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Bijoy |
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Now Nikunj is not active in the sangathan daily activities and has shifted to Orissa. Bijoy divides his time between Burhanpur and other national issues especially the forest issue. The new leadership is yet to take the initiatives and lead the organisation. This new leadership is learning to incorporate the previous experiences and external realities in its strategies and actions
Adivasi Mukti Sangathan
The organisation is working in villages spread over Khargone and Badwani districts. The area is severely degraded, with a high incidence of landlessness and land alienation. Nikunja and Bijoy spent the first few months moving among the adivasis, encouraging them to reflect on the causes of their present condition. This process culminated in the formation of Adivasi Mukti Sangathan, a struggle-based group of tribals that is working in over 500 villages in the area. The sangathan is led by a locally elected committee, and sustains itself, among others, with the help monthly membership fees and contributions of grain.
Adivasi Mukti Sangathan’s (AMS) work in the region (since 1992) has been a path breaking work. AMS provided the tribals an independent political identity. Over a period of time other marginalised sections have also joined the sangathan. AMS is working in two districts viz. Badwani and Burhanpur of Western Madhya Pradesh. The region is close to Maharashtra and Gujarat. Both the states have strong cultural and economic influence on the region. District Barwani has 2 Sub Divisions - Barwani & Sendhawa, 6 Tahsils - Barwani, Sendhawa, Pansemal, Niwali, Thikari and Rajpur, 7 Developmental Blocks - Barwani, Pati, Sendhawa, Pansemal, Niwali, Thikari and Rajpur. There are 4 assembly constituencies - Anjad, Barwani, Sendhawa & Rajpur. First two are in Dhar parliamentary constituency and rest two are in Khargone parliamentary constituency. Both the districts are population-wise dominated by Adivasis. The proportion of Adivasis in Barwani’s population is over 65%.
Endevours of AMS –
Education
Health
Forest Livelihood Rights
Tribal Empowerment
Governance
AMS conducted a survey on the condition of schools in the area and found out that the schools in the area were plagued with several problems – the school buildings need repair, children do not get midday meals, teachers are usually absent or report to class inebriated, students of standard V cannot write their names etc. The language of classroom interactions is Hindi and more than 60% of the children are unable to communicate in Hindi. The sangathan decided to highlight this issue in the local press and invited TV channels to inspect the buildings and take pictures of the classrooms without teachers. As a result of this the teachers got scared of getting exposed and losing their job started coming to school regularly. AMS has also started a dialogue with the teachers on how to improve the level of education in government schools. The sangathan has also initiated following 2 activities since last 2 years:
Rani Kajal Vidhyalaya
A school viz. Rani Kajal Vidhyalaya (named after a tribal deity) is located at village Surani of District Badwani. Surani is a Panchayat village and the school was started in the month of August 2006 for children of Surani. Few children from other 5 villages, within 5 kms radius of Surani village are also enrolled in the school. The school is having present enrolment of 90 children with tribal (Barela and Bhil) background. The village is 42 kms away from Block Sendhwa. Surani is revenue village, located 6 kms away from the metal road and is having total population of 4000 individuals (approx.)
The school is an initiative of an ex-student of Adhrashila (Adharshila is one of the schools that received donation of 9 computers from Microsoft). He is the only teacher in the school. After taking his education from Adharshila he cleared class XIIth exams from Open School. During his education he was also teaching younger children at Adharshila. Rani Kajal Vidhyalaya is interested in putting 4 computers for children’s education.
Mukti - Computer Literacy Center
AMS is running one computer training center in a rented space of APMC (wholesale grains market) at Block Sendhwa of District Badwani. Sendhwa is a sub- divisional place and an economic hub of the district. There are several ginning mills, oil extraction factories in addition to the wholesale gain market at Sehdhwa. Moreover, it is also located at National Highway no. 3, connecting Agra and Mumbai. AMS has started the computers training course in considering the potential job prospects in the Block.
