Ekta Parishad

Ekta Parishad (which means forum of the unit) is a popular movement in India which acts according to the Gandhien principle of non-violent action , with for goal to help the people with better controlling the resources which enable him to remain: ground, water and the forest.

It acts at the same time of a movement of mass and an abstract federation of 35 organizations functioning with a system of coordination between the persons employed and the members/voluntary at various levels and through all the country.

Since the Seventies, this movement helped of many marginalized communities (Intouchables, Tribaux, Paysans without ground) to organize and carry out class action suits to require of the Indian government the application of the laws aiming to the equitable redistribution of the grounds and the natural resources. Ekta Parishad appuye also its communities so that they manage in an autonomous and durable way their economic and natural resources so that they find all their dignity.

History of Ekta Parishad

Ekta Parishad is resulting from the practice of Gandhienne philosophy of Sarvodaya (search for the shape of company aiming to the wellbeing of all), which joins together Satyagraha (the research of the truth and the fight against the injustice) and civil Désobéissance . The entity “Ekta Parishad” was born in 1989, but the organizations which compose it work with the Indian rural communities since the Seventies. The emergence of Ekta Parishad is the reflection at the same time despair of the communities marginalized vis-a-vis the treatment of the State post-independence, but also of their hope, and the awakening that only an organized fight will make it possible to obtain justice. Based on the aspirations of “excluded” from the company and the life even, Ekta Parishad should not be confused with an ONG. It is about a movement for social justice.

Objectives

Ekta Parishad wishes a company right offering dignity and respect to all, whatever the Caste, the religion, the sex and the birthplace. Ekta Parishad wishes to promote laws which take into account poorest before supporting richest. This includes in particular:

distribution of grounds with without grounds (Land reform);
the compensation and rehabilitation of the displaced persons during the acquisition of grounds by the State (for “Public interest”);
of the investigations and procedures for the distribution of the documents of title;
the resolution of conflicts;
the protection of the rights of the peasants and the CPR (Community properties);
the promotion of the Organic farming;
the inclusion of the tribal laws in the legislation on the protected areas…

Mode of action

It is in goal of a social, economic change and policy that Ekta Parishad was implied in several engagements:

a campaign for the Rights to the Earth.
Tribal lifestyle and crop protection, threatened by the current development model.
the installation of laws and political principles in favor of the poor, in particular the land reform.
the promotion of a development based on the human ones, which reinforces in particular the voice of the women and the most disinherited.

To be opposed to those which misuse the capacity and to fight against an unjust current system, Ekta Parishad uses various methods of nonviolent fight, such as the demonstrations, the hunger strikes, the seats, of blockings of roads or other expressions of civil disobedience.

With 150.000 members, divided in 8 Federal states, Ekta Parishad works mainly with the communities Dalit (Untouchable) and tribal, concentrating on the Community control of the natural resources, carrying out a basic work on the “Rights” - at the same time constitutional and human.

Zone of action

Ekta Parishad works in 8 States of India (Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Tamilnadu and Kerala), in direct contact with 4000 villages, that is to say 5 million Indians. The members of Ekta Parishad concentrate their efforts in moved back zones where agriculture is the principal means of subsistence.

Major achievements of Ekta Parishad

The preceding campaigns carried out by Ekta Parishad to the level of the Federal states showed the limits of the localized actions. Indeed, they only make it possible to reduce the intensity of the problem temporarily, and to find solutions partial with a question which requires a radical change of the institutions.

Therefore Ekta Parishad launched in 2005 a vast campaign of non-violent action: Janadesh 2007 , which will be capable to connect the local fights, to join together many people and of organizations; and thus to give an impulse necessary for the land reforms and the Community control of the natural resources. This ultimatum addressed to the government orders to him to solve the land problems or to face non-violent direct actions.

The culminating point of the countryside is a walk which gathers 25.000 people during 26 days (from October 2nd, 2007 to October 28th, 2007) in the North of India, between Gwalior (State of the Madhya Pradesh) and Delhi (the capital). On arrival in Delhi, many Indian activists as 100.000 participants will await the walkers for a peaceful demonstration. This walk is of a scale without precedent: it is the greatest movement of plea for the rights of Without ground since the combat of Gandhi and the independence of India.

This walk is also result the thirty years of combat and the convergence of multiple actions for the defense of the rights to the ground:

the installation of a Committee for a National Land Campaign in order to build a domestic network and international around the land rights
the installation of a platform: Land First International (LFI), which makes lobbying in the various developing countries for the defense of the rights to the ground. This platform was launched at the time of the Indian Social forum of 2004.
In December 2005, a delegation met Indian the Prime Minister and the president of the Committee of supply to present a " New vision of the reform agraire". Ekta Parishad proposed the need to create a National Land Authority to ensure a good performance of the official land authorities. The movement also presented the need for launching fast courts to solve els land conflicts urgently.

In number, the principal successes of Ekta Parishad are:

the acquisition of 347.000 grounds for the peasants without ground of Madhya Pradesh and of 3000 for those of Chhattisgrah
the taking into account of 580.000 crimes committed against of the tribes living in the forests
the launching of a force of action in 4 states: Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Bihar
presentation of petitions to Short Supreme, concerning 4,75 and 2 million acre million people.

Bonds

http://www.ektaparishad.org: The site of Ekta Parishad
http://www.janadesh.net: The site of English Janadesh
http://www.french.janadesh.net: The same French site

References

R.S. Deshpande , Emerging Exits in Land Policy , Asian Development Bank Policy Brief, 2007

H. Drakakis , The Truth Forces: The Land Rights Movement in India , 2003

Dufumier Marc , Agricultures and farming communities of the third worlds , 09/2004

T. Hanstad , J. Brown , R. Prosterman , Larger Homestead Studs ace Reform Land? , Economic and Political Weekly, July 20,2002

Hernando de Soto , The Mystery off Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else , 2000

R.S. Srivatava , Reforms Land, Employment and Poverty in India , 2006

K. Sundaram , Suresh Tendulkar , Social Poverty among and Economic Groups in India in 1990s , Economic and Political Weekly, December 13,2003

Towards has Peoples Land Policy , PACS Discussion Paper, 2007

World Bank, India: Achievements and Challenges in Reducing Poverty , World Bank Country Study, 1997

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