Biju monthly report for the month of August 2010

Report for the month of August 2010- By K. Biju

1. In general the month August was quite good in the sense of understanding the works done during the last few months. I didn’t made nay out station travel during August, but there is one important Dhal Nayak meeting held at CESCI from 17th to 18th August 2010 with Rajaji and Ransingh ji. Leaders from Kerala and Tamilnadu participated in this important meeting. Dr. Ransingh ji and Shri.Rajaji was the chief trainers in this program. There will be a detailed report will come very soon.

2. On the 7th August I got opportunity to participate a lecture at Gandhi museum Madurai on the topic of growing violence and the importance of Gandhism in the present situation? Shri. Mariyapan ji and and Mr. Madu raj from the MKU spoke.

3. On the 31st August Kerala EP team called a one day meeting at KGNS office at Calicut with an agenda of creating an ekta Parishad state council. Seven persons who have given responsibility only turned in this meeting instead of various district committee members. (Santhosh, Sreeja, Vasudevan, Shaji, Ramesh Methala, Krishnakumar, Biju, Sathees, Shamsudhin). Each one who was responsible for different districts made brief presentation about their district committee coordination meeting and conventions?

• i. Krishnakumar was responsible for Palakkad and Pathanam thitta. He only had palakkad district committee meeting. Nothing happened in Pathanamthitta.
• ii. Ramesh was responsible for Thrissur and Ernakulam. He had meeting only in Thrissur.
• iii. Vasudevan had meeting and convention in Waynad nothing I Idukki. District.
• iv. Sreeja had meeting in Trivandrum and Calicut.
• v. Shamsudhin had meeting in Malappuram and not in Allepy
• vi. Satheesan had meeting in Kannur not in Kollam

• Santhosh concluded this sharing session by explaining his experience in different districts and said that it is important to have coordination office in Trivandrun with a strong advocacy team, to have a training team, to have senior gandhians team as well wishers and some capacity in publication. Based on his explanation the other members reacted. Krishnakumar said there is no need to have a separate office at this moment as we are not operating in such a level and have agreed the other things. Similarly others also supported his ideas.

• Santhosh informed that he is ready to change his position as a coordinator of Ekta Parishad Kerala and want give the responsibility to others. Based on this discussion it was decided to inform this development to the National Committee and they will take a final decision in this regard and will engage some one as a coordinator. In the same time we have decided to divide Kerala as three regions and give the responsibility to three persons to coordinate the work (North Kerala, Central Kerala and South Kerala) Vasudevan will take charge in the Northern Kerala districts (Kasargod, Kannur, Waynad, Calicut, and Malappuram). Ramesh Methala will take responsibility in the districts of Thrissur, Palakkad, Aluva, Ernakulam and Idukky. Sreeja will take responsibility in Kottayam, Alapuzha, Kollam, Pathanamthitta and Trivandrum.

• Satheesan, Shamsu, Vasudevan and Ramesh who came to Madurai to participate Dhalnayak meeting made a presentation about Madurai meeting.

• Shaji from Waynad said it is hard to spare lots of time to the social work, if people don’t understand the importance of the meetings and decisions.

• The three member team will Meet Mr. Suresh the secretary of KGNS and will discuss the programs in Kerala and continue the mobilization activities.

• Sreeja will focus on MM activities and will make to participate 500 people form the MM activity areas from Kerala to join JS 2012. In the next TOT program for Kerala MM will send 10 leaders to get training.


4. Joined with Mr. D.K Jha the internal auditor of EP who visited CESCI for four days from the 11th to 14th to understand and the accounts and make review of the accounts.

5. Arranged a week long training program on Bee keeping for the village program in support with KVIC Madurai division. There are 46 people from the nearby villages participated in this program.

6. KGNS office team Mr. Suresh and Mr. Udhayan went to Kollam to wind up the project activities in the Kollam area based on the decision from the KGNS committee.

Biju monthly report for the Month of June 2010

1. I had a meeting with Raja of theni on the 3^rd June at CESCI in-order to discuss about their meeting held at CESCI on the 22^nd May with the Tamilnadu Adivasi Land Rights Forum. He has brought the minutes of the meeting and a working plan copy that they have collectively prepared in support to Janadesh 2012 in a direction to work among the adivasis on FRA. Based on the discussion we agreed to send the same to Rajaji by email for his support to implement the activities in Tamilnadu.

