US H1B Visa, Immigration and Outsourcing Crisis

US H1B Visa, Immigration and Outsourcing Crisis

Indian Holocaust My Father`s Life and Time - One Hundred Fifty FIVE

Palash Biswas


Ruling Classes see nothing but Sensex India! Service sector based on IT surges ahead devastating the backbone of Indian Econmy, Agro Sector.SEZ and SAZ introduced to evict and uproot Rural dalit India. What is IT industry in India. Telecommunication and Outsourcing! Growth rate centres around Call Centres! Thus , we are at the mercy of Hindutva Zionist Superpower for the timing of our destined sacrifice! Manufacturing sector destroyed to accomodate MNC Raj!

Well,India has "warned" the United States of an adverse impact on World Trade Organisation negotiations if it makes any attempt to restrict the movement of skilled professionals of Indian information technology companies. In a message aimed at assuring the nervous IT industry, the Government made it clear that a breakthrough in the deadlocked WTO talks hinged on a more liberal regime governing the movement of professionals. This is the Government's first response to the letter written by Senators Charles Grassley and Richard Durbin seeking information from at least nine major Indian companies about utilisation of special H-1B visas. They have sought information about the workforce of companies such as Infosys, Satyam, Tata Consultancy Services and Patni Computers as they feel the Indian companies are misusing the visas to displace qualified American workers.

"The U.S. move on utilisation of the special H-1B visa by IT companies restricting the movement of skilled professionals would have an adverse impact on the rapidly expanding services trade," Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said in a statement. He will raise this issue with U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab at the G-4 (India, Brazil, U.S. and the European Union) meeting called to end the impasse in WTO talks.

You have killed the Economy as well as the society and just dealing with US diplomatically! Is it the proper way to address the challanges of Post Modern Manusmriti, the Globalisation?

Conventional economy and higher education have been replaced by IT and software based Call Centres.Not only the private sector, the public sector enterprises have also drastically changed the way they work. Managers are beginning to accept the idea of relinquishing control, and are looking for creative sources of capital. Companies are getting aggressive with their expansion plans – sometimes too aggressive. Some corporates have even picked up a taste for overseas acquisitions(TATA`s).Also with increase in the income levels due to the outsourcing industry the living standard & consumption is incresing rapidly which indeed is increasing the growth rate. So we can conclude that the Indian youth is the fountainhead of this growth and we need the participation of the youth to sustain this growth.The introduction of the culture of risk at this grassroot level ensures that all the other pieces move – that the government and companies are given the message to change. This new inflexion point in our behavior is at least partially the result of the burgeoning young population.


Economists, as usual, seek practical and verifiable answers; and we shun cultural and sociological reasoning whenever possible. What is the result?

The future of India is entrapped plumb in a diplomatic Indo US Row involving Outsourcing, Immigration and Visa!Parents have staked everything for IT learning and this IT is nothing but Outsourcing!

The Indian Economy and Polity have ousted the underclasses from Indegenous production system.what happens next?

The number of people living in slums in India, Asia’s fourth largest economy, has more than doubled in the past two decades, the government said on Thursday.


Urban slum dwellers rose from 27.9 million in 1981 to 61.8 million in 2001 -- the latest census data available -- the junior minister for housing and urban poverty alleviation, Kumari Selja, told parliament.

Of the country’s major cities, the western financial hub of Mumbai has the biggest slums -- some 6.5 million people living in cluttered shacks lined with a maze of open drains.

The city is home to Asia’s largest slum, Dharavi. The sprawling settlement of grey and black shacks is one of the first sights of Mumbai when arriving by air.

India’s capital New Delhi follows Mumbai, with 1.8 million people living in squalor.

The Indian economy has grown at an average of 8.6 percent in the last four years but analysts say the growth has not touched millions of poor.The minister said the government has launched several schemes to provide civic amenities to slum dwellers but civil rights groups say the government has not done enough.

“Slums are here to stay,” said Maju Varghese of YUVA Urban, a social organisation working for more than two decades with the urban poor.

“What has happened is the total failure of the government to provide affordable housing to the urban poor. The government has completely ignored this problem,” he added.

About a quarter of the country’s billion-plus population live in towns and cities.

US H1B Visa has become a life and death question for our faces of future immersed in Virtual reality!According to agency reports, India's IT industry body Nasscom said it does not see the H-1B visa issue as one related to immigration, but as something concerned with international trade. It said that work permits and intra-company transfers should not be mixed and confused with immigration.

