SAMAJ PARIVARTANA SAMUDAYA (SPS)
- Based in Dharwad, Karnataka
- Started in the early 1980s
- SPS has membership from different parts of the country and is now concentrating mainly on environmental issues and alternatives in development.
Overview of SPS activity in the past
- Human Development activities in Dharwad
- Intensive grass root work in 26 villages in three talukas of Haveri and Davanagere Districts
- Issues relating to protection of environment and human rights
- pollution of the river Tungabhadra in Dharwad District
- wasteland development with watershed approach
- protection of common lands
- the ‘Save the Western Ghats March’ (Nov 87 – Feb 88)
- the Right to work campaign with Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS).
- Facilitating people’s participation in decision-making
- Through community mobilization, advocacy, and legal court battles, SPS successfully stopped the Birlas-owned Harihar Polyfibers (HPF) from exploiting 75000 acres of forestland for industrial purposes, which would have deprived 500,000 villagers in six districts of their basic necessities.
- SPS head S.R. Hiremath was the convener of the National Committee for Protection of Natural Resources (NCPNR), against the move of Kamal Nath (Minister of State for Environment and Forests, Delhi). The committee successfully stalled Nath’s move to give away 2 million hectares of forest and common lands for industrial and commercial purposes.
- Advocacy and Community Mobilization efforts in Karnataka and Outside
- Extensive work with others relating to Bastar region (Chattisgarh State) and Kashipur region (Orissa State)
- Advocacy work on Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation legislation, Empowerment of Gram Sabha and strengthening of Panchayat Raj Institutes (PRIs) and importantly "Azaadi se Swarajya" campaign at the national level supported by national networks and organizations
An Example of SPS development work through Community Mobilization: Watershed Development
There are state government funds and Gram Panchayat funds available under what are generally referred to as Employment Programs, and also under specific watershed programs & forestry programs. SPS mobilizes the community to access such funds, and also helps the community in implementing watershed development projects:
- In Harapanahalli taluka in Bevinahalli cluster, the villagers, with SPS support, were able to bring pressure on government and get Rs.21 lakhs for watershed development work on its common lands of over 2000 acres
- In Hirebasur village, the Gram Panchayat spent funds from Jawahar Rojgar Yojana for afforestation of 25 acres of its common lands called Hiregudda (Big hill)
- For smaller watershed structures, which are sometimes badly needed to arrest soil eerosion and conserve water and soil, villagers do "Shramadaan", eg. Kumaranahalli area
- For tank rehabilitation program which is coming up in Hanagal taluka from Government of Karnataka program called Community-Based Tank Development Program, the villagers have to contribute a share (12% of the cost – partly by cash and partly by Shramadan)
Proposal for Asha
The educational component is an integral part of the five-year program of SPS (2002-03 to 2006-07), 85% funded by Tata Trust.
General Objectives
- Improving the present formal schools (esp primary education) through active involvement of community
- Working for community control over natural resources like Jal, Jungle, Jameen, and Khaneej (water, forest, land, and minerals)
- Strengthening of the self government units like gram sabha and gram panchayat to the rights-based advocacy at the policy and legislative level.
Key Aspects of the Education Proposal
- Improving Delivery of Formal Schooling
- ensure regular attendance and active involvement of teachers and the students
- through active involvement of the community
- using target-group organizations (such as Self Help Groups, Krishi Karmikar Sanghas --landless people associations & Village Forest Committees)
- revitalizing Gram Sabha to bring any problems relating to the teachers to the attention of the higher authorities
- Linking School with Management of Natural Resources:
- Students and teachers will be involved in seed collection
- With the arrival of Monsoon, a seed dribbling program involving the students, teachers and village organizations such as SHGs, KKSs, and VFCs will be arranged
- Students will be involved in the identification of medicinal and other plants along with the teachers
- Planting trees in the school compound
- Students will be educated on natural regeneration of common lands (including social fencing, soil and water conservation measures
This is part of the strategy of developing a sense of ownership of the natural resources by the community and leading to the proper management of common lands, collection of forest produce, etc.
- Exposure Visits to other Groups
- To learn from their experiences and improve education
- Community Learning Movement (CLM)
- Develop a team of 100 youth, i.e. a corps for social change (two women and two men from each of the 25 villages) by conducting systematic training programmes for 18 months
- As an experiment, this programme has already been initiated in 10 villages in Harapanhalli Taluka (Davangere District) in April 2001
- Such teams developed through CLM will be federated in due course of time
- Peoples Planning Campaign and Education.
- Ground work already done in Kumarnahalli (Davanagere Districy) - which the team from Kerala Shastra Sahitya Parishad (KSSP) helped initiate
- Plan to spread this systematically to other villages especially in developing comprehensive watershed programmes for each village
- Through the Grama Ganarajya Vedike (GGV), a state level forum on gram swaraj
- Teachers and students will be actively involved in this process along with Panchayat and village sangha members
- Peoples Movements and Education
- The involvement of SPS with peoples movements for protection of common lands in Karnataka and tribal movement in Kashipur area in terms of assertion of peoples rights over natural resources will be made informal topics of discussions with teachers and students
- This will help in involving them in building greater awareness among the poorer sections of the population through camps and padayatras (foot marches) during holidays
- Advocacy Work for meaningful implementation of the recent constitutional amendment making education a fundamental right
7. Training of Teachers
- During holidays camps will be conducted to train the teachers for equipping them well for the above-referred tasks
Budget
Proposal for Rs. 2.5 lakhs per year for five years (2002-03 to 2006-07) – to be shared between various Asha chapters (Stanford, Seattle, LA)