys of the neighbourhood tell Gupta that her husband was one of those killed in the incident.

'If the verdict is for the Hindus, my husband's martyrdom will not be in vain,' says Gupta pointing to a dusty painting underlined, 'Shaheed Vasudev Gupta'. Since then, two of those five children have died, the sweetmeat shop converted into a cloth shop and Gupta's health has steadily gone downhill. 'I live only for the verdict,' she groans. Her feisty 27-year-old daughter Seema, despite claiming non-association with any political organisation, says, 'A cause for which my father gave up his life, can claim my head. But the movement surely shall not die.'

It is a similar feeling that grasps 90-year-old Hashim Ansari, the original plaintiff in the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi title suit and convener of the Babri Masjid Reconstruction Committee. Some days ago Ansari spoke to a newspaper of his apprehension at what would happen if the court came out with a clear verdict against either community. The correspondent went ahead and attributed a 'There will be mayhem and bloodbath' statement to him, prompting the High Court to slap a notice on him and the publication. In his blue checkered lungi, white kurta and skull cap, guarded by three policemen (only one of whom has a rifle, he points out), Ansari is among the very few living who have seen the 60-year-old suit through. Adjusting his hearing aid, he speaks slowly and clearly, perhaps in fear of being misquoted, 'Fiza kharab hone ka andesha hai', he says which roughly translates into 'There is a fear that the atmosphere might turn bad.'

Quizzed on the next step, he says, 'I am only a plaintiff. The Waqf Board fought the case, the Personal Law Board bore the expenses and the Babri Masjid Action Committee made the arguments before the court. It is the three bodies which have to decide how to take the matter forward if the court's verdict is not in our favour. Who am I to make any pronouncements.'

On the political front his anger runs against all parties. 'The Congress knows it will gain whatever the verdict. The BJP will not let the issue pass easily though as it has amply demonstrated it lacks the skills necessary to run a government and that governments don't function on emotions, certainly not ones at the Centre. We had a Muslim leader in Azam Khan in the Samajwadi Party who was shamed into leaving the party. Mulayam Singh Yadav is no longer a national leader. Mayawati is too busy consolidating her Dalit vote bank. There is no political party which is capable of standing by us,' he says in a pocket size outer room of his home in Panji Tola.

There are many within the saffron fold who are targeting the BJP for playing with the issue and not doing enough when it was in power in Delhi from 1998 to 2004. But the dynamics of governance are different and once in the driver's seat, the party would have realised that it was not convenient to merely disregard legal opinion on the issue and raise a pink sandstone temple on the disputed site. Senior Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Ashok Singhal recently singled out former Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani to attack when he called upon the party to 'atone for its sins' in connection with the Ayodhya issue. The party's former president Rajnath Singh spoke of the party's abiding commitment to the building of a grand temple at Ayodhya at the sidelines of a working committee meeting in Lucknow, failing to specify a strategy for the same. The political resolution that came out at the meet also had just two lines at the end that read: 'Ramjanmbhoomi is a matter of faith for all Indians. The party's determination on the Ayodhya issue is firm and the party abides by its previous policy.' The party's president Nitin Gadkari has refused to comment on the issue while Advani has called for 'caution and restraint' befitting a national party. The party is struck by another dilemma. There is no one among the crop of senior leaders, perhaps barring Narendra Modi, who has the credibility to lead the movement. Mahant Gyan Das, chairman of the Akhara Parishad and an influential voice among Ayodhya's sadhus (though criticised for his Iftar parties for Muslims), says the matter is plain. 'You should either have not gone to court. If you did, you abide by its verdict. It is like marriage. It does not depend on whether or not you love your partner. If you are in it, you make sure it works. This cacophony of impending trouble is made up by a few anti-social elements. I appeal to people to get a grip on their emotions,' he says.

Not far from where Das sits in Hanumangarhi is a CD shop called Sri Shail Emporium, manned by the 22-year-old Mohammed Nafeez Khan. Khan's father, Abdul Rehman Khan, is the only Muslim to own two shops in the area. 'What after the verdict,' shoots back Khan. 'In so many years, none of our Hindu brothers have shown any animosity towards us. Not even at the peak of the agitation. Why should we think of shifting our shop if the verdict is pro-Hindu? God does not interfere with livelihood,' he says.

Ram Vilas Vedanti, more popularly known as Vedanti Maharaj and a two-time MP, has been besieged by calls from the media ever since the possibility of a verdict began to blink on the horizon. 'On the basis of the evidence I gave in court, I am convinced that the verdict will be in our favour. I have seen the temple as a child and when the opposing counsel questioned me on its existence, I turned around and asked him: Will any Muslim ever go to a place where there are idols of 12 Hindu Gods? If the verdict is anti-Hindu, the community's anger will be difficult to contain. There will definitely be animosity. I foresee possible terrorist attacks as well,' he thunders drawing up a worst case scenario. But he is quick to put on record his reverence for the court. 'We respect the court. If the verdict is unfavourable, we shall knock on the doors of the higher court,' he says. A lesser heard but influential voice is that of Swami Purshottamacharya of the Sugreev Qila which housed the first VHP office in one small room. 'If under any malicious influence the court gives an adverse verdict, Parliament, the supreme representative of the people, has the power to turn it over. Did it not happen in the Shah Bano case? Muslims should be given land elsewhere to build a mosque and we will do kar seva for it', he says.

At the deserted Ram Janmabhoomi workshop, where the last worker left in 2007 after 65 percent of the work was completed, only a paralysed Ram Lakhan and a few bored policemen are to be seen. There was a time when busloads of tourists would empty out every half an hour at the site. But now that the chisels have fallen silent and the pink columns have started to turn mossy, Ram Lakhan, who claims to have been living there since the workshop was set up, says, 'Faith is a wavering thing. You can't maintain it at the same tempo at all times. Only God can ensure that his temple is built.'

But for those like Shakuntala Gupta, who live in a more human world that thought might just be cold comfort.

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