Work permits are primarily a tool for facilitating trade and allow global companies to bring key staff to the US on temporary assignments, it said.Under federal law, 65,000 H1-B visas are issued each year for hi-tech workers. Another 20,000 are given to foreigners with degrees from US colleges.
One the other hand, India's technology industry demanded more liberal US visa rules for software and computer professionals in response to calls by US lawmakers to limit their entry further.The annual US visa limit of 65,000 for overseas professionals such as software engineers is harming trade in the information technology industry, India's National Association of Software and Service Companies said in an e-mailed statement.The cap on the so-called H1B visas was reduced from 195,000 two years ago, noted NASSCOM. The H1B visa is an employer-sponsored, non-immigrant, temporary work visa for skilled employees.This year, foreign employers took up all the visas on the first day of their issue.

Well, latest situation is a diplomatic row is brewing between the US and India over how companies issue temporary working visas to staff.The US authorities are concerned that the Indian companies are trying to avoid hiring skilled American workers.

According to recent figures published by The Economist, 60 percent of the $20 billion that North American companies spend each year to send IT functions—such as developing and maintaining applications, and providing customer support—offshore goes to firms based in India. The report also indicates Indian firms own $5 billion of the $11-billion business process outsourcing market.

These numbers fueled the growth of companies like Tata Consultancy Services—India's largest IT company, with more than 60,000 employees and $2.9 billion in annual revenues. In second place is Wipro, boasting 42,000 employees and $2.4 billion in revenue. Then there's InfoSys, which went from $10 million in 1994 revenues to $2.1 billion in 2005.


India has many highly skilled professionals, scientists and engineers, but they represent only a fraction of the population.

IT: India has developed global niches in the Information Technology (IT) sector. The IT sector accounts for almost 4% percent of the GDP, but employs only a million people.

ICT: Indian mobile telephony is one of the cheapest in the world due to price competition. More than 47 million people had mobile phones at the end of 2004. ICTs growth has been concentrated in urban areas.

The government has to increase access to ICTs, such as make phones, cell phones, computers and internet connectivity more available; enhance people’s ICT literacy and skills; and develop ICT applications that can provide much-needed social, economic, and government services to citizens. Promoting the use of ICTs throughout the economy can raise productivity and growth.

Innovation: India is becoming a major global source of research and development (R&D). Some 100 multinational corporations have R&D centers in the country. But it’s a relatively closed economy compared with other Asian economies. India must take advantage of foreign direct investment, technology licensing, and etc. to catch up to countries like China.

When America gets ready to elect a President, it is time for Indians to keep a wary eye on their jobs.Nine Indian companies —among them Infosys, Wipro and Tata Consultancy Services — have been asked to disclose details about their workforce by two US lawmakers who feel that the H-1B visa programme is being abused by foreign companies to displace American workers.The H-1B visa programme allows foreign professionals to be employed for up to six years in the US, at the end of which they must obtain permanent residency or return home.

The Senators — one a Democrat and another a Republican — have written letters to the Indian companies in the run-up to a Senate debate on a comprehensive immigration reform legislation.

“More and more it appears that companies are using H-1B visas to displace qualified American workers,” Republican Senator Charles Grassley and Democratic Senator Richard Durbin said.

European officials have recently said they are worried that the focus on farm issues is distracting from talks on cutting tariffs for industrial goods, such as cars and chemicals.WTO chief Pascal Lamy says the WTO must achieve a draft deal in the five-year-old Doha trade round before the Geneva-based organisation takes its annual August break.Without a blueprint in July, there will be no chance of clinching a full treaty on lowering barriers to business across the globe by the end of the year, and that in turn could trigger the final collapse of the negotiations, Lamy has warned.

Five India-based firms which are heavy users of the H1-B visa, have been sent strongly worded letters by two US senators scrutinising potential misuse of the programme.Republican Senator Chuck Grassley and Dick Durbin, a Democrat, who are on the Senate Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on immigration, border security and refugees, are questioning nine companies, of which five are headquartered in India.Infosys, Wipro, Tata Consultancy Services, Patni Computer Systems, I-Flex Solutions, Satyam Computer Services, Larsen & Toubro Infotech Ltd, Tech Mahindra Americas Inc, and Mphasis Corp, who together used up to 20,000 of the 75,000 H1-B visas issued in 2006, have been issued the letters.

