Kushalnagar Declarataion
By Various Organisations
13 October, 2011
Countercurrents.org
Kushalnagar Declarataion adopted on 12th October in Kushalnagar , Coorg by various organisations working with adivasi, forest/hill people and fisherfolk.
For centuries now we, the adivasis, fisherfolk, dalits, hill, forest dwellers and others dependent on natural resources for livelihood have been systematically pushed off our ancestral lands - that once encompassed much of the Indian sub-continent - and forcibly confined to small and remote corners of India . In this process we have been subjected to unspeakable atrocities bordering on genocide by successive regimes ruling this country.
Unfortunately 60 years after Independence from British colonialism the same trend of oppression continues, this time carried out by the so called ‘elected' Indian government, which today boasts of India being the ‘world's largest democracy'.
In these six decades millions of our people have been displaced by destructive development projects and robbed of their resources by one government after the other. The forces of the Indian State have violated our human rights repeatedly, murdered our menfolk, raped our womenfolk and thrown countless youth from our communities into prison on false charges. In other words we have been reduced to less than third class citizens in the Republic of India , the alleged land of ‘non-violence and peace'.
We have never accepted these policies of loot and plunder and will resist them to our last breath. We have never begged or asked for anything. We only assert our rights to what is ours and has been taken from us. In recent years, we have taken up many struggles against forcible attempts by the Indian government, acting on behalf of foreign and domestic business interests, to take away our forest, sea, land and water resources.
Due to our struggles the government was forced to pass the Forest Rights Act and recognise some of the forest rights due to the adivasi and traditional forest dwellers. However, none of these rights have been truly implemented and as a result, the rights of forest workers to their natural resources are being denied, leaving women and children to face the maximum burden.
The Coastal Zone Regulation Notification of 1991, another product of our struggles, has also been violated repeatedly and is now being replaced by business-friendly legislation. Such attempts to dilute these existing laws are being made in order to benefit multinational companies and the corporate world.
We believe that there is a common link between the fishing communities, adivasis, dalits and the forest workers in their struggle to assert their rights over their livelihood resources. Therefore we have gathered here in Kushalnagar, Karnataka to evolve a common agenda to fight for the rights of communities in relation to land, forest, water and human rights.
On this day, the 12 th of October 2011 called the ‘Columbus Day' we therefore,
Call upon our people to:
1. U nite locally so that all people dependent on and culturally connected to natural resources in our communities fight together unitedly for our rights to those resources.
2. Mobilize at the village, then district, state and national levels, with people coming together from everywhere to support each other's struggles.
3. Come together for a joint massive rally in New Delhi to voice our demands before the end of the year.
4. Join hands with other communities and learn from each other's struggles to strengthen peoples' resistance against the state and corporate onslaught on our resources.
5. Strengthen local institutions of governance and establish our control over them, both through our traditional adivasi gram sabhas, and through implementing PESA and strengthing the primacy of gram sabhas as custodians of resources such that no resources can be diverted without their consent.
6. Create a “parliament” parallel to the government structure to represent the voices of adivasis, dalits, hill and forest dwellers, fisher folk, and other communities dependent on natural resources, and to implement our aspirations.
7. Select the representatives whom we elect to government from within our communities.
8. Force all political parties to represent the interests of local communities and expose their corporate or business interests. We must use our voting power to put pressure on legislators for our issues to be discussed in parliament.
9. Prevent any individuals and organizations from misrepresenting our community or profiting from this misrepresentation.
10. Building up a political consciousness of unity among adivasis and all people dependent on forests to implement the Forest Rights Act including the community rights which we feel are vital for our cultural and physical survival.
11. Hold dharnas at the houses of all legislators, as well as at every office of the Forest Department, to put pressure to implement the Forest Rights Act.
12. Write an open letter to the Government about the gross non-implementation of the Forest Rights Act across the country.
