Tens of thousands of India's poorest people are on a nearly monthlong march through the country's north, waving green and white flags and chanting slogans to demand that the government provide land to India's homeless and landless.
“I think enough land can be found for those who don't have a house to live in or any shelter,†said P.V. Rajagopal, who heads Ekta Parishad, the nonprofit behind this month's mass protest, which is now making its way through Madhya Pradesh. “It is a question of political will.â€
Millions of Indians live on sidewalks and railway platforms, and in illegal slums and shanties. According to the United Nations, 17 percent of the world's slum dwellers, or 170 million Indians, live in slums. This section of India's poor, activists say, lives in inhumane conditions, and is often under the threat of displacement, harassment and arrest.
The protest entourag e, which includes some 40,000 tribal, dalits, nomads and other landless people, began the padyatra, or march, on foot in Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday, and will pass through Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, covering 350 kilometers (220 miles), before reaching Delhi on Oct. 28. The numbers are expected to swell to 100,000.
Over the last decade, India has substantially expanded its net of welfare policies, aimed at lifting its millions from poverty. A right-to-food bill, which guarantees subsidized food grains to the country's poor, is in the works, and a right-to-work program, called the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, ensures 100 days of employment to the rural poor.
“It is time for the right to shelter,†Mr. Rajagopal said in a phone interview after the first day of the march, during which the group covered 22 kilometers.
India already has a rural housing program, called the Indira Awaas Yojana, which gives cash to those below the poverty line to build a house. But, activists say, the program is too narrow to help a large number of people and doesn't solve the fundamental problem of landlessness.
For several years, Ekta Parishad has asked the government to give land to the poor to build a hut or house, “or at least pitch a tent,†said Mr. Rajagopal. Another solution Ekta Parishad advocates is giving slums and other spaces already occupied by the poor to the residents, so that the fear of demolition is removed.
In 2007, a similar protest march led to the formation of the National Council on Land Reforms, under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, which was supposed to draw a roadmap for policy reform. The body's recommendations, which were released in 2010, have largely been ignored, activists say.
The issue has again gained momentum in the last few months, and Mr. Rajagopal said talks with India's rural development minister, Jairam Ramesh, seemed close to a bre akthrough. But they fell apart at the last minute, Mr. Rajagopal said, accusing the government of succumbing to pressure from the corporate sector and dragging its feet on land reforms.
Minister Ramesh, who has said that the issue of land falls within the purview of state governments, has called for another round of talks on Oct. 11. In a letter to Mr. Rajagopal, Mr. Ramesh said “There is a very substantial degree of consensus on what must get done.â€
Mr. Rajagopal, however, said it was time to take the battle to the streets. “The state will never act unless people come out openly and do something,†he added.
When the talks collapsed, Ekta Parishad began its march, which is designed to allow everyone to participate, Mr. Rajagopal said, including the young, old, rural, urban, educated and uneducated. The group plans to walk some 15 kilometers each day, singing songs and chanting. They sleep on the streets and eat only one meal a day. “It uses the st rengths of the poor,†Mr. Rajagopal said.
The process of drumming up support for these protests began several years ago. Mr. Rajagopal said he and his team traveled widely throughout the country, organizing workshops to “give people faith that change can happen†and building a base of volunteers and workers.
Indeed, this caravan protest has been a large logistical endeavor. In the last four years, Ekta Parishad's 350 workers have trained some 12,500 people to organize and lead groups of marchers that make up the campaign. The protesters are divided into camps of 500, each headed by a trained volunteer, who is responsible for the group's discipline, cooking and feeding, and cultural activities.
The padyatra form of protest can be traced to India's freedom struggle, when Mohandas K. Gandhi led a march to coastal Gujarat, popularly known as the Dandi march, to protest the British government's monopoly on the salt trade.
In recent years, mass antigo vernment protests have erupted across the country. Anna Hazare mobilized thousands of Indians last year to join his crusade against corruption. In Karnataka, a group of farmers is protesting against the sharing of water with a neighboring state, and agitation over the building of a nuclear plant in Kundankulam in Tamil Nadu continues.
Ekta Parishad is hoping its protest will result in some concrete measures. When the marchers reach Delhi, Mr. Rajagopal said, the government “can put us in jail or come out with a policy.â€
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