TIGblogs - Christopher Baan

Following in the conceptual footsteps of Mahatma Gandhi, 25,000 of the world’s most marginalized poor march together along the Indian National Highway. These landless poor farmers have gathered in a mass show of non violent strength to bring the attention of the Indian Government to their pitiable plight. They have chosen to endure the loss of livelihood for more than thirty days, some of them traveling by train and bus for several days just to reach this huge gathering and march the 350 kilometers together.

Standing on the roadway where the air temperature reaches 39°C the black asphalt radiates upward like an oven. But hour after hour this mass of people passes before me. With enormous patience they go step by step towards what they hope may create a more equal istribution of India’s vacant arable lands.

Achieving the granting of land ownership to now landless adivasi or tribals, and other groups f the poorest poor, could in the long term return the care and productivity of the soil to a level that will sustain the area’s population and the cities beyond. Simply put by many of the marchers “we will then finally be able to feed our families”.

By Ann Bayly, from Australia.

Tags

Actuality, Asia, Developing Countries, Earth & Environment, Sustainable Development