We have successfully completed a march with close to 10,000 people including children, men, women and even senior citizens of tribal communities from 20 districts of Jharkhand for their right to the Forests and Land. The march, also called ‘Paidal march’ (Marching on foot) began on 20th February from Columbus ground at Hazaribagh and concluded at Ranchi on 27th February covering 110 kilometers. The demands are simple – full rights of the tribal communities on the land, water and other resources of the forests from which they are being systematically alienated. Earlier it was the British who exploited the forest dwellers and after Independence, the Indian Forest Act ignored their rights depriving them of the usage of the forest and its resources which they always had access to and which always belonged to them since time immemorial. However, later the Government of India recognised the injustice done to the forest dwellers and brought the “Schedule Tribe and Other Traditional
It is easy to build a nation it is far more difficult to shape a society and this is what Im doing