The Jan Satyagraha 2012 March campaign is a large non-violent walk that is being carried out in India and in many other countries across the globe in October 2012. It began on the UN International Day of Non-Violence, and will continue for one month.

In India, where the main event is being held, 100,000 people representing different rural communities, especially tribal, landless and small farmers walked in formation together from Gwalior (near the Taj Mahal) heading to New Delhi.

Protesters from 26 states began the Jan Satyagraha march on October 2, led by an NGO Ekta Parishad. The march was to cover a distance of about 320 km by October 28, before culminating in New Delhi.

The people raised the issue of land being a key asset in development and poverty reduction, and that high levels of landlessness and deprivation need to be reduced so as to achieve positive national and global development. In effect, land and livelihood rights are instrumental to all people’s freedom.

Coming To an Agreement

The Indian government has managed to strike a compromise deal with the landless labourers, who have been demanding a national land reform policy. The march ended in Agra after Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh met the protesters in Gwalior along with Minister of State for Industry and Commerce Jyotiraditya Scindia and signed an agreement with the satyagrahis.

On 9 October, Mr Ramesh hinted to resolve the issue when he said that “the nation will get happy news” in Agra when the rally of landless poor reaches there. Earlier Mr Ramesh had said, “We are having a constructive view of the demands raised by Ekta Parishad and we have discussed a lot over it. I am happy that we are heading towards an agreement and the day after the nation will get happy news from the city of Taj Mahal (Agra)”.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan joined the thousands of landless protesters in Agra. He expressed his solidarity with the satyagrahis and said, “I have come to participate in your march and walk for 5 km with you”. He also assured them that their demands will be met.

The Reasons to March

The Jan Satyagraha 2012 March has been organised for several reasons. A large number of people are marginalised across the Indian sub-continent. Along with land-related grievances, there are farmer’s suicides, increasing in number every day. Successive governments are privileging industries and welfare programs (like 100 Days of Employment, MGREGA) as the solution to poverty, and these have failed to give the basic means of survival to people. Only land and sustainable livelihood generation can result in real poverty reduction.

Leaders in India often speak about poverty eradication but do not act to solve the problems because it requires an overhaul of the systems of land distribution. The language of land reform is found in laws and policies, but the government is not willing to carry out land reform in practice. Laws that are implemented on land are not pro-poor; rather they are for people who have wealth to generate more wealth. Tribal communities, small farmers and landless people can either choose to accept this with resignation and continue to be submissive, or they challenge the Government’s priorities. The 2012 March is designed precisely to challenge a governance structure that is not working for the majority of Indians but a minority.

The march strengthens similar struggles throughout the world against land grabbing and for agrarian reform, such as the struggles: of the peasants in Bajo Aguan, Honduras, where more than 50 organised peasants and human rights defenders were killed during the last three years; of the peasants in Mali and Mozambique whose land rights are being violated due to land grabbing; of the Guarani Kaiowa indigenous peoples, in Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, who are fighting for the demarcation of their territories; of the small farmers in Mubende, Uganda, who were evicted to make way for a German company’s coffee plantation; of the peasants in Balapur, Nepal, whose livelihood is threatened and who are under threat of eviction due to the creation of a national park; of the farm workers of Hacienda Luisita in the Philippines, who are still waiting for land to be awarded to them as per Supreme Court decision; and in India as well, such as the struggle of the indigenous people in the village of Kusum Tola, Jharkhand, whose survival is threatened by open cast coal mining, destroying agricultural lands, forests and water sources.

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