Dabbawallas call first ever strike in solidarity with Anna Hazare

Mumbai’s 5,000 lunch couriers down tiffins to support hunger striker’s call for anti-corruption agency The famous “dabbawallas” who pick up and deliver home-cooked lunch to hundreds of thousands of office workers in India’s commercial capital Mumbai announced the first strike in their long history on Thursday, in solidarity with the high-profile anti-corruption campaigner arrested earlier this week. The couriers are the latest to join protests across India that have seen tens of thousands of people taking to the streets to support Anna Hazare. The 74-year-old social activist leading the effort to force the government to set up a powerful new anti-corruption agency is maintaining his hunger strike in a high-security prison, even though he is now free to leave. The Mumbai dabbawallas – “dabba” refers to the tin box in which the lunch is held, “walla” means man – say they have been inspired by Hazare’s refusal to eat solid food. “We are breaking our 120-year tradition by not providing tiffins. This is the least we can do to support Annaji, who has been fasting for over 50 hours in inhuman conditions,” Kiran Gavande, the secretary of the Nutan Dabbalwala Trust told a local television station. The 5,000 dabbawallas in Mumbai would march on Friday to show their support, Gavande said. The lean men with their trays of metal canisters, each filled with three or four separate dishes and marked with a code designating the son, husband or grandson for whom they are intended, are one of the best-known sights of the city. Elsewhere there is little sign of the protest dying down. Although authorities have made a series of concessions, Hazare has refused to leave Tihar prison in Delhi, where he was detained earlier this week, until a venue for his public fast has been prepared. Outside the jail, crowds of supporters, including school children and students, gathered on Thursday afternoon. One 12-year-old carried a placard saying “Save My Future”. Sunny Kumar, a 28-year-old IT consultant, said he backed Hazare’s campaign. “We need someone who will listen to our problems and eradicate corruption from our society.” Kiran Bedi, a respected former senior police officer, said the deal with the authorities that would allow Hazare to fast for 15 days at a vast parade ground in the city centre big enough to accommodate tens of thousands of supporters was not a victory. “We are not playing games. We are doing this to move the country forward,” said Bedi, who was also briefly arrested this week, told reporters. About 2,500 Hazare followers were arrested earlier this week, provoking comparisons with draconian measures employed by British imperial rulers before India won independence in 1947. Amnesty International has issued a statement calling on authorities in India “to respect the rights to freedom of expression and of peaceful assembly”. Though few analysts expect the government to fall, in part due to weak political opposition, the crisis has increased lack of confidence in the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, 78, and the Congress party-led government mid-way through its second term. Economic and legal reforms remain blocked in parliament, while progress in the delivery of basic services is patchy at best. Hazare has tapped deep anger in India at the endemic corruption, both petty and large scale, that successive administrations have either fuelled or failed to tackle, and this has been compounded by the government’s mishandling. Anna Hazare India Jason Burke guardian.co.uk

Posted by on August 18, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.