AS the U.S. President George W Bush on Tuesday said the United States is pursuing strategies of success in the Doha Round of WTO talks and is committed to working with leaders like Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to bring it to a fruitful conclusion,New Delhi works to downplay H-1B issue.India, worried that outsourcing of jobs could become an issue in the US presidential elections, is taking steps to ensure there is no repeat of 2004 when failed Democrat candidate John Kerry raised the bogey. The H-1B programme, launched in 1990, allows foreign scientists, engineers and technologists to be employed for up to six years in the US, after which they must obtain permanent residency or return home.Around 65,000 H-1B visas have been cleared for this year. India is awaiting a response from the United States about its proposal to approve 130,000 more H-1B visas, increasing the total to 195,000.

H-1B visa
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H1B_visa
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The H-1B is a non-immigrant visa category in the United States under the Immigration & Nationality Act, section 101(a)(15)(H). It allows American companies and universities to seek temporary help from skilled foreigners who have the equivalent US Bachelor's Degree education. H-1B employees are employed temporarily in a job category that is considered by the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services to be a "specialty occupation". A specialty occupation is one that requires theoretical and practical application of a body of specialized knowledge along with at least a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent. For example, architecture, engineering, mathematics, physical sciences, social sciences, medicine and health, education, business specialties, accounting, law, theology, and the arts may be considered to be specialty occupations.

The actual size of the H-1B program is difficult to gauge due to exemptions from the 85,000-person quota limit. 130,497 new H-1B visas were approved in FY 2004 and 116,927 in FY 2005. It was reduced to 65,000 beginning in 2006. The demand for H1-B employees is so high that American corporations have filed for H-1B applicants, six months in advance of issuing the visa in 2007. USCIS has received over 130,000 applications from U.S. corporations for the 2007-2008 year quota of 65,000.The H-1B visa category is controversial[4]. Advocates say the program (and similar ones operated by other technologically-advanced countries) helps the host country maintain its technological as well as economic superiority by providing a steady flow of highly skilled professionals who may be in short supply domestically. It also provides an incentive for companies not to move their operations abroad.The H-1B category has been criticized for displacing substantial numbers of experienced American citizen technical professionals or lowering wages enough to encourage them to abandon volatile careers in targeted fields such as computer technology. Although there are differing views on whether or not the H-1B visa is good for the US economy, economist Milton Friedman has called the program a form of subsidy.[1] It was also blamed for encouraging brain drain in the source countries.

H1B VISA INFORMATION & SERVICE CENTER

The H1B Visa Program is the official and primary USA work visa / work permit.
The US Government introduced the H1B visa to offer and enable highly skilled International Professionals and/or International Students, from all over the World, the opportunity to live and work in the USA.


The H1B is the most sought after US work visa and US Immigration requires 'every' foreign national to obtain a visa in order to legally work in America.


To Obtain an official H1B Visa :-
Step 1 - you must 'first' find an H1B Job with a US Employer (known as your "sponsor")
Step 2 - your Employer files your H1B Visa Application with the US Immigration Bureau
* individuals can NOT sponsor or apply for their own H1B visa. Only Your Employer can.
* CLICK HERE FOR THE ONLY SERVICE THAT CONTINUES UNTIL YOU FIND AN H1B JOB & VISA SPONSORSHIP - GUARANTEED
* To Qualify for the H1B Visa Program, you must work in a 'specialty occupation':
The core Specialty Occupations include: IT, Computing, Finance, Accounting, Banking, Marketing, Advertising, PR, Sales, Recruiting, Engineering (all types), Teaching, HealthCare/Medical, Legal, Lawyers, Networking, Telecoms, Business, Management.

>>> an H1B visa is typically valid for up to six (6) years and entitles your spouse (husband/wife) and children to accompany you and live in America.

>>> one of the main advantages of the H1B visa is that it is a 'dual intent' visa which means that you can apply for a Green Card (Legal Permanent Residency).
http://www.h1base.com/page.asp?id=312

The US H1B visa is a non-immigrant visa, which allows a US company to employ a foreign individual for up to six years. As applying for a non-immigration visa is generally quicker than applying for a US Green Card, staff required on long-term assignment in the US are often initially brought in using a non-immigrant visa such as the H1B visa.

Individuals can not apply for an H1B visa to allow them to work in the US. The employer must petition for entry of the employee. H1B visas are subject to annual numerical limits.

