Silent resistance awakens government

By Ashirbad S Raha
17 Aug 2010

With the government appointed expert panel also finding the proposed Vedanta project hazardous to Niyamgiri hills and the Dongria Kond community residing there for centuries, the tribals' struggle to save their culture, livelihoods and land has got a major boost.

Tribal soldiers of a silent war in a candle light protest in Delhi
(photo: Ashirbad Raha)

Being a tribal, Kunni Kadraka’s natural instinct is to greet a person with an innocent smile. But of late, the smile does not reach her lips. The innocence and cheerfulness in her mind is entangled in fear.

Her dreams and smiles are threatened to be devoured by the voracious appetite of a corporate giant but the hope to survive all odds is still breathing. A battle she started with her folks sans any financial or political support is finally being noticed.

But for Kunni, who lives at Bundel village in Orissa's Kalahandi district, the war is far from over. She is a member of Dongria Kond community that is defending their lands, livelihoods and culture against Vedanta Resources, a mining company listed in London Stock Exchange. The global mining giant has plans to mine about 70 million tonnes of bauxite for commercial exploitation from the environmentally sensitive Niyamgiri Hills.

However, the poor tribals’ consistent struggle against the destruction of their revered Niyamgiri hill by the global company has begun to bear fruit. A four-member panel appointed by the Ministry of Environment and Forests has reported that the mining giant consistently violated several laws in Niyamgiri, encroached upon government land, yielded clearances wrongly and illegally built an aluminium refinery at Lanjigarh, Orissa.

Though a GDP growth rate obsessed government may find avenues to discard the observations of its own expert panel, but some environmentalists see the latest report as a useful weapon to protect the threatened Niyamgiri hills. Some activists even hope that this stern report could finally lead to the shutting down of the company's project in Orissa.

For Kunni and the entire Dongria kond tribe, Niyamgiri has never been just a hill but their God which they have been worshipping for thousands of years. Perhaps, it is this sentiment that has given them the courage and optimism to continue their fight to save Niyamgiri. This, to them, was a war that had no midway solution.
On being asked about what Niyamgiri means to her, Kunni’s otherwise calm face lights up as she says, “For us, Niyam Raja (Niyamgiri) is our purpose for existence. From our food, water, air to our livelihood, all come from Niyamgiri. It’s our God.”
Vedanta, however, plans to mine their ‘God’... and that too illegally and with muscle power. In fact, to rope in the Konds, it has constantly propagated the idea of bringing 'prosperity' to the tribe.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a journalist who has been following the Niyamgiri struggle for some years says, “Vedanta promises good homes, jobs and ‘better lives’ to the konds for giving up their demand but the company doesn't realise that for these tribals, despite being away from the winds of growth and development, survival has never been an issue. The rivers, streams, forest produce and even medicinal plants of Niyamgiri have sustained them properly and hence there is no question of providing better lives.”

Undoubtedly, the Niyamgiri Hills are extremely rich and significant both culturally and ecologically. Being the source of Vansadhara River as well as a major tributary of Nagavali River (both rivers cater to the drinking and irrigation needs of lakhs of people in south Orissa and Andhra Pradesh), Niyamgiri boasts of miles of some of the most pristine forests in Orissa inhabited by a number of vulnerable wildlife species including tiger, leopards, sloth bear, pangolin and palm civet. It is, however, anybody's guess how bauxite mining will affect the mountain and its flora and fauna.
The last few years have been difficult for the villagers in the region. They accuse the company of intimidating them to give up their cause. Kulesika Basko of Kadraka village in the adjoining Rayagada district says, “Ever since Vedanta has come in, we cannot leave our ladies and the elderly alone in the village. They are always accompanied by some male members. Earlier the men folk would carelessly venture into the forest for collecting the produce but now there is always a fear that the company's hired men might harm our families.” And not to forget the fact the refinery at Lanjigarh that Vedanta has already put in place is alleged of gifting diseases like tuberculosis to the Konds.

And it’s because of these irreversible ecological, cultural, social and societal damages caused by the project that Vedanta is now facing stiff resistance not just by the Konds but an expanding international community that is rallying for the cause.
Supporters like Bianca Jagger, Arundhati Roy, Michael Palin, Survival International, Amnesty and Action Aid, have already been instrumental in bringing to the fore the plight and danger that linger over the Niyamgiri. And the results have been quite remarkable. Over the past three years, major Vedanta shareholders have withdrawn their investments from the company. Most recently, Dutch pensions giant PGGM withdrew investments worth $16 million. Earlier this year, the Church of England sold its shares. In 2007, the Norwegian government divested its shares in Vedanta followed by Martin Currie, a Scottish investment company in 2008, clearly raising questions about the company’s credibility.

