మెదక్ జిల్లా కొల్చారం మండలం అంసాన్ పల్లి గ్రామం లోని మేము లక్షుమమ్మ, బుజ్జి, సత్యమ్మ, మరియమ్మ దళిత కుటుంబాలకు చెందిన వారం. మాకు సెంటు భూమి కూడా లేదు. మా పెద్దల కాలం నుండి ఇప్పటి వరకు మా బతుకులు కూలిచేస్తేనే నడుస్తాయి. గత కొన్ని సంవత్సరాలనుండి గ్రామంలో లో రైతులు సరిగ్గా పంటలు పండించడం లేదు. బోరుబావులు ఎండిపోయాయి. రైతుల పంట పొలాల దగ్గర మాకు వ్యవసాయ కూలి పనులు దొరకటం లేదు. మేము కూలి పనుల కొరకు హైదరాబాద్, కొంపల్లి , మైసమ్మగూడెం, మేడ్చల్, కండ్లకోయ, షాపూర్ నగర్, బాలా నగర్, బోయినపల్లి ప్రాంతాలకు వలస వెళ్ళాము. అడ్డా కూలీలుగా, నిర్మాణ పనులకు, ఇంటి లో అంట్లు తోమే పనులకు, కంపెనీ లలో పనులు చేసుకుంటూ అక్కడే చుట్టుపక్కల గుడిసెలు వేసుకుని జీవనం కొనసాగిస్తున్నాము. లాక్ డౌన్ రాగానే మేము మా ఊర్లకు వెళ్లిపోయాము. ఏరుకుని తినే పిట్ట ముక్కులో కొయ్య కొట్టినట్లయ్యింది. సొంత వూరిలో ఏమి లేదు. గూటిలో మింగ మెతుకు లేదు. మల్లి పనులు దొరికిన దాకా మాకు కష్టకాలమే. లాక్ డౌన్ తో మూలిగే నక్క మీద తాటికాయ పడ్డట్లయ్యింది. మా బంధువు నర్సింలు ఈ విషయం తెలుసుకుని మాకు ఫోన్ చేసాడు. అయన యక్షి సహాయం తో మాకు 15 రోజుల సరిపడా తిండి సరుకులు ఇచ్చారు.
అయితే.. మా పెద్దల కాలం నుంచి ఇప్పటి వరకు మా బతుకులు ఏమి మార లేదు. భూమి లేదు. భూమి ఉంటె ఏదో ఒకటి పండించు కుని తినే వాళ్ళం. అంటరాని తనం వల్ల సమాజ సహకారం అందని వాళ్ళం. మా పిల్లలు పై చదువులు చదువుకోలేక పోతున్నారు. లేబర్ జీవితం. కూడపెట్టుకొనే జీవితం కాదు. మాకు భూమి కావాలి. సేకరించి రాసిన వారు: నర్సింలు We - Lakshmamma, Bujji, Satyamma, Mariamma, are from the Dalit community of Amsanpally village, Kolcharam Mandal, Medak district. We are landless. Since the time of our parents, we have worked as labour and earned money to live. Since the past few years, farmers in our village have not been cultivating crops as they did in earlier times. Wells have dried up, and we were not hired by the farmers to work on their lands. With this decline in agriculture work in our village, we migrated to Hyderabad, Kompally, Maisamma gudem, Medchal, Kandlakoya, Shapur nagar, Bala nagar, Bowenpally, in search of work. We worked as construction labour, domestic workers, contract workers in companies and built small huts in which we lived. As soon as the lockdown was announced, we went back to our village. Our means of livelihood and incomes were completely disrupted. In our own villages there was no work either, and we were not able to buy food . Until we got work again, it was destined to be very difficult times. Our lives became terrible after the lockdown. Our friend Narsimhulu called up to enquire about our wellbeing. With Yakshi’s help, he was able to provide us with 2 weeks worth of essential food rations. Our lives never changed since the times of our elders. We do not own land. If we owned land, we would have grown vegetables or other food grains, and eaten this to survive. As a consequence of continuing untouchability in our society, there is no solidarity or cooperation from other castes in our village. Our children are unable to study beyond class 7 -10. Our lives depend on daily wage and daily labour to earn and buy our food. Ours is not a life of savings. We demand land ! -Narration collected by Narsimhlu Yakshi has been working since the last 30 years with Adivasis, Dalit, Minorities, Peasants and other oppressed communities. This organisation has innovated and conceptualised various activities to conscientise the people. Yakshi specifically works with youth of these communities using popular education as the strategy for conscientisation, inspiring youth to organise their communities towards social justice. The popular education, anchored by the Kudali popular education team happens through a series of workshops designed