US employers may begin applying for the H-1B visa six months before the actual start date of the visa. Since the beginning of the FY 2007 is October 1, 2006, employers can apply as soon as April 1, 2006 for the FY 2007 cap, but the beneficiary cannot start work until October 1st.

The H1B visa is designed to be used for staff in "speciality occupations", that is those occupations which require a high degree of specialized knowledge. Generally at least the equivalent of a job-relevant 4-year US Bachelor's degree is required (this requirement can usually be met by having a 3-year degree and 3 years' relevant post-graduate experience). However, professionals such as lawyers, doctors, accountants and others must be licensed to practice in the state of intended employment – e.g. a lawyer must generally have passed the relevant state bar exam.

Non-graduates may be employed on an H1B visa where they can claim to be 'graduate equivalent' by virtue of twelve or more years' experience in the occupation.

Positions that are not "speciality occupations", or for which the candidate lacks the qualifications/experience for an H1B visa, may be filled using an H-2B visa. The disadvantage of the H-2B visa is that it requires 'labor certification' - an expensive and time consuming process that involves extensive advertising of the position, and satisfying the authorities that there are no US workers available to do the job. Also, H-2B visas are initially granted only for one year, extendable in one year increments to a maximum of 3 years. As each extension requires a new Labor Certification, it unsurprising that, of the annual quota of 66,000 H-2B visas, only a few thousand are ever issued.

New H1B legislation requires certain employers, called 'H1B dependent employers' to advertise positions in the USA before petitioning to employ H1B workers for those positions. H1B dependent employers are defined as those having more than 15% of their employees in H1B status (for firms with over 50 employees – small firms are allowed a higher percentage of H1B employees before becoming 'dependent'). In addition all new H1B petitions and 1st extensions of H1B's now require a fee (in addition to the usual filing fees) of US$1,000 to be paid, which will be used to fund a training programme for resident US workers.
http://www.workpermit.com/us/us_h1b.htm

Special Economic Zones -
Neoliberal "Enclosures" In India

By Soumitra Bose

17 May, 2007
Radical Notes

Specially Enclosed Zones for forming Capital through production or servicing within a nation-state and without the encumbrances of law of the native land is what gets called as Special Economic Zone (SEZ). What speciality of Economy this zone is going to provide is hazy not only from the content point of view but even from every angle of view one looks at it. Can a nation state, by definition, have multiple "economies" within its territorial boundary? Can an "Economy" be quantified through any stretchable definition of qualification as one co-existing with "others"? Is the usage of "Economy" over determined by factors other than "Economy" or if not then where is the line drawn to distinguish the exchange mechanism or production process or even production relation with the regulating rules relating to human rights, social benefits and even simple polity of the nation-state?

The concept of enclosed space has changed its point of incidence. Marx saw an enclosed space as a catchment basin from where cheap labour will be evicted and culled in to work in industries. Labourers from not specialized but specially charted out areas will be brought in to the most "advanced" type of production relation or that is what will be touted. In reality it will never be the most advanced type of production relation but will have the most advanced type of surplus extraction from the labourers. In Marx's days, the entire nation-state territorial space was the hearth of the Capital, spaces were enclosed and insulated to juice out the labour power, evict them, make them readily available for the Capital sector- today in SEZ the enclosed space is the special sector of Capital, whatever we have outside is the area from which labour power will be uprooted, evicted and made available for the "enclosed spaces". This very specific nature of the transposition requires a huge space or innumerable middle range spaces to be declared as the SEZ where the "advanced" Capital will establish the most advanced form of labour extraction, rent extraction and super-profit extraction. This would be the most "advanced" form of not production relation but of extraction relation. That too let us harbour no illusion that advanced might mean sophisticated. Sophistication would have brought in more organic composition of Capital that in turn would have meant advanced organic composition both in Fixed Capital and in variable capital.. In addition to adding more machines in the production process more technical composition of Capital would have to be brought in the personal skills of the labourers and daily tools used by the labourers. Let us be very clear that no such thing is going to be the essential part within the case study of the production process within SEZ. We must also not overlook that the SEZ may not have any production coming out at all. It could be a simple centre for hospitality, and centre for entertainment. We might call that as production, but no one will deny that no Capacity will be built up. No means of production may be produced. Special Economic Zone would therefore attain some credential in its description because it is a different kind of animal of economy that is going to be garnered here, one that does not require that profit and super-profit comes out of the Capital invested in some or the other production process.

