While starting their work most voluntary organizations are reluctant to take up the most difficult issues. However when Gaya Prasad Gopal, popularly known as Gopal ji in development circles in Bundelkhand region, established the Akhil Bharatiya Samaj Sewa Sansthan (ABSSS) about four decades back he did not hesitate to prioritize the most difficult but also the most important issues—distribution of land among the landless and release and rehabilitation of bonded workers.
What is more, this work was taken up in the difficult Patha (plateau) area that was known for its ‘dabangs’, a word commonly used here for powerful and ruthless persons who dominate these villages. An additional difficulty was that several dacoit gangs were active in the Patha area, and the dabangs sometimes colluded with them to use their might against anyone who opposed them.
The Patha area where the ABSSS started working was then included in Banda district of Uttar Pradesh, and after the division of this district is now included in Chitrakut district.
A significant part of the population of this area has always consisted of Kol tribal community members and dalits. Although the Kols were then recognized as scheduled tribe across the state border in Madhya Pradesh, just a few miles away, they did not have this recognition here and so they were officially treated as scheduled castes here in Patha, like other dalit communities.
These Kol communities earlier held significant land rights but over the decades these were eroded by those who could forcibly grab land or manipulate the land records using various unfair means. Hence many kol households in particular were not only deprived of their farmland but several of them also had to toil like bonded workers for the bigger landlords and dabangs.
In the idealism of the post-independence days, particularly in times of leaders like Sucheta Kriplani, some important initiatives to provide land to the landless here were taken, but this failed at the implementation level. One reason was that the allotted land was encroached by the dabangs, and another was that as no official campaign was started to identify, measure and hand over the land, many of those allotted the land were not even aware of exactly which piece of land had been given to them ( let alone cultivate this).
In this situation during the 1980s and 1990s the newly-found ABSSS dared to take up surveys and studies of the land situation in Manikpur and Mau blocks of Patha area, particularly the former where its limited strength got largely concentrated. Detailed discussions with the suffering people helped in understanding the real situation. The problems were then taken to local officials at senior as well as junior levels. Some of them turned out to be genuinely helpful and sympathetic, while some others hastened to create problems for the new organization. Depending on official response the efforts of the ABSSS continues in several phases of hope and despair, with both the organization and its founder Gppalji facing numerous threats and harassment at times. However with determination the ABSSS continued its efforts, and large numbers of people started gathering to back its advocacy efforts. Further help was provided by the National Human Rights Commission and the National Women’s Commission who were sympathetic and supportive towards several pleas of the ABSSS, helped also by some public-spirited lawyers here and in Allahabad.
A the same time the hostility of some local officials increased further when the ABSSS insisted on the basis of its survey that several kol and dalit workers were toiling as bonded laborers and hence should be helped under the existing law for the release and rehabilitation of bonded workers. Some hostile officials denied this and said that there are no bonded workers here. However here again when some sympathetic officials came they agreed to get the entire issue re-examined by the experts of a Lucknow-based government organization UPDESCO. The detailed survey of UPDESCO confirmed the large-scale existence of bonded labor (about 2900 bonded workers in the extended Patha area), in conformity with what the ABSSS had been saying all along. On this basis the government agreed to launch a drive for the release and rehabilitation of bonded workers. The ABSSS worked hard to contribute to the success of this effort. As a result hundreds of bonded workers, who had been toiling for as little as one and a quarter kg of food grain for a day’s hard work, could secure their release and get rehabilitation help.
Thus in efforts stretching across about 15 years or so (1985-2000) the ABSSS contributed directly or indirectly in important ways to the distribution of land to nearly 2500 landless or almost landless households, mostly kols and dalits. In fact even several of the former bonded workers could also get land, in addition to the other rehabilitation assistance.
Later when the ABSSS had a chance to lead a wider initiative in the Bundelkhand region, then it motivated and guided other voluntary organizations for similar work in some other areas, leading to the distribution of land to several hundred more landless households. On several more recent occasions also it has helped to rescue migrant workers trapped in bonded labor type conditions and make available government help to them.
Although the ABSSS and several of its activists faced much harassment and several threats in the course of this work, their campaign remained entirely peaceful and hence remains an inspiring example of achieving important rights of the poorest sections along the path of non-violence.
A lot of time has passed since then and with family divisions again several families which got small plots of land are landless or almost so, and in addition there are some evictions due to sanctuary related regulations. Despite this the significant gains achieved earlier with the help of the ABSSS created the base for a different and better life for many of the poorest and most vulnerable households.
As a development journalist I was reporting on these developments and could see that many significant achievements could be made in difficult and hostile conditions, overcoming the threats of dabangs as well as dacoit gangs.
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The writer is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include "Protecting Earth for Children", "Planet in Peril", "A Day in 2071" and "India’s Quest for Sustainable Farming and Healthy Food"
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