EKTA PARISHAD M.P.
We are concerned with issues that are repercussions of policy level decisions taken by the state e.g. dams. We work in 30 districts in 465 panchayats of 3000 villages in M.P. There are a few basic issues like land. That apart, every small family which has about 5-10 acres of land is losing even that. In M.P. the Chhattisgarh area was once known as the grain bowl of the state. The reality today is that people are being forced to migrate to other places on a large scale. They can return only during festivals. Their houses are locked up rest of the time. People are being affected by big projects, but in the past 4-5 years we have seen that adivasis are being forced off their lands by political leaders, caste leaders, vested interests etc. In Ekta Parishad we are working on the issue of land because despite being owners of land, people do not have rights over it. They are being ousted from their lands arbitrarily. In the name of factories. In some places if land is required for a school or panchayat bhawan, adivasis are thrown out of their lands. The Chief Minister had recently declared that those adivasis who have been occupying forest land before 1986, we have a right to it and will be given pattas. This remained a populist announcement and never became a policy. The relationship between adivasis and forests is in reality being disrupted totally because of migration due to land alienation… Adivasis are being removed from their forests. If they gather wood for their own needs they are punished. But what when sarkar lines up trucks to get wood from these very forests? We basically work on these issues but we are not very successful as the problem takes on new dimensions with each passing day. In adivasi areas every household faces this problem. Forests are disappearing in the name of afforestation; they have no land. Sarkar is destroying forests and then it wants to generate more forests. They dig trenches and take over the land. Which is also a reason why people are losing land and are migrating. In Itarsi and Gwalior even mazdoori is not available, people are forced to leave. Women, adivasis, the poor and other vulnerable communities are being affected badly. Their situation is almost like that of bonded labourers. Women are raped. There are many families in Bilaspur, Raipur and Pithorabad that have not been able to return, about whom there is no information. The main reason is that they once owned land and today have been deprived of it. Landlessness is increasing. Adivasis are mostly dependent on land, they know all about working on land. Thus, they are not able to accept other work so easily, they lack other skills. Sanctuaries and national parks are also causes of displacement. We work in Mandla district in M.P where the Kanha national park is situated. People have been evacuated and if they are caught hunting, they are given harsh punishments. But sarkar does not think of compensation when a tiger kills the cattle of the adivasis. In the Bandhwagarh National Park in Shahdol district the same situation prevails. The animals and the officials together have terrorised people there. The sarkar has no answers to these questions. All they say is, if you have problems here you can leave. There is nothing for the people but the police and lathees. 53 villages are to be displaced by the Sanjay National Park, some are in Sarguja, some in Sidhi. Adivasis cannot walk around with the kulhad (axe), which is part of their culture, neither can they go with dogs, cattle cannot be sent for grazing in the Kanha National Park. They cannot smoke bidis. They are not allowed to collect minor forest produce, their only source of livelihood. Not that they are allowed to earn much-baniyas catch them even before they can reach the market, they snatch their tokris (baskets) from them. In Bastar, Raigarh and Shahdol too, the story remains the same. They do not have control even over their own property. These are the kinds of prohibitions that are being imposed on people wherever national parks and sanctuaries have been set up. People are affected by big projects and polices. But thousands of others are being affected every day. In the name of afforestation, reserve forests and sanctuaries large numbers of people are being made to wash their hands off their land. The effects of big projects are visible. But the everyday experience of oppression has, deprived people even of their langotis (waist cloth) …