13. Start a “ Quit Forest ” agitation to end the control of the Forest Department and rebuild gram sabhas as a means for forest management and conservation of biodiversity by our communities.
14. Do our own survey on FRA implementation by putting together the input from our own forest dwelling communities by training ourselves to map and survey the land and resources required for the community to sustain itself and its customs.
15. Prevent government officials who come to survey land prior to acquiring it from entering our areas. Resist the use of Aadhar or the UID card to get information from our communities.
16. Counter the narrative pushed by conservationists that tribal control of forests will lead to its destruction. We were born in the forests, we depend on the forest, and we have taken care of the forest despite being pushed away from them by deforesters, corporates, the government, forest department and conservationists.
17. Actively preserve and take forward our diverse cultural and agricultural traditions and value systems. We will say no to genetically engineered seeds, pesticides, fertilizers, patenting of seeds and medicines and the menace of government-sponsored sale of liquor.
18. Say NO to commercial tourism and other destructive development projects.
19. Condemn the assaults on our community in the form of Operation Green Hunt, state and corporate violence and the Green India Mission.
20. Focus on the unity of poor people of all categories in struggling against the ruling class who control us through government and private agencies.
Demand that the Indian Government:
1. Stop destroying our environment, livelihood and way of life in the name of development.
2. Stop denying access to the forest and sea resources to our people or displacing them under the pretext of conservation. Respect our right to food sovereignty and our historical role in protecting biodiversity.
3. Declare tribal areas in the South of India as Scheduled Areas under the 5 th Schedule and implement PESA to empower Gram Sabhas in tribal communities and effectively strengthen democracy and implement the true spirit of the Constitution.
4. Reserve farming land only for farming purposes. Scrap the Land Acquisition Act including the new draconian draft bill and create a new law drafted entirely by gram sabhas, which is in concordance with FRA and PESA.
5. Implement FRA immediately such that the community and its individuals both have control over the management of its natural resources.
6. Make information about Forest Rights Act available to our communities in our tribal languages and organize trainings on the Forest Rights Act for the forest department, revenue and other government officers. Set aside a part of the national budget for the implementation of Forest Rights Act.
7. Introduce a Coastal Rights Act along the lines of the Forest Rights Act. Implement the CRZ Notification of 1991 properly and scrap the CRZ Notification of 2011.
8. Implement the recommendations of the Murari Committee of 1994 on foreign fishing vessels operating in Indian waters and properly implement restrictions on operation of mechanized fishing vessels.
9. Stop setting up SEZs and STZs in coastal areas.
10. Stop promoting tourism as a part of development policy and stop neglecting the ecological destructiveness of tourist projects.
11. Re-delineate gram panchayat constituencies to give greater representation to coastal people.
12. Stop construction of all proposed thermal and nuclear power plants and large ports in coastal areas. Scrap the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant and POSCO project in Orissa as well as all coastal projects affecting the lives and livelihoods of fisherpeople.
13. Make Tourism Impact Assessments, with participation of the communities, compulsory for existing tourism projects. Ensure that maximum benefits of existing tourism projects go to communities.
14. Stop dumping of domestic and industrial waste in inland water sources. Place severe restrictions on the emission of fuels and pollutants by industries and vehicles that cause climate change and environmental degradation.
15. Put an end to Free Trade Agreements that destroy our food sovereignty and sustainable farming practices.
16. Set up a separate Ministry of Fisheries. Provide basic infrastructure like marketing sheds, water and toilet facilities to fish vendors.
17. Stop sexual exploitation of women and children in tourist, coastal and forest areas. Speed up passage of Bill on Sexual Offences against Children 2010.
18. Stop labeling adivasi communities as HIV-prone and maligning their cultural practices.
19. Set up a commission to enquire into funds spent by the state and private agencies after the Tsunami of 2004.
20. Stop using Maoism as an excuse to kill, rape, assault and imprison people and communities resisting the corporate and state takeover of their resources.
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