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FRONTLINE Stories from around the world showing how Christian Aid and our partners are working to empower people to shape a better future for themselves and their communities christian aid/sarah Filbey Last autumn many Christian Aid supporters took part in sponsored walks in solidarity with a land-rights protest march being planned in India. This year many more will march again. Sarah Filbey joined our partner Ekta Parishad as it prepares for its marathon month-long 100,000-strong trek in October, to discover what lies behind this extraordinary campaign ‘LaNd Is whaT wE NEEd TO FEEd OuR chILdREN’ 12 Christian Aid News
Every day we hear more than 100 voices, all sad voices Main picture: Kalawati-Bai shows the berries the community depends on when food is scarce. The white tower can be seen in the background. Below: a tribal chief and an Ekta Parishad rep at a community preparation rally in Bajarangpura Christian Aid/Sarah Filbey A tAll white wAtchtower stands majestically at the entrance to Bhatapura village. Around it lies an expanse of red earth and scrubland where goats graze. Some 28km from Gwalior, near to the home of the taj Mahal, Bhatapura lies on the edge of a stretch of land recently designated a Golden Bird Sanctuary by the indian government. why the government has invested in a bird-watching tower mystifies the locals, who have lived on this land for a century or more. For no one here can recall even one golden bird sighting in living memory, according to 70-year-old villager Munshi Sahariya. could this be an elaborate design to keep the tribal communities living on this valuable stretch of land from claiming rights to it with several communities deeper into the zone already moved from their homes, the families of Bhatapura fear the worst. this is just one of hundreds of stories being heard and collected by members of christian Aid partner ekta Parishad. A group of 15 are travelling across india for a year in a van. on its side, a banner bears the faces of ekta Parishad’s leader, rajagopal, and Gandhi, whose philosophy of non-violent action the group follows. ramesh, ekta Parishad’s campaign co-ordinator, joined us in our vehicle as we followed them for four days of their intensive journey. he explained how, with little rest or respite, the team travels for many hours daily to document local land struggles and prepare people to march for a month from Gwalior to Delhi in october/November 2012 to demand land rights and legal reform to help settle disputes due to land redistribution. ‘every day we hear more than 100 voices, all sad voices,’ explains ramesh. ‘every day holding that pain, at night you can’t sleep properly. the physical challenge is much easier – the mental accumulation far more difficult.’ one such voice might have been that of Kalawati-Bai, a mother of four from Bhatapura, who is preparing to march in 2012 with two of her children, aged five and six. ‘i don’t want my children to go through the same troubles as i have,’ she says. ‘land is what we need to feed our children – i will do or die in the foot march and i will not return without our land rights or any promises.’ Forbidden to grow crops on the protected sanctuary land, Kalawati-Bai and her community live in terror of forest department officials, who villagers claim stop them entering the forest area to collect forest produce such as firewood and berries, in spite of the Forest rights Act, which protects access rights. the villagers depend on the firewood to sell, and berries to eat when food is scarce. this is just one example of how despite progressive legislation existing, communities continue to be denied access to their rights. Bhatapura villagers take strength from the experience of neighbouring Bajarangpura. its villagers were among the 25,000 who took part in the Janadesh march of 2007. its 350km route will be repeated by the Jan Satyagraha march in 2012. Bajarangpura villagers secured the deeds to the land on which they live thanks to the Forest rights Act, the greater implementation of which was one of the main outcomes of the 2007 march as part of long-term efforts by ekta Parishad and other civil society partners. And they persevered, they said, thanks to courage drawn from being a part of such a large people’s movement as Janadesh. they now grow mustard plants, wheat and potatoes on their modest yet valuable 23 hectares of land, cradled between two small hills. Many in Bajarangpura are preparing to march again in 2012 in solidarity with others less fortunate. of the 100,000 expected to march in 2012, most will be people from dalit and adivasi (tribal) communities, who are systematically discriminated against due to indian society’s caste system hierarchy and ethnic prejudice. Bhatapura and Bajarangpura are adivasi communities. we followed ekta Parishad to press conferences and community meetings, where journalists expressed concern, and where young and old crowded together to share their stories and hear ramesh and his colleagues speak. And we caught a glimpse of the hope their journey brings; that ekta Parishad will bring people’s voices and struggles to the national and international level. ’everywhere you can feel that the whole campaign is gradually building, at every level – in understanding, in solidarity, in financial contributions – and most of all in terms of opening the space for dialogue with our own state,’ explains ramesh. ‘we feel it building, day by day.’ Christian Aid News 13
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