The idea is to equip youth from tribal and poor background with livelihood opportunities. There is a great demand for computer literate people in the available job opportunities. The present computer training centre is having only 2 computers and demand for computer literacy is high. Therefore, to cater the pressing demand and possibility of youth employment, AMS is interested in putting 6 computers at the present training center. 25-30 youth within the age group of 15-25 yrs. will be enrolled for the same.
Health is an area of concern with no proper medical services available in the area and people being swindled by private doctors holding fake degrees. A survey conducted by AMS revealed alarming figures. In Badwani district, 84% children are malnourished. 22% are vulnerable to fatal diseases. Among adults 68% adults are malnourished out of which 15 % are vulnerable to fatal diseases. They also realised that to even cure a simple fever people spend a minimum of Rs.250/-. Due to these reasons, AMS decided to intervene and launch an awareness campaign on health. This campaign is two pronged – one to ensure that government facilities should reach the people and secondly, people should have rights over land, water and forests and the related right to food. Therefore, the right to health has to be linked with other rights and taken up holistically. AMS has constituted a committee on health with prominent citizens of Sendhwa representing all section of society.
Bare Foot Doctors
Cehat, a Pune (Maharashtra) based NGO working on health related issues helped in training of volunteers from villages on basic medication. Couple of employees from Cehat worked with the volunteers for 2 years in the region and trained several bare foot doctors in the regions. This initiative has helped the villagers in cutting down their unwanted health related expenditure to the local quacks.
Madhya Pradesh has been experiencing drought like conditions for the last few years. Deforestation has led to soil erosion and the water table has gone down substantially. MP has to depend on water supply from other states to fulfill its needs. AMS has campaigned vigorously to highlight the problems faced by the people and also create awareness on this issue. As a result of this, through “food for work” program is being undertaken in Badwani district. The sangathan is carrying out water conservation in 5 villages – Chapriapani, Rajanimal, Ambavatar, Vakya, Kadaipani. In these, there would be work undertaken for loose stone check dams, stone shoulder bund, field bunds are proposed. All this would be done under the “Food for Work” program. The government has agreed to experiment with these water conservation programs due to the involvement of AMS. If these programs succeed, the government has promised to start a five year water conservation program. AMS has formed a committee called “ Nav Nirman Karya Samiti” to supervise the work smoothly.
Due to drought, there is migration of tribals to Maharastra and Gujarat in search of work where they are exposed to exploitation and abuse. The condition of women is especially bad. There have been many instances where tribal women have been raped and their families murdered. AMS is aware of at least 50 such cases so it decided to highlight these cases by taking out a rally in Niwali and gave a petition to the tehsildar and the SDM to prevent these incidents and probe into cases reported so far. One major achievement of this rally was that a list of people who are migrating every year is now being maintained and is being followed up by the Gram Panchayat. The murders of tribals were also given wide coverage by the local press.
Large-scale corruption is rampant in government run welfare programs like 'food for work', Antodaya and Annapurna programmes. In the area a large number of tribals have land of more than 2 acres and therefore not eligible for Antodaya or Annapurna schemes. Under food for work programme, several assignments were given to contractors, which is a corrupt practice in itself. Contractors are using heavy machines, which is not under the program. Labourers are being paid late payments, less amounts and sometimes they do not even pay any amount. The national level NREGA program for rural employment is another vital activity that is being taken by the sangathan for effective implementation.
Corruption in appointments of Shikshakarmi (government education workers) is rampant in the area. Aspirants are bound to pay good amount to tout for the job. It is difficult to get the job without bribing authorities. The sangathan is able to maximise livelihood opportunities for villagers by implementation of government programs by minimising the potential corruption through its strong presence in the region.