Primitive accumulation of Marx's description has essentially come back and is active. Capitalism has created within itself sub-sectors and shows partiality on one over the other. At this day today, agriculture is not outside the Capital project, nor is small scale industries or even what gets called as the Sunset or traditional industries. Capital is moving towards a regime of a different and a more restricted kind of Capital formation in one or two preferred sub-sectors at the cost of her other sub-sectors. Moribund nature of Capital is still a convincing proposition because the project of Capital has therefore become more skewed, focussed and living off itself. Agriculture had just started to form Capital with the newer machines and factor inputs. Agricultural produces then were just getting forwardly linked to other processed products and even giving rise to large scale mass consumer products. Agro-industry had a possibility of taking a dangerous turn through GM food industry [cash crop] but could equally have taken a rather desirable route of developing retail-food consumer industry. Retail industry in India has been very conservatively poised to be flourishing up to Rs 28 billion in the next two to three years based on the present production capability. The huge potential of the augmented production and processed production would have transgressed even into the so-called traditional near-static realm of the security food production. Cereal too had shown all signs of becoming a viable and very important cash crop. Economy based on the agricultural showed the promise of becoming the most spread out and most popular industry and yes, even heavy industry there too. The agricultural equipment building up capital industry, the storage industry, the preservative industry, the processing mills industry, the distribution and Just-In-Time supply chain all these had the possibility of being the best optimized network in the human history. Capital, and especially Capital in the third world had chosen to ignore that route and go for what it perceives as a faster track of building up SEZ on some low graded low skill assembling industry and hospitality industry. It has chosen to ruin down even all present capabilities of agricultural and agro-industries and for the sake of realty industry- this is the famous python eating off its own tail. That is the very specific nature of the accelerating rate of moribundity of Capital
http://www.countercurrents.org/bose170507.htm

Don’t confuse H-1 B visas with immigration: Nasscom Indiatimes
Is it about H1-B 'abuse' or outsourcing fear? Financial Express
Indian cos accused of abusing H-1B CNN-IBN

CNN-IBN Kamal Nath 'surprised' on H1-B visa issue
New Delhi, May 17 (IANS) "Surprised" over the two US senators' enquiries over the alleged misuse of the H1-B visa programme by some leading Indian IT ...
H-1B visa holders get lower pay than Americans: study
Daily News & Analysis, India - 16 May 2007
NEW DELHI: A study that fuelled a debate in the US on the merits of H1-B visa has found that Indians working there temporarily get nearly $13000 a year less ...
Bad news for H-1B visa seekers Hindustan Times
H1-B Visa Reform Gains More Support
InternetNews.com - 15 May 2007
The bill also contains measures to improve enforcement against H-1B visa fraud and abuse, including prohibiting employers from advertising jobs as ...

Indian Minister Cautions US on Move to Examine Visa Use
SDA India Magazine, Singapore - 4 hours ago
Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath has warned that US move to examine the use of H-1B visas by nine Indian companies would have grave ...
NASSCOM SAYS VISAS TRADE ISSUE, NOT POLITICAL SDA India Magazine
all 3 news articles »
H-1B visas tied up in larger US debate
Hindustan Times, India - 16 hours ago
The problem is that the H1-B visa issue has been subsumed by a more controversial debate over granting citizenship to an estimated 11 million illegal ...

A Visa Squeeze for Foreign MBAs
BusinessWeek - 14 May 2007
Sehgal is one of many international MBA candidates who's caught in a visa bind. With only 65000 H-1B visas available for professional-level workers across ...

'Bad time to be an IT professional in US'
Economic Times, India - 9 hours ago
The US political system is once again raising questions on the visa programme for skilled workers because “companies are using H-1 B visas to displace ...


Guardian Unlimited Now legal immigrants fluster US politicians
Guardian Unlimited, UK - 27 Apr 2007
Mr Hira says statistics from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) demonstrate categorically H1-B visa holders are paid less than would-be ...

