Back to Grassroot is the way forward
After many years
of work at various levels Ekta Parishad has taken a turn towards grassroot. For
the last two decades Ekta Parishad was concentrating more on policy change.
Though the activities were at the grassroot level with the marginalized
communities the focus was on policy and policy change. The long march in 2000,
Janadesh in 2007, Jan satyagraha in 2012, Jan Andolan 2018 were all directed to
the Govt. and pressure on the Govt. to think about larger policy framework that
can positively impact the life of people at grassroot. The new position taken by Ekta Parishad are
divided into four area, they are; grassroot leadership, grassroot politics,
grassroot economy and grassroot funding.
Refocusing the
approach at this point of time is very important as the overall political
situation is changing drastically. Ekta Parishad has always taken a lead role
in setting trend. About 20 years back Ekta Parishad took a lead role in
promoting the idea of nonviolent social movement, but in today’s India Ekta
Parishad has the responsibility to help organizations to understand that in the
changing political climate what is important is not to waste time at the top
but to get down to the level of people and find your strength at that level,and
continue to create positive impact in the life of marginalized
communities.
Grassroot leadership
There are
thousands of young people who are thrown in to the cities as migrant labours.
They need to be trained and organized to work towards their own economic
standing. After Covid lockdown this has become clear to many that their
salvation is not in cities and slums. There are many young people who are being
used by political parties and other forces to achieve their interest. It is the
time for Ekta Parishad to refocus on grassroot leadership, so that this energy
can be redirected into grassroot economy and grassroot politics. This is the
energy that is available in today’s India if we want to seriously address the
deep crisis in-front of us.
Grassroot Politics
Ekta Parishad is known
for building nonviolent social movement with a special focus on marginalized
people at the bottom. By and large Ekta Parishad has kept itself away from
participating in direct electoral politics.
In the last national
committee meeting of Ekta Parishad, it was decided to make a planned
intervention at the grassroot electoral politics. Except in one or two states
in India where the grassroot politics is also on party lines, in all other
states the Panchayat elections are conducted on a nonparty basis. In a
three-tier system of governance, panchayat is the only place where elections
are held without direct party involvement. Unless this level of politics is
strengthened and also purified Ekta Parishad may find it difficult to deliver
justice to the marginalized communities. Unfortunately, the corrupt system at
the top has infiltrated deep into the bottom. Elected representatives at the
bottom are also being used by powerful lobbies to advance their agenda. Along
with decentralization of political power corruption is also being decentralized
and this problem is eating into the roots of democracy.
Ekta Parishad has
decided to actively intervene at this level. This will mean identification of
the right kind of candidate at the ward and panchayat level, providing them
information and training to understand their role as elected representative. It
will also mean continued support after the election to take their
responsibility seriously and to focus on delivery of justice to the poor and
marginalized. We believe that many young people who were part of Ekta
Parishad struggle for the last many years can be good candidates for panchayat
election. We also believe that large number of elected representatives at the
grassroot level can bring about a transformation in the political culture
of India. Ekta Parishad has decided to set up a special wing to promote this
process and also to set up necessary system for training, follow up, etc.
Experts who have worked on this agenda for many years like Mr. Pran in Uttar
Pradesh, PRIA in Delhi can be drawn into this process, as they have already
developed training modules and other systems to deal with grassroot politics.
Grassroot Economy
The resources
available in the rural areas are being exploited by powerful forces. The land,
the water, the forest, the minerals, everything is going in to the hands of
powerful people, while the poor people are migrating to cities and slums. The
very people who create cities and wealth are thrown to poverty and misery. Even an ordinary person can understand that
there is something seriously wrong in the way the economy is being organized.
This is the time for Ekta Parishad to invite well meaning economist from all
over the world to rural India and create and demonstrate a different scale of
economy that can turn the table. The best economic mind in the world will have
to come together to create a model that can be called “nonviolent economy”.
This is a challenge that Ekta Parishad
is wanting to take up in the coming days.
Grassroot Funding
Historically
social workers and social organizations were depended on local communities for
their up-keeping. In course of time some relations were build across the globe
and financial resources started coming from outside as well. Ekta Parishad is
lucky to have many partners across the globe and they were supporting the work
with full confidence. We are thankful to them for their trust in us. The fact
is that the Govt. in different countries are now trying to restrict the space
for collaboration between likeminded organizations globally. As a result in the coming years this many not
be possible to enjoy the same level of support from our global partners. A
people based organization like Ekta Parishad has the responsibility to put in
place a new system that will continue to give them the freedom and space to
work with the marginalized communities to advance the agenda of justice and
peace. This will be possible only by
working on the agenda of grassroot funding. While we may continue to accept all
possible support from our global partners we want to create possibilities to
raise resources locally at the grassroot level. This can be through membership,
or through donations, this can also be by initiating economic programs that can
generate extra money. This can also be people’s contribution in terms of
materials. Every possible avenue should be explored so that lack of resources should
not become a reason to scale down the work of the organization. We feel that we
need to take a lead in a direction that will help many others to draw
inspiration and lessons from .
Rajagopal.P.V
18th February 2021
CESCI Madurai
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