“The fact that the international community has recognised the Niyamgiri struggle is the first sign of our victory. It’s a tough struggle but we have all the reasons to feel hopeful. If we can drive out the British rulers and earn our Independence then why can’t we save Niyamgiri,” says Bratindi Jena, Tribal Thematic Head, ActionAid India.

Earlier in March this year, a team of experts from the Indian government had slammed Vedanta for its mining plans in Niyamgiri. The investigation prompted by a series of complaints made to the Ministry for Environment and Forests clearly concluded: “This acquires importance in the context that disruption of the habitat and the way of life of this Primitive Tribal Group (PTG) cannot be remediated or compensated, and may lead to the destruction of the Dongria Kond as a PTG. This is too serious a consequence to ignore.”

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A mandir that composes songs of change

By Ashirbad Raha
29 Jul 2010

Kala Mandir, a leading non profit in handicraft initiatives has been spearheading a silent journey to revive dying art forms in Eastern India and thereby help poor tribals to improve their economic and social conditions.

Grassmat weavers at Janumdih Village (photo courtesy: Kala Mandir)
"Very often, we would go to sleep just by gulping down a glass of water. Two meals a day was luxury that we could not afford. But now I am a happy man who can think beyond his meals and earn enough to sustain my family," says Dinbandhu, a daily wage earner turned grass mat weaver in Janumdih, a small remote village in Potka Block of East Singhbhum district of Jharkhand.

Having left behind his nights of empty stomachs, Dinbandhu now is a proud owner of a mobile phone. It's certainly quite a distance in the language of transformation.
In the same village, there is another story of empowerment waiting to be told.

Year 2005, and Sarla would dig earth, work as a construction labour and continue to worry about her next meal. Year 2010, she starts her day with hope. She smiles more often and confidence shines in her face. She now rides her bicycle and travels through different villages forming self help groups (SHGs) and training women for alternative income generation through local natural resources.
Quite a long way for a tribal woman who would have otherwise spent her entire life fighting poverty and impoverishment.

Sarla and Dinbandhu are just two names from a growing tribe of individuals from remote pockets of East Singhbhum, Seraikela Kharsawan and West Singhbhum districts in Jharkhand who are finding a road to livelihood and so are the traditional artists in these villages who are reaching a window to appreciation and recognition.

Showing them the path, is Kala Mandir, a leading non profit in handicraft initiatives that has been spearheading a silent journey to revive dying art forms. From taking the artists to different handicraft fairs across the country to providing a market linkage to their products and helping their art forms to take shapes as desired by the market through capacity building and training, Kala Mandir has been instrumental in constantly supporting, nurturing and disseminating various art forms for more than a decade now.

But that is just the tip of an iceberg of change. The story lies in how Kala Mandir has managed to weave its aim of infusing life into vanishing art forms with other components of livelihood in a non-profit business model which has now become synonymous to growth and success. Named as Biponi, (a rural mart owned by a federation of SHGs facilitated by Kala Mandir in Jamshedpur) is the platform for these traditional art and craft handicrafts to reach out to the outer world.

Village women of a SHG formed by Kalamandir (photo courtesy: Kala Mandir)
"When we started working for promotion of rural art and craft, we could immediately realize that for them to survive, it was extremely essential to identify market linkages and find a space in the market for such products. And therefore, when the idea called Biponi was conceptualised, it was very clear that the centre would be an interface for the artists to reach out to the outer world," says Amitava Ghosh, Secretary, Kala Mandir.

The aesthetically designed mart is home to bamboo products, grass mats, paper masks, Dokra art products among many others, all of which come from the training centres being run by Kala Mandir in 29 odd villages spread over three districts of Jharkhand. The uniqueness of the model in which Biponi operates lies in the fact that the artists themselves are present to handle the costumers and therefore get a first hand feedback on the needs and requirement of the emerging market trends. Apart from that there is a payment module by virtue of which the artists gets his due within a week and therefore is prevented from any sort of debt trap. Both the features in a way add to ownership feeling to the artists which is a very important element of any rural venture.

And therefore it's not surprising when talking about the success of Biponi as a non profit business model, Mr Ghosh shares, "From an annual turnover of Rs 1, 61,000 in 2006, we have now reached the figure of close to a crore and the demand for these handicrafts is spiralling up further."
A growth of more than 85% in four years is something that perhaps words can hardly define. It can only be felt in the happiness that echoes in Dinbandhu's voice when he says, "We have so much work with us that we hardly get time to sleep."

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