for the youth to reflect on their situations, understand the larger society, and enable youth to question and act collectively for transforming their reality, for a just society. Workshops are a space for the youth to dialogue on caste, gender, religion, violence against women, child abuse, land, food, India’s constitution and government programs and policies. Yakshi’s work is grounded on the principles of secularism and a vision of a casteless society. Along with social justice concerns, Yakshi works for Food Sovereignty: which is about people taking back control and governance over their land, seeds, breeds, food, diversity , knowledge, and resources. Community Based Organisations (CBOs) and formations, which emerged and got strengthened through their association and interaction with Yakshi, organised to protect their constitutional rights, for example against evictions from forests in 2002, culminating in the enactment of the Forest Rights Act in 2006. Similarly Yakshi facilitated processes such as enabling adivasi formations from different states to come together through the National Working Group of Adivasis. I have been a member of Yakshi since several years. I moved from my village Achampet in Medak district to the nearby town, Narsapur some years ago. When the Covid lockdown occurred, I began to get news from my wider network of friends and relatives about the hardships being faced by many dalit families who had left their villages and migrated to different parts of Hyderabad in search of work. The lockdown abruptly halted their work, and they were forced to leave the city and return to their villages. However here too, there was no work, and thus there was no food in their homes. It was so timely that we could respond as Yakshi in this situation and support communities in crises. I felt that with the food rations support, atleast people can eat for the next couple of weeks. The Covid-19 lockdown revealed once again how the unequal land ownership in our country, is a core underlying reason for the suffering of Dalits, particularly Dalit women, both in the village and in the cities. Land is Life ! -Narsimlu
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మేము అనగా శివాజీ, మొగులయ్య, అశ్విని, రమేష్ కమ్యూనిటీ ఆర్గనైజర్స్ గ యక్షి సంస్థ తరుపున కూడలి, బడంపేట అద్వర్యం లో సికందులపూర్ గ్రామం లో పనిచేస్తున్నాము. కూడలి లో మాకు తెలియని ఎన్నో విషయాలు నెస్ర్చుకుంటున్నాము. మాకు చాలా గౌరవంగా వుంది. మేము నేర్చుకున్న విషయాలు మా మిత్రులతో, మా యువత తో పంచుకుంటున్నాము.ధైర్యసాహసాలతో మా ప్రయాణం కొనసాగుతున్నది. ఈ ప్రయాణానికి సహాయపడుతున్న టీం అందరికి మా కృతజ్ఞతలు. కూడలి మా అందరిలో దైర్యం, నమ్మకం, ప్రశ్నించే తత్వాన్ని అలవర్చింది. ఇది మాకెంతో దోహదపడింది. చరిత్రను కూడా మా కళ్ళ ముందుకు తీసుకు వచ్చింది. ప్రస్తుతం మనమందరం విపత్కర పరిస్థితి లో వున్నాము. మనం బాగుంటే మన కుటుంబం బాగుంటుంది. కుటుంబాలు బాగుంటే గ్రామం బాగుంటుంది. గ్రామాలు బాగుంటే మండలం బాగుంటుంది. మండలాలు బాగుంటే జిల్లా బాగుంటుంది. జిల్లాలు బాగుంటే రాష్ట్రం బాగుంటుంది.రాష్ట్రాలు బాగుంటే దేశం బాగుంటుంది. దేశాలు బాగుంటే ఈ ప్రపంచం బాగుంటుంది. కోవిద్-19 ప్రభావం వలన మన దేశం, ప్రపంచం విపత్కర పరిస్థితి లో వుంది. మన దేశ జనాభా లో 80% మంది వ్యవసాయ మీద ఆధారపడి జీవిస్తున్నారు. పంట పండితే కడుపు నిండుతుంది. కూలి చేస్తేనే భూమి లేని వారి కడుపు నిండుతుంది. వలస కూలీలు మన దేహసం లో ఎంతో మంది వున్నారు. కోవిడ్-19 కు కులం, మతం, వర్గం అనే భేదం లేకుండా అందరి మీద ప్రభావం చూపిస్తుంది. ప్రపంచం మొత్తం మీద లక్షలమంది దీని బారిన పడ్డారు. దీని బారిన పడకుండా ఉండాలంటే భౌతిక దూరం ఒక్కటే మార్గం. కరోనా ను కట్టడి చేయటానికి దేశం మొత్తం లాక్ డౌన్ ప్రకటించారు. మా గ్రామం లో లాక్ డౌన్ ప్రభావం ఎల్ వుంది?