2. Accompanied the research visit of Christop and Paulo from Chennai to Cochin during 15^th June to 23^rd June. The team had meetinngs with Smt. Krishnammal of LAFTI, Mr. Vinod of Aadi tamil Vidudalai Iyyakkam, visited Kallakurichi to meet released binded labours stone quarry activities, visited Konalai, Trichy to see another released bonded labour community village, had meeting with Mr. Basha and Mr. Sayed of SOCCO trust, Visited Mr. Raja of ARUDECS to see some of their adivasi working areas and finally visited Kollam, Kerala to see the black sand mining area.

3. Participated the inaugural function of Chatrapati tailoring centre. This centre is new initiative of CESCI village program to support women’s economic empowerment activities. There are 15 girls are getting training in tailoring here and other three women’s from a MHG has started a tailoring job unit to work for a garment company. Ms. Uma and Ms. Lalitha are coordinating this process.

4. As part of the CESCI village program the MHGs has decided to create a federation to strengthen their activities and have organised a one day orientation meeting at CESCI on federation building. There are 30 women leaders from 15 MHS’s participated in this meeting. Finally the team has decided to create a new Federation in the name of Ekta Sangamam and have another meeting some experts to make its guidelines. Ms. Lalitha will follow up this process in consultation with CCD Madurai and will invite Mr. Olaganathan from CCD to the next meeting.

5. The honey project in the Vemparali villages is picking up. The group has started to collect the honey from their bee colonies. We are thankful to KVIC and its Director Mr. Wakode for providing this opportunity to empower the rural community.

6. CESCI organics oil production unit is started to function now under Mr. Natarajan, the new manager. The unit has purchased about 100 bags of raw ground nut during this season and will start to produce oil from it. The unit is also working as a service centre for framers and villagers to make oil for their house hold needs. To sustain the centre the team is trying to expand the work by making oils from non-edible products like neem and some other seeds by using the second grinding machine. The neem oil and cake has high demand in the market and it will create more income to the centre and it will help to become self reliant the centre.

Biju monthly report for the month of July 2010

Report for the month of July 2010- by Biju . K

1. On the 1^st of July we had a meeting at KGNS office with Jill Behan, Ms. Sreeja, Mr. Suresh Babu and Mr. Udhyan about the work plan of EP Kerala. Sreeja was briefing her experience she had with the anti alcohol campaign. Later the group had decided to set up an eleven member EP coordination committee under the coordination of KGNS office. The group was also discussed the financial support from VOLENS Belgium and have reworked the budget in to the level of 6 lakhs and asked Mr. Suresh babu to rework the same and get approval from the KGNS committee. It was also decided to call an EP Kerala district members meeting on the 11^th of July at KGNS office.

2. On the 11^th July the EP Kerala Coordination committee had a meeting at KGNS office and have decided following.

a. About the question of having a clear Ekta Parishad structure in Kerala all of the participants have agreed to create a state council through a proper process. Without having a proper structure it is very difficult to coordinate the programs and campaigns.

b. Decided to select a seven member team as a temporary committee to set up and organize district committee and meetings. Each member is responsible for two districts and will organize committee meetings before August 15^th. After completion of these district committees there will be a get together of all district leaders and the EP state council will be created. Mr. Santhosh Malampuzha will coordinate this process.

c. It was decided to cooperate with different social groups from the state who are working on various social issues with the same goal. As Janasatyagraha 2012 require support from about 2000 organizations, it is important to get their support.

d. The committee will maintain a proper minutes book system and will translate the bylaws and other important documents in to Malayalam language.

3. On the 15^th July went to IITPD Pondychery to talk with a small group of French students about Ekta Parishad and Janasatyagraha activities. There are two students from this group has already decided to join with EP as volunteers for three months to help the organization. These two students will come to CESCI and will work some time in CESCI organics at Nagapattinam to create a business plan for CESCI organics and later they will visit different organization that work on Forest Right Act implementation and will create a report on that.