‘Chhemtya’ is a common word used against Adivasis which means ‘monkeys’ in their Bareli Language. They were forced to leave bus seats for others during their journey. In the market of Sendhwa which is one of the largest Cotton Mandis of India, tribal cotton growers were cheated by middlemen and stockists. The administration used to pick up tribals from market places or anywhere else and indulges in various brutalities like beating, raping and keeping them under illegal detentions. At the same time the tribal forest villages and hamlets were also facing brutalities from officials of forest department. The officials used to take away goats, hens and liquor from the villages as bribe for their stay and cultivation or else they destroyed houses and agricultural fields of tribal people in the name of encroachment of jungle land. Most of the time, they snatch or simply burn their ready to sell crops. The officials themselves were indulged in selling forest products and trees through contractors and forest mafias.
The snagathan mobilised all the tribal villages and hamlets against the ongoing atrocities. Their organisation had perturbed the vested lobby in the region and their strong struggle for their rights lead to repression from the state. Bhils are now able to assert their identity through the sangathan. The tribal leaders in the region are having good rapport with the local administration and other powerful communities.
Sanskritization of tribals
AMS has organised the adivasis for their self respect and empowerment during the 1st phase of its intervention. In its 2nd phase of intervention it is dealing with the much difficult issues like communalism, intra-village and family discrimination.
The process of sanskitisation and ‘Pavitrikaran’ of Adivasis is being implemented through Government schools, Sewa Bharti trust, religious sects such as Gayatri Samaj, Rathores (Baniyas) and many others. Innovative methods are being used by such trusts like one rupee sponsorship of a child's education under Vanvasi Vikas Yojana. The trust is a RSS outfit. Durga Puja and Ganpati Puja have become the most prominent religious festivals. Tribals are forgetting their own festivals like Nawai and Diwali etc. Garba mandaps are organised for all the 9 days before Dussehra. Ravan Wadh has become a big event and people from 15 to 20 kilometres come to Sendhwa for the event. Most of the Puja Pandals are organised in government schools premises.
There is a complete absence of any local tribal heroes. Tribal rebels like Tantiya Mama and Khajiya Naik are being projected as outlaws and criminals. Tribals are discarding tribal costumes and traditional practices. Tribals are passing through the phase of identity crisis. The ‘purifying’ agencies are greatly involved in convincing people to change their food habits and become vegetarians. Without any form of meat or eggs the food basket is restricted to Toor Dal and Jwar Roti, which is not at all enough for proper physical and intellectual growth of a normal person and the new wave of vegetarianism, is adding to the persistent and chronic malnutrition. A considerable amount of Adivasis have started observing Vrats (fasts) and are adding caste Hindu titles with their names.
Ladi-Bari-Tadi is a proverb in the region that all the conflicts are associated with Ladi (wife or women), Bari (land or house) or Tadi (Liquor). Now there is an addition in the list, Gari means motor cycles. The illegal trade of country-made liquor has always been a major cause for a lot of troubles in the families and the community as a whole as well. Panchayat dynamics and gender issues are being dealt by the sangathan at different levels.
The issue of forest villages was taken up actively by Adivasi Mukti Sangathan (AMS) last year. These forest villages are not legally recognized, people have no pattas and their land is treated as encroachment. There are as no government schemes operational in these villages with no schools or basic health facilities. Also they cannot take any loans from any bank or avail benefits from any government schemes. They do not have homestead pattas or farm land pattas. The tribals living in these villages are under constant exploitation by the forest department officials. The state government was trying to force the World Bank sponsored Joint Forest Management (JFM) and is trying to force villages to form Forest Protection Committees (FPC).
AMS is campaigning against the state government’s anti- people policies on the issue of recognition of forest villages as revenue villages. It has conducted meetings in village after village to spread awareness and mobilize people to pressurize the government to recognize the forest villages as revenue villages.
“Nawad” cultivation means that wherever there are no forests, the tribals use the land for cultivation. They have no patta because legally, it is forest land. After the 1980, “Forest Conservation Act”, the center has a strong law that does not recognize encroachments post-1980. These encroachments on the forests have to be removed. AMS is not only organizing the people on this issue but it is also actively taking up forest conservation and preservation.
