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By Huned Contractor In a quiet corner of Kandivali in Mumbai, there are no unending protest marches to shout down globalisation, no songs to signify solidarity, and none of the academic discussion that characterises the World Social Forum (WSF) being held at the NESCO grounds in Goregaon. That's surprising because the coming together of more than 2,000 landless farmers and activists demanding justice and equality for those whose lands have either been usurped by powerful landowners and moneylenders or government agencies that have dragged their feet on the transfer of rights, is an intrinsic part of the forum. "We could not create our own platform at the WSF venue because of lack of space, but we are sure that our voice will be heard. Our's is a long struggle that may benefit only the next generation," says Ekanth Avhad, convenor of the Jameen Adhikar Aandolan (JAA), a Maharasthra-based movement that has collaborated with Madhya Pradesh's Ekta Parishad to create a united front for marginalised farmers under the banner 'Land First Mela'. "In a country where millions of skilled agricultural food producers remain landless, why should land belong to those who don't directly work on it," asks P V Rajgopal, convenor of Ekta Parishad. It is to seek an answer to this question that both the NGOs are mounting campaigns and generating mass mobilisation to push state governments to implement pro-poor legislation, like the redistribution of land. Since access to land and other natural livelihood resources is a critical issue for the rural poor, land ownership, as Rajgopal explains, is equated with social and economic security. "The pattern of land distribution therefore follows, to some extent, the social hierarchy. The large landowners often belong to the upper castes, the cultivators belong to the middle class and the agricultural workers are the dalits and tribals," he says. According to the 1991 census, 64% of dalits and 36% of tribals are agricultural labourers who own no land and have to work as unregistered sharecroppers and unrecognised temporary tenants. With no security of any sort, the women of this class have no decision-making powers related to purchasing, mortgaging, selling or managing land resources. "Globalisation and the establishment of industries and government-promoted agro-industries have only increased the problem of landlessness. This is what has created the exodus of rural population, thereby putting more pressure on the infrastructural capacities of the metro cities," says Avhad. It is in this context that development planners have all along been arguing that massive land reform is one of the key requisites to raising the income and living standards of the poor. It confers ownership of land to the landless and provides security of land to marginal and small farmers. "This," Rajgopal emphasises "helps boost productivity and increases the status of the underprivileged." The irony is that after Indian independence, focus was directed towards land reforms to fulfil promises made during the freedom struggle, such as "land to the tiller" and "growth with equity". In reality, these slogans have remained words to millions of landless and marginal farmers. "So far, more than 270 laws have been enacted with regard to land reform but their effectiveness has been hindered by political constraints of non-implementation," says Rajgopal. Ekta Parishad has been building up a mass movement of people drawn from dalit and tribal communities to pressurise state governments into implementing various laws. The organisation was born in Madhya Pradesh out of a people's struggle movement in 1990 and has now spread to Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Kerala, Orissa, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh. It's partner in the First Land Mela, the Jameen Adhikar Aandolan, works mainly in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra where dalits account for 15.6% of the block's total population of 15.6 million. As Rajgopal puts it: "The global economy cannot work to serve the few at the expense of many. A democratic global polity means that institutional arrangements and processes must be representative and not exclusivist. As Gandhi said, the 500,000 villages should be sovereign." (InfoChange News & Features, January 2004)
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