4. On the 16^th had a meeting with Mr. Palanisamy at pondychery to discuss about his interest to join with JS 2012. He has agreed to send some about 100 to 200 people from pondychery to JS 12 padayatra. I will have to work with him closely to identify the leaders because as Palanisamy is engaged in media work he doesn’t have enough time to coordinate the work of EP.

5. On the 19^th had a meeting with Raja theni and discussed about progress of the TALRM (tamilnadu adivasi land rights movement) creation process. To continue the process even without bigger funding it is important to get some small financial assistance to travel different adivasi areas.

6. On the 20^th and 22^nd I had a meeting with Mr. Nagalingam after his Bhopal conference participation. He was impressed by the visit and has more enthusiasm. He has introduced one Mr. Anadan who is the Secretary of an organization called Indian People Federation for Social Change (IPFS). Mr. Anadan has organized various nonviolent action programs in Tamilnadu against corruption and political change. He is strong believer of Ahimsa and has a capacity to mobilize people for nonviolent action programs. On the other day he introduced two other persons who work on alcohol prohibition. Mr. Bhaskaran, Sarvodhaya worker from Dindigul, Mr. Anbu a Gandhian worker from Madurai and an advocate from Dhrmapuri. I think we should call this people for a meeting with Rajaji or Ransingh ji for creating some linkage with them and EP activities.

7. On the 26^th & 27^th visited CESCI organics with the two French volunteers. Had a meeting with Natarajan the manager and with the students about their internship. The students will stay at CESCI organics for three weeks, during the time they will visit few villages and some small scale production units and will write a proposal to develop the centre in a right direction. Mr. Arul will help the volunteers to visit the villages. On the 15^th August they will come back to CESCI to meet the Secretary and will explain and also get further direction.

8. On 28^th &29^th accompanied and had discussion with a small group of Swiss friends who visited CESCI. They are very much inspired by our work and have agreed to join with CESCI Switzerland as a member. They will collect a Janadesh DVD from Kude and will show it in different forums in Switzerland were they are associated.

9. On 30^th had a short meeting with Mr. Nicco and his family who came from Switzerland to know about CESCI and its village program activities. After a discussion they joined with Lalita the village work coordinator to visit some villages nearby.

10. Apart from the above report I got involved with many things in connection with CESCI programs and campus activities. The main activities are repairing the roofs of the kitchen and meeting hall buildings. We kept aside 10 days for repairing during 5 to 15^th July and have completed the works. Campus team was very active during the repairing work process in terms of cleaning and removing the old materials. Based on the request from Kadavur village people we have given the old wooden materials to them to make use for their temple renovation work. A new parking space was created in the front part of CESCI office to avoid vehicles parking in the middle of the campus.

11. As part of the village program we have decided to organize one more bee keeping training program with the help of KVIC and have selected 30 peoples from the CESCI villages. The training will be held at CESCI during 17 to 23 august 2010.

12. Organized few meetings with Mr. David Swiss volunteer who is at CESCI right now. David is helping CESCI to develop as a model centre in terms of waste management, organic, solar power etc. David visited the Kerala to see the Ponnani land and building, and also visited Auroville pondychery to learn about various alternative systems and create linkages.

13. Organized the travel plan for Mr. Krishna the film maker in Kerala with the help of EP Kerala team

Thanks

Biju

30^th July 2010

Minutes of the meeting held on 22nd May 2010 at Pavana Centre, Manathavadi, waynad, Kerala.

Minutes of the meeting held on 22nd May 2010 at Pavana Centre, Manathavadi, waynad, Kerala.

Present

1. Shri.Rajagopal.P.V
2. Fr. Stephen
3. Mr. Raghavan
4. Ms. Saradha
5. Mr. K. Biju

The youth camp with 68 participants from the Kerala Adivasi Forum is going on at PAVANA centre under guidelines of Rajaji. There was a small evaluation also happened on the 21st Morning to asses the Wayanad padayatra organized by ekta parishad in association with other adivasi forums. It was quite encouraging for every one to understand to use padayatra as a tool to challenge the present system of the Govt.
The youth camp will continue until 24th evening. Fr. Stephen will facilitate the remaining days of the camp in a direction to strengthen the Adivasi Form of Kerala.

