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From Poverty to Power Green, Oxfam 2008 - weman

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FROM POVERTY TO POWERHOW CHANGE HAPPENS CASE STUDYTHE FISHING COMMUNITIES OF TIKAMGARHTwo hundred men and sari-clad women sit clustered under giant shadetrees on the banks of a dried-up lake: a small pond choked with lilies is allthat remains of what should be a lake teeming with fish, built by kingsover 800 years ago, and recently res<strong>to</strong>red by the community. Birdsong andvoices pierce the dry heat. The land is parched, but the s<strong>to</strong>ry is uplifting.‘Previously we covered our faces in public,’ laughs one woman.‘Now wetalk back, even <strong>to</strong> our fathers-in-law.’ And not just fathers-in-law. Thepeople of Tikamgarh have come on an extraordinary journey, winningunprecedented rights <strong>to</strong> the fishponds, and transforming their own livesalong the way.CASE STUDYLandlords and contrac<strong>to</strong>rs have traditionally controlled most fishpondsin the impoverished Bundelkhand region of India. Struggles forthe right <strong>to</strong> fish and <strong>to</strong> use the fertile land exposed when the ponds dry outduring drought have been violent and continuous, but the 45,000 fishingfamilies of the Bundelkhand seem <strong>to</strong> be gaining the upper hand.Over the past 20 years, the introduction of new varieties of fish and thepractice of s<strong>to</strong>cking ponds with fish fry raised in nurseries have greatlyincreased yields. Rather than favouring poor people, however, such technologicalimprovements prompted landlords and contrac<strong>to</strong>rs <strong>to</strong> seizeeven the smallest of the region’s 1,000 ponds.Protests led the fisheries minister in the Congress Party governmen<strong>to</strong>f Madhya Pradesh, who was himself from a fishing community, <strong>to</strong> pushthrough legislation in 1996 that granted leases <strong>to</strong> fishers’ co-operatives.A wave of organisation in poor fishing communities followed. Vikalp,an NGO led by Om Prakash Rawat (a former State Electricity Boardengineer), played a crucial role in helping them <strong>to</strong> establish co-operatives.Contrac<strong>to</strong>rs retaliated by setting up bogus co-operatives of their ownand using other tricks <strong>to</strong> get around the legislation, and when that failedthey resorted <strong>to</strong> violence. In a particularly bloody struggle overAchrumata Pond, fishers fought a pitched battle with thugs hired by landlords<strong>to</strong> steal their fish. The thugs won the first round, burning down thevillagers’ huts, but the victims then turned <strong>to</strong> other villages for solidarity.146

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