Bhoomi Adhikar Andolan (Movement for Land Rights)

Country

India

Campaign Description

Bhoomi Adhikar Andolan is a coming together of different groups and struggles to protest against the proposed amendment to the law on land acquisition that would take away the rights of disenfranchised farmers and people whose land is taken away for big projects. Connected to this is the issue of growing slum evictions for gentrification of the city and the rights of indigenous people to their way of life and livelihood living in forests. The movement started on 24th Feb 2015 and has successfully blocked the amendment to the law in two sessions of the Parliament. This was a major change proposed by the Modi government especially to benefit their corporate benefactors.

Campaign Objectives

To keep the law on land acquisition and rehabilitation proposed in 2013 and to prevent Modi government's current amendment proposed in 2015

Campaign Target Audience

Farmers
Villagers
Slum dwellers
Forest dwellers and all those effected by proposed plans for land acquisition by the State or private parties with the help of the State

Campaign Tools and Activities (Online & Offline)

Meetings in villages organized by grassroot groups
Large protests in Delhi to protest the law
Newspaper coverage in different languages
Social media outreach in crisis and detailed reports on impact of land acquisition
Film and video reporting by independent filmmakers and Video Volunteers

Campaign Outcomes

The law has been not passed in the Parliament for 2 sessions and is likely to be proposed again, but so far the major achievement of this massive campaign has been blocking the proposed amendment. However this is a huge movement that is using largely offline modes of communication and mobilizing and is also impacted by the machinations of political parties and lobbying in Parliament. A small part of is driven by reporters and those using social media to talk about issues and crisis on the ground and that reportage is my focus.

Successes

Blocking the law

Failures

This campaign doesn't address the needs of those who are not land-owners. It is a campaign largely led by those who are likely to belong to higher castes or at least marginally better off than landless labourers, but even then there are high rates of distress driven suicides by farmers because of poverty and debt.
So far slum evictions in urban areas is not the focus of the campaign even though there are several such evictions taking place without notice or compensation.