In the mean time we had a meeting and have decided few major decisions in relation to the work of Adivasi Forum and Ekta Parishad in connection with strengthening the work among adivasis in Kerala in support to Janasatyagraha 2012.

1. Adivasi Forum will work among the adivasi communities in Kerala to empower them to get their rights and justice.

2. KAF will join with Ekta Parishad to create a linkage in a National Level and will join all the major action programs of EP at the national level.

3. In support to Jansatyagraha 2012 action on the issue of land KAF will participate from Kerala by bringing about 1000 adivasi’s and landless from Kerala.

4. Ekta Parishad will provide leadership training to 1000 cadres of KAF on Advocacy, constructive action programs, etc.

5. Ekta Parishad will provide exposure and linkage to KAF with the other states in India in-order to strengthen their struggles on land issues.

6. KAF can communicate with Mr. Biju, EP South India coordinator to continue their relation and communication development with EP at the national level.

Notes taken By: K. Biju and will forward the same to (stephen707@gmail.com, ekta.rajagopal@gmail.com) for corrections.

Minutes of the Ekta Parishad Tamilnadu Adivasi Program Planning Committee Meeting held on 22nd May 2010 at CESCI Centre

EKTA PARISHAD, TAMILNADU


Minutes of the Ekta Parishad Tamilnadu Adivasi Program Planning Committee Meeting held on 22nd May 2010 at CESCI Centre.


• Main Agenda
To develop a Adivasi land Rights Movement in Tamilnadu in support to Janasatyagraha 2012 action

The Following Persons were present

1. R. Kalimuthu, Tribal Activist, Theni
2. P. R. Raja, Member, Taminadu Ekta Parishad
3. G. Nagalingam, Tamilnadu Ekta Parishad
4. A. P. Mayandi, Social Activist, Madurai
5. V. Muniyasamy, Organic Farming Activist, Ramanathapuram
6. S. Jegadesan, Tribal Activist, Pollachi
7. R. Rajaraman, Advocate, Dalit Human Right Activist, Nagai
8. S. Dhanaraj, Tribal Activist, Madurai
9. T. Marirajan, Tribal Research cum Activist, Madurai

Apology for absent:
Ms.Pappathi, Women Leader from Paliyan Tribes, Theni informed over phone to Mr. Raja her inability to participate the meeting.

