FARR ORISSA
In our area the forests of the adivasis are being chopped down for big industries and the environment gets polluted. Adivasis do not get anything. The Balco factory destroyed all the forests there and with it all the medicines available to people. The streams will be destroyed, the hills will be destroyed and so will the people. What use do we have of the Balco factory? We do not want it. The Balliapal region where the testing range was to come up is very fertile, very productive. People face displacement if it comes up, the land will be destroyed. All big industries, all these big dams are not for the poor, it is to kill the poor. We should stand together and oppose them all…Our organisation is spread over 7 districts, in 2000 villages. The problem is how to create jan sangathans (people’s organisations), how to help adivasis fight for their rights in villages. Most of the adivasis here are dependent on bamboo; they make bamboo baskets and sell it in the bazaar for their livelihood. But paper mills here cut down bamboo and they do it without any regard for regeneration. We organised women there and stopped this. Like in the Chipko movement, women embraced the bamboos.
We have also begun organising meetings with women so that adivasi women can influence the sarkar. There are many organisations in Orissa that work amongst adivasis. Whenever we can, we organise sammelans (meetings of collective) together.
We have sent a memorandum to the CM. Our demands were: the land at 30% slopes should be given to women because most of them do not have pattas and there are no sarkari records. There are reserve forests and revenue lands but very few people have land in their names. The second demand was that when land is divided it should be done in the name of men and women both. The third was that licencing of liquor shops should stop.
Adivasis should be given licences to collect minor forest produce was the next demand. Women should be given preference in schemes like the Jawahar Rojgar Yojana—a committee should be set up for this.
We had 9 such demands. Important amongst these was the demand that people’s consent should be taken before constructing/planning dams and other such projects.
A month after the presentation of the memorandum the CM called us for talks. Most of the demands were met and orders were issued. But two of them i.e. concerning liquor shops and consent of people were not agreed to.
The policy has changed, both men and women are given land. In 1994 they agreed to stop licencing liquor shops. This had a good effect. We are linked to the Chilika Bachao, Balliapal and Balco struggles. Here people fought so hard that work has stopped in all the three places. Women lay on the ground in front of trucks, determined not to let them proceed…
We did a month long padyatra (foot march) in the Dandakaranya area against 16 mega projects…