From: Saibaba G N
Date: May 16, 2007 2:31 PM
Subject: JOIN PROTEST DHARNA

*To protest against the Arrest
of
Dr. Binayak Sen
General Secretary, PUCL, Chhattisgarh

**JOIN PROTEST DHARNA **

at

CHATTISGARH BHAWAN,
SARDAR PATEL MARG*

*Chanakhyapuri*

*Near Gyarah Murthy
New Delhi

Time: 12 Noon
Date: 17th May 2007 (Thursday)

***

*Peoples's Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR)
People's Union for Civil Liberties(PUCL)
Medico Friend Circle
National Alliance for People's Movement (NAPM)*

* *

*14 May: Civil Rights Groups condemn arrest of Dr. Binayak Sen *

*CONDEMN ARREST OF BINAYAK SEN* *

14TH MAY 2007 *

We, the following Civil and Democratic Rights organizations, strongly
condemn the arrest of Dr. Binayak Sen, General Secretary, PUCL
(Chhattisgarh) and Vice President, PUCL (National) under the draconian
Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 2004 and Chhattisgarh Special Public
Security Act 2006. Dr. Sen is a very well respected civil rights activist of
long standing who has the rare ability to integrate his medical profession
with his activism. He had come to Bilaspur today to attend his clinic and
was informed by the City SP, Bilaspur to reach the local thana for recording
of statement. When he reached the thana, he was arrested.

The arrest of Dr. Binayak Sen has come after a week long false charges by
the SP Raipur that Dr. Binayak Sen is a Naxalite. In the last few days, the
police had made similar public statements against some other PUCL
(Chhattisgarh) activists and democratic rights activists including Ms.
Rashmi Dwivedi and Mr. Gautam Bandopadyay.

Arresting of civil and democratic rights activists is neither new nor
original. The experience of various Civil Rights organizations including the
Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee over the last two decades is enough
proof of how the state has attacked those who have questioned the state and
exposed the truth behind fake encounters, disappearances and rapes that form
an integral part of the operations of state forces. In the present context,
it is well known that the Chhattisgarh Government has been indulging in the
most brazen brutality in the adivasi areas of the State to suppress the
Maoist movement. Dr. Sen's untiring work in documenting the atrocities and
violations committed by the state forces in the guise of the Salwa Judum has
earned him the ire of the police. PUCL, Chhattisgarh and other democratic
activists have been raising their voice and campaigning against these
illegal and inhuman practices, and for this service to democracy, the
familiar allegation of being a 'Maoist' is made against them.

When the UAPA was amended in 2004 after the repeal of POTA and when the
Chhatisgarh Special Public Security Act was enacted in 2006, we expressed
the apprehension that it would be used against democratic movements and
activists, and the apprehension has been proved right.

We condemn the arrest of Dr. Sen and demand his immediate and unconditional
release.

*1 (K. Balagopal)**
*General Secretary
Human Rights Forum
Andhra Pradesh.

*2 (G.K.Ramaswamy) **
*Convenor
Peoples Democratic Forum
Karnataka

*3 (Nagraj Adve) **
*Secretary
Peoples Union for Democratic Rights
Delhi

*4 (D. Suresh Kumar)**
*Joint Secretary
Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee

*5 (Sujato Bhadra)**
*Secretariat Member,
Association for the Protection of Democratic Rights
Kolkata

*WHO IS Dr. BINAYAK SEN?*

Dr. Binayak Sen is a very well known person and highly respected both in
Chhattisgarh and elsewhere. As a medical doctor, Dr Sen has been actively
involved in reaching health care to the poorest people as well as monitoring
the health and nutrition status of the people of Chhattisgarh. Dr Sen helped
to set up the Chhttisgarh Mukti Morcha's Shaheed Hospital a pioneering
effort to effort to set up a health programme and hospital owned and
operated by a workers' organization for the benefit of the common people
Besides being actively associated with the Shaheed Hospital, Dr Sen is a
very well respected member of Jan Swasthya Sahyog which is committed to
developing a low-cost, effective, community health programme in the tribal
and rural areas of Bilaspur district of Chhattisgarh. He was also a member
of the state advisory committee set up to pilot the community based health
worker programme across Chhattisgarh that later became well known as the
Mitanin programme. He also gives his services to a weekly clinic in a tribal
community in Dhamtari district.As General Secreatary of the Chhattisgarh
PUCL, he has helped to organize numerous fact finding campaigns into human
rights violations in the state including custody deaths, fake encounters,
hunger deaths, dysentery epidemics, malnutrition, and other similar
violations. In recent times has worked intensively to bring large scale
oppression and malgovernance within the so called Salwa Judoom in Dantewara
to national and international attention. Dr. Sen has regularly spoken to the
local and national media on these issues.
Dr Sen has been contributing theoretical papers to books and journals on
public health .He was the recipient in 2004 of the Paul Harrison award
for lifetime work medical Care in the service of Humanity, an award given
annually by the Christian Medical College Vellore to one of its alumni.

--
G N SAIBABA