Year 2007- Janadesh ( Peoples Verdict)

Janadesh brought together 25,000 people representing communities from all over India in an unprecedented social action. This amazing social experiment of the poorest people walking over 340 kilometers to the capital with unparalleled determination was historic. They walked with the knowledge that they had worked for a generation in building up this movement, and it was culminating in one of the biggest non-violent actions since Independence. Its commencement was marked by the United Nations’ International Day of Non-Violence and the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi.  To witness communities united in a display of non-violent civil disobedience evoked memories of the satygrahas of Mahatma Gandhi that inspired civil rights movements throughout the world.  Support came from all over, with 250 satyagrahis from international organizations showing their solidarity with each step that they took.  More than 100 members of parliament supported Janadesh, including the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh who announced the establishment of a Land Commission and his plan to redistribute land to the landless communities in the region.  The constant media coverage brought the voice of the satyagrahis to people all over the country and social activists pledged their solidarity with the satyagrahis of Janadesh.

In the final hours of the Janadesh, the Prime Minister agreed to complete the “Unfinished Land Reform Agenda”, by having a policy formulated and setting up a high level implementation committee. The Government also provided the implementation rules for forest land distribution to tribal people and other forest dwellers.

Achievements Of Janadesh and Further Challenges

On October 29th, 2007 the Government of India announced that it would move to get people land rights within the Framework of the Unfinished Land Reform Agenda that had been started after Independence. What was achieved was that the Prime Minister had agreed to chair the newly established National Land Reforms Council that would negotiate through a Land Reforms policy framework that land would be distributed. This policy framework was to be developed by a committee of experts. While it was possible that the government would renege on their promises, there was also recognition that after years of struggle, something new had been achieved at a high level. The mechanism for achieving land reform had the participation from civil society organizations.

The people on the Janadesh march had created a workable form of political action, which was a powerful tool in their hands that could pressure government into action. It was not something that gave instantaneous results, but it showed that people had power and in a democratic state, governments always respond if people have power.  The success of this historical display of non-violent action gave Ekta Parishad a reason to celebrate, but we must remember that the struggle was not over and needed to be vigilant.

Since Janadesh 2007, there have been dozens of local padyatras that have kept the heat on the administration. Among these have been the Namuetha Urumaimannu (‘This is our own land’) yatra in Kerala 2010 and the Madhya Pradesh 2010 yatra. These social actions are preparing the ground for the and many other yatras will prepare the ground for the Jan Satyagraha March - 2012, the march of 100,000 people planned for 2012.

Year 2012- Jansatyagraha (Peoples Search for Justice)

More than a million people are suffering from hunger

In the  twentieth  century, more than  a million human beings  are suffering from hunger.  Every 4 seconds,  a human  being  dies as a result of hunger, the  majority of them,  children under  five years of age. Twenty-five percent  of the population  of the earth are consuming eighty-five percent  of its available  resources  and, in addition to that, they are consuming thirty percent more resources than the earth is capable of replenishing.

Half of the  inhabitants  of our  earth  are farmers  and of these, three  quarters  do their work solely by hand. Guaranteeing these people the conditions for sustaining their  lives  through   their  work  is one  of  the  major elements  of sustainable  development. The alternative can only be violence for millions of poor people, who are  starving,  deprived   of  resources,  displaced   and turned into cheap labour in the ghettos  of large cities.

Land, water, seeds, forests and minerals—the common goods   of  humanity—are   now  being   monopolized by  investors  with  the   consent   of  governments   or through their  incapacity.  All across  the  planet,  local self-subsistent agriculture is being displaced by mining and forest exploitation, large-scale dams, tourist zones, hyper-intensive   monocultural   farms  or  bio-fuels  for export. This exploitation of the land is growing daily.

Parallel to this there  is a influx of foodstuffs into the markets of the  south,  which are produced  in the  rich countries through  highly mechanized  means and with subsidies.  This creates  a  perverse  undercurrent   that ruins local farmers.

March for Justice, for the rights to Food, to Land, to Water, to Seeds and to Forest

The   nonviolent    march   for   justice—Jansatyagraha 2012—is   being    organized    by   the   Ekta   Parishad movement  and  will take place in India  from October 2011 to  October  2012. This  will be  a  powerful  and symbolic  event.  In  its  final  stage—during  October 2012—there   will be  over  100,000  people   gathered together, poor  people, landless  peasants, tribals and untouchables. They will march for thirty days in order to have their rights to livelihood resources and a dignified life recognized.

