Fwd: Protests Planned Across Country Against Attack on the Rights of Tribals and Forest Dwellers (Campaign for Survival and Dignity)
Jai Sen
Saturday, September 28, 2019
India in movement…, Indigenous Peoples in movement…, Forest dwellers in movement…, Resistance in movement…
Protests Planned Across India Against Attack on the Rights of Tribals and Forest Dwellers
Campaign for Survival and Dignity
In solidarity,
JS
fwd
Begin forwarded message:From: "C.R.Bijoy" <cr.b...@gmail.com>
Date: 27 September 2019 at 9:00:27 PM GMT-4
To: Coalition for Environmental Justice in India <coalition-for-environm...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Protests Planned Across Country Against Attack on the Rights of Tribals and Forest Dwellers
Date: Thu, 26 Sep, 2019, 4:28 PM
Subject: [forestrights] Protests Planned Across Country Against Attack on the Rights of Tribals and Forest Dwellers
To: <forest...@yahoogroups.com>
Protests Planned Across Country Against Attack on the Rights of Tribals and Forest Dwellers
Following a two day national meeting, the Campaign for Survival and Dignity, a national platform of tribal and forest dwellers, today gave a call for national protests in state capitals and other cities on November 17th, 2019. Protests are already confirmed in several States and tens of thousands of people are expected to join.
The BJP government at the Centre has taken two steps this year that would crush the rights of the more than 10 crore [100 million] tribals and forest dwellers who live in forests:
- Proposed an amendment to the Indian Forest Act that would allow forest officials to arrest without warrant, raid and search without warrant, confiscate property, extinguish people's rights by just paying cash, and shoot and kill forest dwellers while facing nothing more than an enquiry. Confessions to a forest officer will be admissible as evidence in court - something that is not true even under 'anti-terror' laws - and in many cases the burden will be on the person to prove themselves innocent. If this becomes law, any tribal or forest dweller in the country can by law be arrested, deprived of their rights, or even killed by forest officials on the basis of suspicion alone.
- The government also remained silent in the Supreme Court, allowing a case based on lies and misleading propaganda to go unchallenged and eventually leading the Court to direct the eviction of millions of families. In the most recent hearing of the case, even after knowing that this case affects more than 10 crore people, the Centre was absent again.
Today crores [tens of millions] of forest dwellers are at risk of losing all their rights under the Forest Rights Act, 2006. If the Indian Forest Act goes through, forest dwellers will have less rights than they did under the British. Forests would be converted into a kind of Special Economic Zone where all rights are subject to the whims of forest officials, who will have more power than soldiers in disturbed areas.
Protests will take place in state capitals and other cities on November 17th, including Bhopal, Raipur, Mumbai, Bhubaneshwar, Gadchiroli, Dehradun, Udaipur, and Gandhinagar. On November 21st, under the banner of the Bhumi Adhikar Andolan, a national alliance, a rally is expected to take place in Delhi as well.
Campaign for Survival and Dignity
Jai Sen
Independent researcher, editor
Now based in New Delhi, India (+91-98189 11325) and in Ottawa, Canada, on unceded Anishinaabe territory (+1-613-282 2900)
CURRENT / RECENT publications :
Jai Sen, ed, 2018a – The Movements of Movements, Part 2 : Rethinking Our Dance. Ebook and hard copy available at PM Press
Jai Sen, ed, 2018b – The Movements of Movements, Part 1 : What Makes Us Move ? (Indian edition). New Delhi : AuthorsUpfront, in collaboration with OpenWord and PM Press. Hard copy available at MOM1AmazonIN, MOM1Flipkart, and MOM1AUpFront
Jai Sen, ed, 2017 – The Movements of Movements, Part 1 : What Makes Us Move ?. New Delhi : OpenWord and Oakland, CA : PM Press. Ebook and hard copy available at PM Press
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