PRESS RELEASE    
AHRC-PL-106-2004

Red Cross urged to act on "subhuman" conditions of West Bengal evictees

(Hong Kong, December 7, 2004) The Indian Red Cross should be alleviating the "subhuman" living conditions of a group of evictees in the suburbs of Kolkata, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) said today.

In a letter to the chairman of the West Bengal branch, R N Sengupta, the Hong Kong-based regional human rights group suggested he visit the affected community in order to "see, hear, smell and feel" for himself the conditions, which it described as "brutal".  

"The largest group is situated next to a septic lake in which even human body parts and aborted foetuses have been seen floating, before being fished out by dogs," said Nick Cheesman, projects officer of the AHRC.

"A number of persons are known to have died from illnesses brought about by these living conditions" and from starvation, he said.

The eviction of some 7000 persons from Bellilious Park, in Howrah Municipality, greater Kolkata, occurred in February 2003.

All of the evictees, who are street and sewerage cleaners, had their houses destroyed and properties ransacked by the authorities. They were denied a court hearing prior to the eviction.

The community consists of Dalits, or 'untouchables', and the AHRC has asserted that it is due primarily to caste-based discrimination that the people have been maltreated.

To date there have been no efforts to assist, rehabilitate or compensate the evictees.

The AHRC referred to a suggestion from Sengupta that it approach the state-level West Bengal Human Rights Commission regarding the matter as "disingenuous".

"The commission has long-since been aware of the circumstances of this eviction and current conditions faced by the evictees" but had done nothing, said Cheesman.

The Red Cross should under any circumstances take an active interest in the basic needs for water, food, health care and housing of the evictees, in accordance with its universally recognised humanitarian working principles, he said.

Meanwhile, the AHRC today sent letters to a number of international agencies and mechanisms calling for action on the Bellilious Park eviction.

"We would again urge you to take up this case with the Government of India without delay in order that no further deaths occur as a result of malnutrition-related illness," wrote the AHRC to the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, Jean Ziegler.

Similar letters were sent to the U.N. special rapporteurs on the right to adequate housing, on racial discrimination and on health, the independent expert on human rights and extreme poverty, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the regional representatives of Unicef, UNDP, WFP and WHO.

The AHRC had earlier sent extensive documentation on the case to numerous domestic and international bodies, expressing concern that after almost two years still nothing had been done by any agency to alleviate the plight of the evictees.

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About AHRC The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional non-governmental organisation monitoring and lobbying human rights issues in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984.