India

Ekta Parishad:

Over 300 million India’s rural population is absolutely or near landless. 270 million people are homeless and have been forced to migrate to already overcrowded city slums in search for work.

Ekta Parishad, a people’s movement, champions the rights of India’s marginalized people, mostly adivasis (indigenous or tribal people) and dalits (untouchables) to ensure equitable land distribution and to protect access to natural livelihood resources.

The Parishad has a vision of an India where every Indian can benefit from equal and guaranteed access to land, forest and water; an India where the whole population – regardless of their origin or cast – can live with dignity and access to the land.

Ekta Parishad, which translates as Unity Forum, is a Gandhian social movement. It is a federation of 11,000 community based organizations, with over 1 million supporters active in eight states in India.

The Parishad’s activities are focused towards building “gram swaraj” (village self-governance) and community self reliance.

Ekta Parishad promotes non-violent social struggles for people’s rights. In 2007, it organized a month long march of 25,000 to Delhi for land rights. The march culminated in Indian government agreeing to form a land commission. To put further pressures on the government, it is planning to organize similar march with 100,000 people in 2012.

Ekta Parishad consists of 3 main wings:

• Ekta Mahila Manch: the women’s wing was formed in an effort to increase the number of women participating in the decision making process from the village activist level to the leadership levels of Ekta Parishad. Women divide themselves into mobilization teams responsible for local leadership development, advocacy teams to pressure the government, the media and the public to take up the struggle for land, and economic programming teams to provide knowledge and training at the village levels.

• Ekta Kala Manch : the cultural wing’s goal is to raise rural people’s awareness and to highlight issues related to forest, land and water by cultural demonstrations. Drama, songs, films, comedy shows and poems are tools used to communicate Ekta Parishad’s message in a more intimate manner.

• Ekta Arthik Manch : known as the economic wing. Economic and development activities for villages and local communities are run along with the rights struggle. Land and forest based products such as organic farming, honey production, baiga cloth weaving and bamboo handicrafts are supported by Ekta Parishad. Thanks to these programmes, more than 10′000 villagers receive a stable and regular income.