Dalit activists announce two-day sit-in
for land rights
2.5 million
landless Dalits expected to flood Jantar Mantar on Saturday
Dalit
activists on Friday announced a nationwide two-day agitation to seek greater
land rights. The National Alliance for Dalit Land Rights (NADLR), in
collaboration with NGO Ekta Parishad, is seeking to mobilise an estimated 2.5
million landless Dalits in the capital.
The government’s efforts in implementing land
reforms have been inconclusive even as the agreement reached between the Ekta
Parishad’s Jan Satyagraha and the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) has not
moved forward.
The campaign, from April 14 to December 6,
will be spread across 300 districts in 18 States.
“We will be asking landless Dalits to make
their claims for land,” said Lalit Babbar, a member of the NADLR.
“We will flood Jantar Mantar tomorrow
[Saturday] and the next day. Our demands include equitable distribution of
land, freeing of land from NRIs and corporations who do not use arable land for
agriculture,” said Vincent Manoharan, chairperson of the National Federation of
Dalit Land Rights Movements.
Intensifying their demands, the federation
has adopted a new slogan, “First Land then Vote; No Land No Vote.” The
organisations are reaching out to other political parties to mobilise support
for ensuring that land rights remains a key electoral issue with almost 10
States going for Assembly elections and the general elections in 2014.
“We want the government to take this issue up
seriously, for it will not go away. We will continue our protest by filing
claims after claims for land titles. We will mobilise 25 lakh Dalit women,”
said Mr. Jai Singh, an activist from Punjab, who has mobilised over 600 people
to come here for the two-day sit-in protest at Jantar Mantar.
National Sample Survey data suggests that the
percentage of landless and near-landless households (owning less than 0.40 hectares
of land) was 79.20 among SCs and 52.90 among the non-SC/STs in 1999-2000.
The Jan Satyagraha Yatra, a movement for land
rights, and the MoRD had signed a 10-point agreement in October 2012,
committing to bring about a National Land Reform Policy, besides enacting
legislation for assigning land for “shelter and cultivation” of the landless
poor in India.
The governments had agreed to promote
monitoring mechanisms, including fast-track courts and tribunals, to ensure
effective implementation of the same.
Source :
The Hindu dt 13.4.13
