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