[ZESTCaste] When Dalits show the way

http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/print.aspx?artid=T3swkKBVufg=
By Manan Kumar
29 Oct 2009 02:01:00 AM IST
When Dalits show the way
NEW DELHI: When the elite club of climate change assembles for a
rendezvous at Copenhagen on December 7, it can take some lessons from
a group of indigenous communities on how to live without jeopardising
the ecology and thus affecting the climate.
Parallel to the COP15, these people of indigenous communities, across
five major ecosystems of the subcontinent, will also come together to
share their common heritage of community knowledge that enables them
to live without harming the climate but who are fast becoming victims
of global greed led by big corporates. In a first-of-its-kind move,
Dalit farmers of Dindigal and Sivakasi and Paravas, Muthurayars, and
Nadar from Gulf of Mannar in Tamil Nadu, Dongri Kondhis, Kauntas,
Khatias, Pandras and Lolias of Orissa, women Dalit farmers from Medhak
in Orissa, Baigas of Chhattisgarh, Bhils of Madhya Pradesh, Santhals
from Jharkhand and Chakesang Nagas from Nagaland deliberated on the
challenges of climate crisis and dissemination of the knowledge that
enables them to sustain themselves in some of the harshest habitats
with multiple challenges.
Anchored by Andhra's Deccan Development Society, they met here on
Wednesday and issued "We have the Power to Heal the Climate" _ a
community charter on climate crisis.