Guest post by MINATI DASH

On 7^th March 2013, at least two mothers of Dhinkia and Govindpur (Patna village in this panchayat) villages in Jagatsinghpur went naked before the paramilitary station in Mangalpada near Govindpur village. In a rally led by mothers, hundreds of women and children went to the temporary paramilitary station that has more than 5 platoons of forces at the moment. While taking off their clothes, they constantly shouted, ‘why have you come here?, what do you want to see?’.

What must be the extent of desperation and provocation that our mothers decide to become naked before outside men?  In such a site (Eastern Odisha), where women bodies are constructed dominantly as private objects to hide, what does it mean to dare to bare? It is important to read this shocking act as an act of mediation of their political voices. It is in a desperate bid to express their furore, frustration & anger over intrusive presence of police & paramilitary in the area that they bared their bodies to shame them.

But shockingly, instead of recoiling with shame in response to such an act, the paramilitary chose to strike physically. They did not spare even these protesting women and brutally lathicharged them. The locals have stated that teargas shells were also lobbed at them during this confrontation. In the lathicharge – which the administration calls light lathicharge – more than 35 women received serious injuries in their legs, chests and backs. Women activists of PPSS (Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti) were also targeted, cornered and beaten up by plain-clothed policewomen. According to the fact finding team led by several Human Rights groups that visited the area on 9^th of March, Bilochan Khatua, Sulochana Barik, Solia Mallick, Sati Barik, Nayana Dash, Tulashi Dash, Basanti Mandal, Satya Mallick, Pravati Swain, Taaopi Samal , Lopa Samal were injured. The police did not think it necessary to seek treatment for the injured women who sustained injuries.

It is crucial to understand the magnitude of the provocation by police and paramilitary that forced the women to take such a desperate step.

Since the first week of February this year, the situation in Govindpur and Dhinkia Panchayat villages in Jagatsinghpur district has been tense. It’s particularly grim and appalling as forcible land acquisition in the area has been going on (and off) by dismantling betel vines and levelling such land in spite of active resistance from the villagers who depend on betel vine cultivation for livelihood. These forcible land acquisition processes are often met with stiff protest by the locals. Even as the government temporarily announced halting of land acquisition, the process continues unabated often under the supervision of paramilitary forces. The lull often lasts no longer than passing away of night with the ghosts of acquisition returning with brute force.

In its defiant and undemocratic posturing, the state government has resorted to military tactics of jailing and lathicharging the protesters regularly.  As women and children are at the forefront of the movement, regular lathicharge on women and children by paramilitary has become a norm. Over last 2 months since the administration convinced that land acquisition would not happen ‘by coercion’, this region has just become that a site littered with paramilitary camps with more than 12 paramilitary platoons. The people of this area are unable to go to local markets, visit their relatives or doctors, now for over 2 months. This is particularly difficult for women as they find it difficult in even carrying out their regular chores that demand them to move within or outside the village.

Following the deaths of 3 persons when a bomb blast occurred on 3 March 2013, tension has escalated in the area significantly. The paramilitary has not just moved inside villages, they have completely paralysed the movement of the people even within this area. The constant presence of paramilitary in the area right inside the villages is worrisome and unacceptable in a democratic polity.  Police presence in intimate space of villages and commons has virtually turned this area into an ‘enclosure’. The stationing of paramilitary is the most obnoxious measure of government to throttle voices of resistance against the POSCO project. Why can the state not engage with these voices in a democratic manner?  A large number of people suffering from ailments are unable to visit doctors. Particularly the suffering of women with gynaecological problems is deeply disturbing. In a democratic country, presence of paramilitary in an area which is neither declared disturbed nor is under any other form of emergency is unacceptable.

When in a democracy lathicharge, beatings, jailing and crackdown on the peaceful protesters become routine to forcibly acquire lands for a fictitious project completely subverting the rule of law, what else can mothers do? These lands are their livelihoods supporting their survival making up for the governmental failure! Their nakedness is not just theirs, it is society’s collective shame! Their naked protest in front of the paramilitary is a desperate step to expose the nakedness of what the local activists in the state call Navin Patnaik’s POSCO-priti (love). To restore faith of its citizenry in Dhinkia & Govindpur villages and beyond, the state government must admit its excesses in the area. The state Home Minister must take the initiative to apologize to mothers who went naked in protest. The state government must withdraw paramilitary immediately from the region ‘completely for all times’ for any meaningful dialogue to take place instead of attempting to conceal emperor’s nakedness.

Minati Dash is a PhD student at Deptt. Of Sociology, DSE. She is researching on resource conflicts in Odisha.