శివాజీ, మొగులయ్య, అశ్విని, రమేష్ సికండ్లపూర్ The four of us community organisers- Shivaji, Moguliah, Ashwini and Ramesh, together with Yakshi’s (Kudali) support are working in our village - Sikandlapur, Sangareddy. We have learnt many new things at Kudali, and share this with our friends and other youth in our village. We are confident as we move forward in our journey as young community organisers. We are thankful to all our team. Kudali has given us the ability to question, made us confident, and made us believe that change is possible. History has been brought alive in front of our eyes, at Kudali. At this moment we are all in a deep crisis. Villages are the backbone of the world, and if the village is happy and healthy then the entire world will as well. In our country the majority live and depend on agriculture for their survival. If we grow food , we fill our stomachs. For the landless, labour is core to their being able to feed themselves. There are so many migrant workers in our country. This Covid disease has confronted us, and does not differentiate any individual based on their caste, gender, religion or class. Across the world this disease has already affected lakhs of people. We are told that the only way to protect ourselves is to maintain physical distancing. To control the spread of this Corona disease, the government declared a lockdown. The lockdown’s impact on our village has included:
When we interacted with our people in the village, everyone shared their worries and problems. We decided to help our people, with the support of Yakshi, and purchased essential foods (about 16 items) and soap for those who were suffering. We feel proud and happy to have been able to help our people. Without caste or religion barriers, youth and elders participated in the action. -Ashwini, Mougalaiah, Ramesh and Shivaji Since some years now, the Jai Jangu Bai Adivasi Womens Sangham and the Gondwana Youth Sangham, in partnership with Yakshi, have been organising adivasis for Buen vivir, food sovereignty, social justice and constitutional rights, in Tiriyani Mandal of Komram Bhim -Asifabad district, Telangana. In the wake of the Corona pandemic, the lockdown came into force in our adivasi areas, on March 23. We took responsibility to create awareness amongst our people, about the disease, its spread, its prevention and above all to pre-empt any kind of panic amongst our community. This is a new challenge, for us adivasis with our immense resilience and ability to withstand many different kinds of ecological and economic crises that we have faced/experienced over time. We first alerted our village committees and then also began to explain to our people the importance of washing hands with soap, wearing masks, and maintaining physical distance. As and when the government began to announce its relief measures for people, we began to inform our communities about these, as well as monitor to see whether they were received or not. Along with this, we (our sanghams and Yakshi), decided to map our communities, specifically those with no land, to understand the impact of the lockdown on their livelihoods and ability to access food. We collected the information, analysed it and found that in 3 panchayats (10 villages), 61 adivasis were affected by acute food distress because they were dependent on purchasing their food, from the money earned through daily wage labour. We prepared a detailed list and estimate of the rations required for these families, and made a plan to distribute the rations on April 14th- Ambedkar Jayanti. On 14th April, maintaining the 6 feet distance between ourselves, we first read out the Preamble of the Indian Constitution, and resolved once again to continue our struggle to control our lands, forests, water bodies, and committed to grow our own food for our own consumption. We also resolved to defend women's rights. We once again re-iterated the preventive measures to be taken with respect to the Corona virus, and then we distributed the rations. We repeated this in all the 10 villages.
