Despite the dangers, a woman is fighting for the rights of civilians in India's former army areas

• Savita Jadhav was an army kid but realised ‘the help’ in India’s former army areas doesn’t have equal rights when she returned to civilian life.
  
• In 2001, she founded the Sadhana Institute for Sustainable Development (SISD), to fight for change but no level of government wanted to take responsibility for this segment of the population.
  
• There are over 62 cantonments areas all over India, with at least five million people excluded from basic rights because of mixed governance.
  

India’s cantonment areas were set during the British era as temporary shelters for the soldiers. Over a hundred years down the line, the country’s gained independence and India’s in control of its own armed forces — yet these areas still struggle of human rights and remain sequestered from the constitution.

"Even after independence, the governance in these areas stayed as when they were formed by the British Government," Savita Jadhav, founder of Sadhana Institute for Sustainable Development (SISD), told Business Insider in an interview.


These former army areas don’t have the same governance structure as the rest of India and the same rights don’t apply. The ‘help’ brought in to service the British — to help with sweeping, cleaning, washing, milk rearing and other tasks — is now isolated in slums without access to the most basic of welfare schemes.

"Now, that these things are being taken care of by the government — they no longer want these communities staying here and they’re being called encroached people," explained Jadhav. To make matter worse, people within the community aren’t aware of their rights, or where to go to speak up on issues.

While Jadhav’s work focuses on the cantonment area in Pune, there are over 62 cantonments areas all over India. Official data states that there are around 2.1 million people living there, however Jadhav believes at least five million people are being excluded because of convoluted governance.

"People within the cantonment are not aware of the situation. It’s difficult for them to see that there are still pockets of people who are being treated unconstitutionally and discriminated against," she said.

It’s dangerous work
Born and brought up in the cantonment area, Jadhav enjoyed the luxuries of army life as a child when her grandfather was working at one of the army depots. But, when she returned to being a civilian, a grim reality came to light — that the community was clearly divided into two different strata. If you weren’t army personnel, you had no services or entitlement.

Studying at schools set up by her grandfather, Jadhav studied psychology and worked in different areas of community developed. In 2001, she set out to solve the problem by setting up the SISD. But her work wasn’t without danger.


"In 2003, I was strategically working with children and people in the community. But there was a threat to me as well because it’s an army area. It’s difficult to work with a free mind since are limitations to what we can do in a defence area," said Jadhav.

She wasn’t the only one who had to be careful. The people within the community were afraid to speak up about their own human rights for fear of the consequences. Even if they did gather the courage, they wouldn’t know where to go.

"For local governance, in villages and other operations, people at least know where to go if they have a problem. Here, there is local governance in the form of cantonment boards, but there’s a big gap. People aren’t aware that they exist and don’t dare to go and speak about their situation, thinking that this is the army and nobody can do anything," explained Jadhav.

Who’s responsible for the cantonment areas?
When she started out, Jadhav didn’t know who to approach. SISD knocked on all doors to find try and find out who was responsible for this segment of the population and nobody seemed to want to step up.

After conducting a number of activities — like studying malnutrition, hosting numerous press conferences, and putting pressure on all central, state and local governance — the state government finally agreed to put in some effort.

In 2012, the Integrated Child Development Service Scheme (ICDS) — the biggest scheme in India for the welfare of children — was made accessible to the people living in the Pune cantonment area.

"If the state government can implement one scheme, then they can implement other schemes as well. If they can implement in one cantonment, they can do in other cantonments as well," said Jadhav.

Since the defence industry falls under the unplanned sector, there is no allocation of this segment of the population in any of India’s development plans. And the government believes that since defence is a strategic sector, it’s governed by national interest and security. Hence, they are reluctant to interfere.

However, things are changing are more representation comes to the surface. People have more say in governance but it’s still a ways to go before their rights are at par with the rest of the country.