Janadesh 2007

Janadesh is the name of a national campaign on land rights in India launched by the movement Ekta Parishad. The word "Janadesh" means "The Verdict of the People" in Hindi. The campaign was launched in 2005 and culminated in 2007, in the form of a 350 km foot march involving 25,000 people. According to the organizers, the majority of the marchers were landless Adivasi and Dalit.

According to Ekta Parishad the lack of secure land rights is a major contributor to rural poverty in India, and the government of India needs to undertake major land reforms to address this issue. The aim of the Janadesh campaign is to put pressure on the Indian government to undertake specific land reforms aimed at securing land rights for the poorest groups in India.

According to a recent World Bank report poverty remains a significant problem in India, with India’s progress in reducing poverty compared with some of its Asian neighbors described as ‘modest’. According to the same report, poverty in India is most widespread in rural areas (where almost three out of four Indians live), and the highest incidence of poverty of all is found among the rural landless, 68% of whom are classed as living below the poverty line. These findings are echoed in other reports on the subject. For example, Sundaram and Tendulkar found in a 2003 study of poverty in India that the highest levels of poverty were found among assetless (i.e. landless) rural households dependent on agricultural wage labor. Levels of poverty were found to be even higher among members of this group if they also belonged to either a Scheduled Tribe or Scheduled Caste. Furthermore, although at an overall percentage level rural poverty is decreasing in India, due to population growth the absolute number of people in rural areas below the poverty line is not decreasing.

Obviously there are differing viewpoints on what measures would be most effective to alleviate poverty among these groups. According to Ekta Parishad, the single most important measure that could be taken to reduce these levels of poverty would be to grant secure land rights to small pieces of land to landless peasants, reducing their dependence on casual wage labor and providing a measure of food security.

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