The Work of LAHRC and the People's Organizations
Although 99% of the population of the Nizar, Ucchal, Songadh, Vyara, Mandvi, Mangrol and Umadpada talukas of Surat District is tribal, they lack access to basic infrastructure such as power, water, sanitation and services like healthcare and education. In addition, both the State and unscrupulous outsider interests have displaced and dispossessed the tribals of their lands (by damming rivers, deforestation, and illegal land grabbing. It is ironic that laws aimed at environmental protection come into direct conflict with tribal peoples' access to their natural resource base. Such marginalization and divisive forces embroiled the tribals in internal conflicts and court cases. Despite extreme poverty, they often resorted to selling the last of their assets ? a strip of land or a buffalo ? just to fight a case. Alienation from land opened a Pandora's box of legal wrangles over tenancy rights, unauthorized land grabbing, and problems ensuing from the government's land Ceiling Act. Traditionally, tribals were not allowed to own land as individuals, so the need to document ownership had never arisen. Suddenly, they found themselves dispossessed of land that their ancestors had owned since time immemorial.
Legal aid to remote tribal communities has sought justice by redressing individual instances of abuse, but have not built cumulative efforts to prevent abuse and change how tribal people relate to the legal system and other institutions of the State.
As a response to these and related problems, LAHRC has evolved a multi-pronged strategy:
Training local barefoot "paralegals-cum-grassroots workers" to create village-level institutions
Paralegal trainees spend an average of ten days per month at LAHRC, then go to the field to conduct surveys of land disputes, marital disputes, human rights violations, and how the tribal society handles these cases. Training lasts from 8-12 months and includes the basics of criminal, civil, personal and labor law as well as women's rights. In addition to collecting data, trainees were required to impart legal knowledge to villagers through meetings and other creative activities such as songs, skits and puppet shows. Today, besides their regular legal work, trainees' tasks include engaging communities in social analysis so that they delve into problems and options for change. At the same time, using education is constantly emphasized as a tool to combat discrimination.
LAHRC has trained more than 300 paralegal-cum-grassroots workers, about half of whom are women, and they have dispensed with some 1,800 court cases. Nearly 1,900 out-of-court cases have been settled at the centers since 1993. An evaluation team calculated that in 2000, Rs 424,906,229 ($ 8.8 million) was saved by avoiding the courts.
Encouraging and training full-fledged lawyers from within the tribal community
From the pool of active paralegals LAHRC selects those with outstanding ability and commitment to be trained as full-fledged lawyers, earning their LLB degrees in three years of study. To date, 24 tribal lawyers have been educated under this program. These lawyers practice not only for personal enrichment but as legal advocates of a broader adivasi rights movement. This in turn leads to more legal aid centers being established and staffed in tribal areas.
Catalyzing People's Organizations
LAHRC helps establish People's Organizations (POs) that move from individual cases to collective social analysis of the realities adivasis face and the rights due to them. This is then translated into collective action. Self-funded, self-led and largely self-replicating, the People's Organizations are the beginnings of civil society for people with no access to government or mainstream citizen sectors.
The Adivasi Sarvangi Vikas Sangh (Peoples Organization) was registered in August 1998. People's Organizations were established in each village, drawing members from the village, and were registered as local autonomous bodies. Men and women are equally represented: each People's Organization must have one male and one female representative. One man and one woman are elected from each member village to form the taluka (division) representative body. From this body, 15 representatives form the Executive Committee: 14 representatives plus one LAHRC member. Four coordinators ? two women and two men ? serve at the taluka level. Each village People's Organization must consist of at least 40 members. Although members can belong to a political party or religious sect, the organization itself has no religious affiliations nor party politics. Based on a unanimous decision, the scope of the People's Organizations' work is issue-based to avoid getting spread too thin. Thus at each meeting, one issue or problem is considered and discussed thoroughly.
The PO's role is to create legal and social awareness at the community level (carrying on the work started by paralegal-organizers) and organizing large public events such as rallies and demonstrations. To date, 7 People's Organizations have been formed with a membership of nearly 20,000 tribal people from 366 villages. They are entirely self-sustaining, funded in part by their members' lifetime dues of Rs. 101, and are registered as autonomous local bodies. In 1998-2000 alone, POs in the seven talukas have raised funds totaling almost Rs 200,000 ($4,168) each, and have managed to garner government funds for basic amenities. Collectively the POs have been able to influence decisions affecting their access to forest land, as well as access to government employment schemes, which never seemed to reach the right people. They have also been able to present a strong tribal voice to government officials, local non-tribals and political parties. Dynamics within the community have tilted in favor of women through the concerted effort of LAHRC to keep equal representation of women in all levels of the people's organizations and their participation in decision making and other social justice system have improved.
Through networks and a newsletter, LAHRC promotes the role legal aid can play in stimulating People's Organizations and opens up the training to members of other organizations. LAHRC is cautious about trying to expand into a centralized organization; LAHRC works because it does not overwhelm and try to lead the nascent People's groups.
Activities of the People's Organizations