1. Mr. P. Raja, member Ekta Parishad Tamilnadu, welcomed the participants and gave introductory note about the founder P.V.Rajagopalji and Ekta Parishad. In his introduction he said, Ekta Parishad is a people’s movement dedicated to non-violent principles of action. Ekta Parishad working in 11 states of India on the issue of land and livelihood rights of the marginalized communities such as tribals, Dalits, nomadic communities, agricultural labourers, small and marginal farmers, etc. Ekta Parishad is a federation of approximately 11,000 community based organizations and has thousands of individual members. Today Ekta Parishad has become a national mass movement for land rights. P.V. Rajagopal Founder of Ekta Parishad, left his village in Kerala very early in his life, to do agricultural studies at Seva Gram. In the early 70s he worked in the violence-ridden area of Chambal (Madhya Pradesh) helping to rehabilitate dacoits. In the years that followed, Rajagopal traveled to several tribal areas and developed an understanding of plight and needs of India's tribal people. Their cause became part of his lifetime mission. His initial efforts to support various grassroots initiatives resulted in two organizations, PARIVARTAN ("Change") and LEHAR ("Waves"). Later these organisations became important institutes in supporting Ekta Parishad ("United Forum"). In Ekta-Parishad, Rajagopal has helped to create an important social mass movement for the past twenty years in Madhya Pradesh and other central India states. The movement consists of over 100,000 poor people, mostly made up of landless and tribal people who have been alienated from their land or marginalized by industrialization. He believes that through ahimasak sangharsh (non-violent struggle) the rural communities of India can secure Gandhi’s vision of gram swaraj. Srijan, or the creation of a self-reliant society, is possible when community ties are strengthened through mutual respect and social equity. He is a well known Sarvodaya leader and the follower of Vinoba and JP. Presently he is a member of the National Land Reforms Council of India.
2. After the introductory note, Mr.T.Marirajan explained the objective of the meeting and its process to the participants. Mr.Dhanaraj, gave presentation about adivasi situation in Tamilnadu and the importance of implementation of Forest Right Act 2006. Mr.Mayandi facilitated the discussions and plan of actions. The following decision were taken;
a. It was decided to create new forum under Ekta Parishad Tamilnadu in-order to work among only the adivasi peoples in the Tamilnadu state by empowering them and also develop a people’s movement in the state. The group has decided to name it as “Tamilandu Adivasi Land Rights Movement” (TALRM)
b. Areas of work: Mr.Dhanaraj, explained the demographic details and the eco regions of Tamilnadu in which tribal people are scattered living in the 18 eco regions. The names of the Eco Region are as follows Eco regions in Western Ghats: 1. Pachiparai 2. Manimutharu, Kalakkadu, Mundanthurai 3. Sathurakiri, Sirumalai 4. Kuthiraimalai 5. Varusanadu 6. Bodi – Agamalai 7. Uppar and Lower Palani Hills 8. Valparai, Top Slip 9. Thirumoorthimalai, Amaravathi, Thalinchi 10. Sathiyamangalam 11. Thalavadi, Yanaikatti 12. Ooty, Kothakiri, Gudaloor, Eco Regions in Eastern ghats: 13. Kollimalai 14. Kalrayan hills 15. Pachamalai 16. Javathu Hills 17. Erkadu 18. Ellakiri hills. Based on this presentation the team had brief discussion and decided to concentrate community based eco region approach for future work plan to build work among adivasis in Tamilnadu.
c. Selection of separate Adivasi Program team for Ekta Parishad Tamilnadu: Mr. Nagalingam raised question about the structure of tribal team among existing Ekta Parisad, Tamilnadu setup. He also suggested that to form a separate Adivasi Program team from the participants who took part in this meeting today. The suggestion was well received by the participants. The following persons were elected as members, namely P.R.Raja, G.Nagalingam, S.Dhanaraj, S.Jegadesan, T.Marirajan and Pappathi (Women Leader from Paliyan Tribes). Mr.P.R.Raja elected as convener of the Committee. The committee authorized Mr. Raja to report to this development to State committee of Ekta Parishad Tamilnadu for their approval and to get their concern officially.
d. Preparation of Work Plan for 2010 – 2011 for Tamilandu Adivasi Land Rights Movement” (TALRM): Based in the discussion the team requested Mr. Marirajan to develop the work plan and circulated to the member for correction and further improvement before submission to Ekta Parishad
The meeting came to an end with vote of thanks by Mr.Jegadesan.

A letter to Kerala Ekta Parishad

10th June 2010, Madurai

Dear Friends
Jai Jagt and greetings from Madurai

Hope all you know that I was given the responsibility to work as a South Indian coordinator for Ekta Parishad in-order to support Janastygraha 2012 action and its preparations. I am sure all of you are very active in your districts and regions on various programs and issues in the name of Ekta Parishad or Ekta Mahila Manch or Ekta Kala Manch or Ekta Yuva Manch. It is interesting to see all these developments in the name of Ekta Parishad and your participation and responsibility in the social issues and development activities. Through its various programs and interventions EP Kerala has created a better name in the state as a responsible organization. After the cycle yatra the direction went in to the tsunami rehabilitation project activities and same time it has created some linkages with different organizations in the state and also started directly to work among the youth, women, adivasis.

Based on this analysis we can understand that there is a great possibility in Kerala for Ekta Parishad to become a responsible social movement with its nonviolent philosophy. It will only happen if we all become serious and responsible towards the cause of EP. We need to look back and understand our strengths and weakness. A kind of SWOT analysis is needed to continue our work and we really need to go forward. I think we should come together for a day to discuss about the possibilities and to create an action plan for EP activities in Kerala at least looking Janasatygraha 2012 action as point to focus. For that a one day get together is important with all our district committee members with following agenda.

1. Review of our last seven years activities
2. Plan of Action of EP Kerala
3. Selection of a state committee
4. Other matters

Please understand clearly that Ekta Parishad as a social movement, not as a project or funding agency. In Kerala we have done substantial constructive work along with political intervention, because it was a need at that time and there was a possibility to do so. Understanding EP as social movement we can do much more to make the state responsible and change their policies to the empowerment of the poor and downtrodden.
There should be a proper membership drive in the state to understand our cadres and to should have a system. To learn EP much better please read carefully the attached document. (We may have to translate important information’s in to Malayalam or we may have to collect all the Malayalam materials that people already have created).