We place our demands to the government to continue to extend financial and food support to all of us, during this lockdown period. As Adivasis, we reiterated our responsibility to extend support and solidarity to one another during such crises. The ability to step in and extend timely support to our adivasi people, was immediately facilitated by Yakshi. Once again this reaffirms to us that land is key for the survival and well being of adivasis. This got validated in this lockdown period: It was the landless 61 families of a total of 465 families in the 3 panchayats (13%), who were in food distress. Our organising for food sovereignty with our communities, ensured that the rest of us have food to eat, as we continue to grow our food, store our food for self-consumption, and save our seeds. We are committed to continue our organising with our people, to achieve self-rule and sovereignty in food. Jai Adivasi ! Jai Bhutalli ! Jai Jangu Bai ! Jai Gondwana ! Marsakola Kamala, Aanand, Jayashree, K. Maruthi, Shekar, Maruthi, Praveen, Divya and Kaushalya. Jai Jangu Bai Adivasi Mahila Sangham Gondwana Yuvajana Sangham The ‘theatre of the oppressed’ workshop with young adivasi and bahujan men community organisers got over on March 10th, and 30 adivasi and bahujan youth women community organisers were to arrive soon for their theatre workshop. Preparations were underway for the first youth-led summit on Food Sovereignty and Social Justice beginning on 14th April- Ambedkar Jayanti. Bahujan and adivasi youth wanted to deliberate on the challenges they were experiencing as youth, and envision the future . However the COVID pandemic changed all of this. On the occasion of Ambedkar Jayanti, we share our blog, which captures our experiences and collective actions in response to the unfolding crisis. We continue to be inspired by Ambedkar’s call to ‘Educate, Organise and Agitate’. It took us a couple of days to wrap our heads around the new situation, and to re-group- albeit now completely online; dialoguing and brainstorming across locations from the dense forests of Nallamalla to the coasts of Kerala. As community organisers, spread across 10 districts of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, our priorities included (i) a rapid mapping of each of our communities to assess the most food-vulnerable whose livelihoods got disrupted as a consequence of the lockdown, (ii) prepare simple information about the disease, its transmission and its prevention, and (iii) campaign against any kind of social discrimination. Some of the specific actions we have taken thus far : i) Providing emergency rations. ii)Responding to domestic violence and child abuse iii)Alerting and working in collaboration with the concerned government authorities, departments and panchayats. iv) Dissemination of information through write ups, posters, media, in multiple languages Papanna along with another 20 pastoralists from village Marepalli, Sangareddy district had left their village soon after Dussehera in October 2019 on their usual migratory route, to the Nizamsagar Dam, and were meant to return home early August 2020. The pastoralist shepherds were about a 5 day walk away from Nizamsagar Dam, when the COVID lockdown began in Telangana on March 22, subsequently extending to a Nation-Wide lockdown. Under usual circumstances, the pastoralist graze their sheep in the fields, bunds and fallow lands of villagers, penning their sheep on farmers’ fields, and the farmers in reciprocal arrangement pay them for the valuable sheep dung and urine, with grain , money and access to drinking water for them and their sheep, at borewells located in farmer’s fields.
The immediate impact of the lockdown was that Papanna and his 20 comrades were informed by the farmers of every village, that they would no longer be allowed to pen their sheep on their land, and hence the farmers would not be paying them grain and money. They agreed to continue to allow them to drink water at the borewell. Within the first week of the lockdown, Deccan Gorrela Mekala Pempakadharula Sangham (DGMPS) were on the phone to their members enquiring about their well being. Papanna shared how they would soon run out of food and had no money to purchase any more. First we had to reach the shepherds, which meant being mobile. DGMPS and Yakshi got police permission from the District Collector of Medak and Sangareddy to respond to emergency needs like Papannas, for the entire erstwhile-unified Medak district. Next was trying to arrive at the easiest way to access the rations for the group. Would Papanna be able to negotiate with a reliable kirana shop en route, who would agree to prepare the ration? Finally once the police permission was obtained, it was easiest for DGMPS to procure the rations at a reliable kirana shop, and as the location of the shepherds group was also completely physically impossible for the vehicle to negotiate, Papanna suggested he along with 1 more shepherd would return to his village Marepalli, and meet the DGMPS team and collect the ration for the entire group of shepherds. The village Sarpanch, SI and other government officials extended support to the response action. On April 6th DGMPS and Yakshi were able to respond to this emergency need with providing dry rations of essential food for the 20 shepherds who were literally stranded due to a completely un-imaginable way in which the lockdown had disrupted an extremely resilient, reciprocal and solidarity economy arrangement between farmers and shepherds. The team tried its best to ensure the protocols of safety and precautionary measures such as wearing masks, and maintaining physical distance were adhered to through the response actions. Papanna and the 20 shepherds, finally reached the dam on the evening of April 7th, and are there now. As the season of lamb sales approaches, the district authorities have assured us that butchers will be allowed to purchase sheep from shepherds, provided they obtain the necessary police permissions. We shall be monitoring this, as also assisting the butchers to get their permissions, as shepherds on migration depend on this source of income to purchase their food in the coming months . I was in my village Naglur, Kamareddy district, when the lockdown was announced. Pretty soon it became clear to me, that several families in my village, who were dependent on daily wages for their survival and food, were out of work, and would soon run out of money to buy food. Sharing this observation in dialogue with our Yakshi team , we decided to do a rapid mapping of food-stressed families. I first initiated this in my village (Naglur), and then in 5 neighbouring villages: Neral, Chadmal, Chinna Potugal and Thimmapur in Gandhari mandal. The rapid assessment inquired into whether the family was being able to purchase food without falling into additional debt, because of the lockdown. We also noted down the primary source of income of the family, how the lockdown had impacted their livelihood, as well as other impacts of the lockdown and details of the caste and landownership.
