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Dear Editor: Yesterday while returning from Thervoy Kandigai (mainly populated by dalits), Gummudipoondi taluk of Thiruvallur district where over 1127 acres of forest land/common grazing land was handed over by government to SIPCOT industrial park in 2009 (announced in 2007) wherein MNCs and other companies are supposed to come up, my child wished me "Happy Mother's day", having seen an advertisement on TV to market some product . But to an old woman from this village who sang the following song which she herself was reported to have drafted she saw the forest/common grazing land (which also houses water bodies) as her mother. She sang: "This forests nurtures us This forest loves us This forest gave us water for irrigating our fields This forest gave us water for drinking This forest gave us fruits This forest allowed us to graze our animals The forest gave us breeze on hot summer days When snakes bit us, we ran to the forest for medicinal herbs Give us bark our mud and mother Do not take it away" Time me revisited what is nurturing us, and in particular the most marginalised groups dalits, adivasis, landless labourers, marginal and small farmers. In Tamil Nadu such displacement drives them to urban areas where cheap labour is bought from other states. They are facing a huge squeeze, with women bearing the brunt more! I went as a researcher and activist along with National Alliance of People's Movement, National Unorganised Workers, Dalit Murasu, Women's Struggle Committee and Media Activists at the behest of Thervoy Grama Makkal Munnera Sangam, women's self help groups, and people of the village. This Sipcot Industrial Park- without pollution clearance as of march, 2011 as per a RTI filed by a researcher, without proper public hearing, without clearance of Gram Sabha (as per evidence provided by Sangam/women's groups), violating an agreement with forestry department on Joint forest management, and overlooking EIA done by a professor at MIDS showing its adverse impact- is already affecting agriculture, livelihood, health, work load and security of people in this village and will soon affect 24 neighbouring villages (and women more than men) for which this forest/common grazing land acts as watershed. Around 80 male youth have been booked for protesting - but under various names like destruction to public property. Various groups are supporting the majority of people of this village who are reported to be against this industrial complex in different ways. The challenge is to ensure that the Thervoy Kandigai village organisations (mainly dalit women and men) retain the leadership, and we help them to restore thier right to life and livelihood and bring those who have violated thier human rights to book, restore the forest and water bodies, while harnessing support of the other 24 villages too who will soon get affected and others who feel the injustice. The leaders of this village organisations have to decide the direction and pace of their struggle. Challenges of addressing various cross cutting equity issues within such a movement remains in the long run. Unless we FEEL injustices and question the model of development which is leading to all this, and challenge caste, class, ethnic, gender, and other inequalities the human species is on a pathway to disaster. But let this questioning be led by the oppressed. For greater details see Save Thervoy Kandigai on facebook -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "humanrights movement" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/humanrights-movement?hl=en.