Please do reply your valuable suggestions, and based on that we can find a date to sit with Rajai during the month of July 2010 for a creative beginning. Also please send some activity news from your areas to include in our Ekta Parishad South Indian News Letter. You can find information’s in our Blog http://ektaparishadsouthindia.blogspot.com and you can also join in our Facebook http://www.facebook.com/search ekta parishad south india.
With thanks
Jai Jagat

K. Biju
Coordinator- Ekta Parisahd South India

Ekta Parishad - few words

Ekta Parishad

Ekta Parishad provides a platform for the voices of the oppressed, the dispossessed and the marginalized communities of India. Part of its mission is to empower the tribal and dalit communities that suffer the most for India’s “growth.” By strengthening the leadership capacity of these communities, Ekta Parishad is also working to unite the fragmented struggle for equitable land distribution. For almost 20 years, Ekta Parishad has worked with these communities to help create the changes necessary to bring an end to land seizures, to ensure equitable land distribution, and to protect access to livelihood resources. Presently we are operated intensively with 11000 community based organizations in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Maharastra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Utter Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

Intervention

Grassroots level

· Creation of village level organization as a key proponent of Gram Sabha (which can play a role of leader and/or opposition, depends on situation and issues)

· Develop leadership within the marginalized community for initiating grassroots movement

· Generating local resource base for sustenance of campaign (Grain Bank and Village Collectives etc)

· Capacitated local leaders/ community on their due constitutional rights.

· Intensive awareness campaign through foot march and demonstrations.

· Organizing public hearing, social auditing on local land & livelihood issues and submission of resolutions at appropriate level.

· Building level of community participation in local institutions (Gram sabha, Block panchtyat, Jila panchyat etc).

· Developing critical opposition within/beyond established institutions like Traditional Tribal Panchyats, Tribal Advisory Council etc.

· Increasing levels of people’s politics with participation in electoral processes (people’s manifesto, people’s candidate etc).

· Promote and sustained village collectives for agriculture/khadi based livelihood

State level

• Engaging State for dialogue & decisions on land & livelihood issues (Task Force, State Human Rights Commission, ST-SC Commission, Tribal Advisory Council etc).
• Policy advocacy for pro-poor land reforms and its ensured implementation through ‘State Land Reforms Commission’.
• Preparing ‘People’s Policy on Land Reforms’ for generating mass awareness and using as a advocacy tool.
• Organizing ‘Assembly of Deprived’ a parallel forum for putting people’s perspectives on political and/or priority issues.
• Raising questions in ‘State Assembly’ through sensible elected representatives.
• Legal interventions in courts (lower and high court) on problems of poor.
• Engaging media on pro-poor issues

National level

• Policy advocacy and lobbying at ministerial level for putting agenda of pro-poor land reforms.
• Discussion with planning commission and other institutions on ‘People’s Policy on Land’.
• Discussion forum with parliamentarians on land reforms.
• Preparation and presentation of draft ‘People’s Policy on Land Reforms’.
• National campaigning / demonstration with like minded organizations.
• Engaging media on pro-poor issues

Future focus

• Engaging Central and State government on issues of land reforms through ‘National Land Reforms Policy’ presented by National Land Reforms Committee to the Prime Minister
• Engaging State for implementation of PESA (1996), Rehabilitation & Resettlement Act (2007) and Forest Rights Act (2006).
• Organizing grassroots leadership training and extending area of operations.
• Building capacities of local elected representatives .
• Advocacy for pro-poor land reforms actions (homestead land for each homeless family, minimum land holding act for each landless family, joint land rights and ownership for women, dalit land alienation act, legalizing leasing of land for women collectives, ban on diversion of common property land and ban on diversion of agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes etc).
• Set up of ‘Peoples Commission on Land Rights’ as a critical advocacy forum on land rights at different levels.
• Building action alliance with land rights movements.
• Organizing national level demonstration on agenda issues