This march is a historic opportunity to shed light on the fundamental questions  of social justice: the sharing of wealth, access to natural resource, food sovereignty, the debts of poor countries, the place of the most deprived in  our  societies,  the  role  of women—as  well as the issues of participative democracy, the responsibilities of multinationals and the international financial system. It is opportunity to decide about a model of development which will be sustainable  and equitable. It is not a case of helping peoples in situations of misery but rather of recognizing their rights and supporting  their initiative to gain control over the resources that are indispensable to their lives.

What is the Jan Satyagraha March 2012?

The Jan Satyagraha 2012 March campaign is a large non-violent walk that will be carried out in India and in many other countries across the globe in October 2012. It begins on UN International Non-Violence Day, October 2nd, and will carry on for one month. In India, where the main event is being held, 100,000 people, representing different rural communities, especially tribal, landless and small farmers, will walk in formation together 350 kilometers from Gwalior (near the Taj Mahal) to New Delhi. The people will raise the issue about land being a key asset in development and poverty reduction, and that high levels of landlessness and deprivation need to be reduced for achieving positive national and global development. In effect, land and livelihood rights are instrumental to all people’s freedom.

The Jan Satyagraha 2012 March is based on the Gandhian Salt Satyagraha of 1930, known as the Dandi March. It is an uplifting event with a carnival atmosphere; it is the combined effort of people to stand up for basic rights and speak on the way to build more equity in the governing structure. The 2012 March is a disciplined formation of people acting out non-violence in an effort to bring a large number of people together to show the strength of rural India, the importance of agriculture, of food production –as a base for urban India, and to build a common destiny of all people.

Why is the Jan Satyagraha 2012 March organized?

The Jan Satyagraha 2012 March has been organized for several reasons. A large number of people are marginalized across the Indian sub-continent. Along with land-related grievances, there are farmer’s suicides that are increasing every day. Successive Governments are privileging industries and welfare programs (like 100 days of employment, MGREGA) as the solution to poverty, and these have failed to give the basic means of survival for people. Only land and sustainable livelihood generation can achieve real poverty reduction. Leaders in India often speak about poverty eradication but do not act to solve the problems because it requires an over-hauling of the systems of land distribution. The language of land reform is found in laws and policies, but the government is not willing to carry out land reform in practice.  Laws that are implemented on land are not pro-poor; rather they are for people who have wealth to generate more wealth. Tribal communities, small farmers and landless people can either chose to accept this with resignation and continue to be submissive, or they challenge the Government’s priorities. The 2012 March is designed to challenge a governance structure that is not working for the majority of Indians but a minority.

The 2012 March builds on its experience of the Janadesh 2007. There were a lot of demands that were received and accepted by the Government in what was seen to be the largest non-violent foot march ever organized in India (click here for more information). The Government agreed to formulate a land reform policy and then implement it under the leadership of the Prime Minister. Indeed, after the decline of the event’s media coverage in the following months, the Government’s efforts to follow thorough on their promises became more and more scanty. Rather than work on the land issue, the government has spent more effort fighting against the legitimacy of social movements. This has strengthened the resolve of Ekta Parishad to launch the 2012 March.

Present Demands

• Land reform policies of October 2009 to be implemented by Land Reforms Council
• Land reform recommendations for Bihar (D. Bandopadhyay) and Land reform recommendations in Orissa (Task Force) to be implemented
• To have guarantees that the Forests Rights Act will be implemented involving the gram sabha (local government or traditional councils) and providing their land entitlement
• All Government Acts and Policies meant to provide assets, entitlement and benefits to the rural and urban poor (including Adivasis, landless, homeless and small cultivators) are to be implemented
• Land Reform laws to be implemented in order that other acts such as Mining Act, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, and Land Acquisition Act, are not in violation with Land Reform laws

Globalize Solidarity

We invite individuals and civil society organizations to support this march in whatever way is possible. We also invite you to demand—in a determined but nonviolent way—before all international  groups  (for example, the World Trade  Organisation,  the  World Bank, the  G20, the European Union etc.,) the  rights of local peoples to have access to natural resources (land, water, seeds and forests). These rights imply the attention of existing laws and their enforcement  by systems of control and regulation. In international law, for example, the right to food sovereignty ought to be recognized as superior to the rights of commerce and investment.

On all continents it is crucial to globalize our solidarity. In 2012, we call on citizens to organize non-violent actions that are concerted  and simultaneous (marches, sit-ins, human  chains, moments of silence, concerts, etc.,) and which link to the march for justice that is happening in India. We think that  the  important  period  is between the  2nd  of  October  (the  international   day  of  non- violence) and the 17th of October (the international day of struggle against poverty).