A toolkit to help tribals in Chhattisgarh understand their land rights

A toolkit to help tribals in Chhattisgarh understand their land rights

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A toolkit to help tribals in #Chhattisgarh understand their land rights. Know more http://bit.ly/1JcIQXs

@OxfamIndia helps develop a toolkit to help tribals in #Chhattisgarh understand their land rights http://bit.ly/1JcIQXs

Oxfam India organized a one day consultation on “Free prior and Informed consent (FPIC), a communication tool” in Raipur on August 12, 2015. 

The tool has been developed by Thoughtshop Foundation with the support of Oxfam India. Over 50 participants, including activists, intellectuals, media representatives and representatives of forest rights committees, gram sabhas (village councils) of several villages of Chhattisgarh participated and discussed state of community’s access and control over natural resources and the challenges faced while implementing the FPIC toolkit.  

Kondagaon Santayan, from the Thoughtshop Foundation Kolkata highlighted the use of pictures with limited texts, to ensure that the villagers could grasp more from the situation by visualizing their situation with the one given in the toolkit. 

Noted social activist and convenor of Nadi Ghati Morcha, Gautam Bandopadhyay stressed on the need of inventing a new dialogue to continue the resistance against exhaustive exploitation of the natural resources, tribals and villagers. 

He congratulated Oxfam India for developing the FPIC toolkit and maintained that it’s a very crucial communication kit that needs to be shared with the community so that they can learn to weigh the pros and cons before handing over their land.

Speaking on the occasion Programme Coordinator, Natural Resource Management (NRM), Oxfam India, Sharmishtha Bose  said that communities need to be made aware about their rights and insecurities so that they can decide about transferring their lands to the corporates or the government while looking at future prospects of their existence. 

The FPIC has been an internationally acclaimed principle that has played a pivotal role in developing consciousness within the indigenous people about their rights and sustenance.

Written by: Oxfam India staff

Photo Credit: Oxfam India photo