Whilst carrying out the mapping, we shared information on the COVID pandemic and the precautions to be taken with the community, including simple methods of washing hands with soap without running tap water and the 6 feet physical distancing and not to touch hands to ones face : eyes, nose, mouth. In the village I met the sarpanch, the village revenue assistant (VRA), the village sarpanch, as also the other leaders. I involved my friends, and took the help of the village authorities. We mapped the village, and found that the majority of those who were in a highly food-stressed situation, were Dalit, STs , OBCs and Muslims families. We identified 62 families (26 SC, 25 BC, 5 Muslim families and 6 ST families, in five villages, whose daily work opportunities had stopped overnight with the lockdown, and they were in a dire situation and unable to access food. Drawing from our involvement in relief work in Hyderabad, we fine-tuned the grocery list, and prepared an estimate for each family based on their family members. Once the lists were prepared and the grocery quantities estimated, we had to locate a shop able and willing to supply the grocery kit. I chose a Kirana shop in Gandhari mandal that is close to all the five villages. Volunteers helped me throughout the process, from mapping, to packing and preparing the grocery kits, and finally in distribution. During the distribution we ensured that we maintained 6 feet distance and all of us wore masks. We took permission from the Sub-inspector at the police station and the Mandal Revenue Officer. T. We made a plan of distribution and various local officials participated including the ZPTC, Mr Shankar Nayak, Mr Sai Kumar chairman of the Primary Agriculture Cooperative Society (PACS), the Sub-inspector (SI), Mr Srikanth and the Sarpanch of each village. - Anil Gorre Our community organising base is in the rural and adivasi areas of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh . Some of us were ‘lockdowned’ in Hyderabad when the lockdown was announced. We decided to plug into ongoing response efforts in the city, to assist the avalanche of migrant workers and several others whose livelihoods and sources of income were abruptly cut off due to the lockdown. Along with this, we reached out to other members of the FSA in the city, like Fatima. It was in this way that we were able to assist 30 guest workers (we like the Kerala description rather than ‘ migrant’, ) from West Bengal and ensured that dry rations reached them. The workers were on a construction site in Addagutta, and were provided absolutely no support by their contractor. We were able to do this with support from the Robinhood Army, and a friendly and reliable kirana shopkeeper who was able to pack and supply the rations. We have sent this information on to a group collating information on Migrant workers in Telangana , to alert the State.
In Sangareddy district , we from the Vithanam Youth Collective, organised a campaign to spread awareness on the Corona Virus and inform our communities about the lockdown. This campaign began in Panyala and Badampet village. We went door to door and explained to our communities about the transmission of the virus, and preventive measures including the importance of physical distancing, washing hands with soap, not touching our face with our hands, and wearing masks. We also prepared posters and put them up at different spots in the village.
The spread of information on Social media is rampant, and we are tracking the fake news put up on whatsapp groups and statuses, and countering it with facts. Recently on many of our village and panchayat level whatsapp groups, fake messages showing pictures of what looks like dead people lying on the ground, supposedly deaths from Corona in Italy, were doing the rounds in such whatsapp groups, creating a lot of fear and panic. We have actively fact checked such messages, and disproved them with sources which shows how these photos were from completely different contexts and misused. In this way we are ensuring people get the right information and do not fall prey to communal, fake and panic messaging. Barely a few days into the lockdown we began to receive calls from women about domestic abuse and violence. While hearing out the cases, and strategizing ways to ensure how locally the issue is addressed by the community organisers, we also verified with the organisation Bhumika and the State, and found out that the 181 helpline was working. This important information was sent out to all community organisers.
The lockdown has further deteriorated the already vulnerable lives of women. On one hand they are homebound with the perpetrators of violence, and on the other hand, the systems of collective redressal , movement and avenues to voice out have shrunk. The extreme environment of insecurity has ironically even compelled women who were domestic violence survivors living in their natal homes, to return to their marital homes. Efforts were made to speak to the women about the adversities of returning to an abusive husband, however some women decided to return. As organisers, we ensure to continue the conversations and keep the awareness that 181 can be accessed. The phenomena of increased domestic violence has been reported across the globe during such lockdown periods. Worse, in the employment sector women are more likely to have jobs that put them in greater risks of exposure to the corona virus. This includes large populations of sanitation workers, nurses, health workers, ASHA workers, and cashiers who are women. Pregnant women are also facing the crisis of a depleted health care system and there are irregularities in accessing Antenatal Care Services, the lack of which compromises the health of the mother and child. While patriarchy rises its ugly head even louder and stronger in times such as this, it is evident that a pandemic situation further disempowers the already marginalised communities and people. |