Articles by Mukul



Hard Realities Mukul A New March Ahead A SMALL group of trade union activists, social workers, labour researchers, NGOs and homeworkers were assembled in Delhi in the second week of April 1997, They were discussing the possibilities of a comprehensive legislation for homeworkers in India, in the light of one of the recent International Labour Organisation (ILO) convention, as well as a recommendation concerning homework. They were raising many issues, like the limitations of the existing laws and their incompatibility with the international convention, the immediacy of the question of ratification of the convention by the Indian government the necessity of a well pronounced government policy towards homeworkers, detailed proposals and provisions for a legislation, etc. They were making plans for approaching the government to make it move in a positive direction.

since there is nothing new to teach, for no new research would have been done. After 50 years of independence in which we cano boast of a number of Indians who have carved a name for themselves in the international arena we can now look forward to a future where we can say goodbye to intellectual rigour, integrity and independence of thought and prepare ourselves to perpetually accept the lead of the west in matters intellectual. It is then that we will come face to face with the denouement of the lesson that the Rastogi Committee has tried to teach the teaching community: close down our institutions of higher learning for they would truly be of no further use to society.

from Below Land Development in Delhi Mukul THE resources of lives and livelihoods of poor people in Indian society are being disposed of in innumerable ways. Whether it is land or house, forest or water, common property resources or individual property rights, the poor and powerless are under tremendous pressure in all these spheres to defend or expand their legal and constitutional claims. The land and houses of poor and working class people in urban India, especially in big and industrial cities, are some of the areas where the displacement has been talcing place in the crudest and the most naked manner. When such displacement is being done not by any one agency, individual or group but by a close nexus of government and its several agencies, police, politicians, rich and powerful people, the situation is horrendous and sometimes, unbelievable.

responsible for their industrial violence and the government responsible as accessories to their crimes.
While Jeedimetla and Patancheru will continue to be seen as a model for industrial apologists in search of a cheap 'fix' THEY were construction and agricultural workers. They were aanganwadi and domestic labourers. They were agarbatti, beedi and forest workers. They were fisher folk and weavers. Women outnumbered men workers, gathering in large numbers. They came from Karnataka. Gujarat, Maharashtra. Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.