(Siddhartha Kumar)
Source: www.downtoearth.org.in
The Dalit experts
KANCHI KOHLI
Multimedia Publication >> Affirming Life and Diversity: Rural Images
and Voices on Food Sovereignty in South India • 60 pages (book/report)
+ dvd-rom
Any filmmaker will vouch for the fact that their creation cannot be
completed without prior research. Most often this research would
require spending time to understand the subject and the perspectives
associated with it. It would mean going deeper into the complexities
of the issue and the factors that influence its existence. When it
comes to filming and articulating the development crisis in a country
like India, it is the vulnerable sections of society and their
realities that land up on the other side of the camera. Both research
and filmmaking individuals locate themselves into the conventionally
understood “expert” domains.
In a unique endeavour to break away from this myth, the Community
Media Trust (cmt) at the Deccan Development Society (dds) has made
many films over the past few years.
The 20 Dalit women farmers leading the cmt have chosen their subjects,
conceptualized their locations, rolled the camera and pictured
realities, which reflect both agricultural crises and the solutions
that need recognition. These farmer women have transcended the
barriers of being non-literate and used audio and visual equipment as
action research tools. Like any filmmaker, they have secured training,
financial assistance and help of editors, translators and other
technicians. But soon after they have sought to present their world
and their issues in a manner that are more than just topics.
A set of 12 such films has been put together as part of the multimedia
publication under review. The publication showcases the vision of how
the most vulnerable communities lead the research, talk to fellow
farmers and engage in questions that they have to live with and
present it to the world to see. The films deal with four broad topics
highlighting the attempts of the Dalit farmers of Karnataka’s Medak
district on moving towards food sovereignty, a step beyond food
security. This segment showcases the successful experiments with the
alternative public distribution system, the mass mobilization around
millets and other forgotten foods through the mobile biodiversity
festivals.
Dalit women capture and present issues in a unique manner
Another film in this segment presents the importance of food systems
based on coarse grains such as jowar, bajra and other millets. While
these have come into the limelight as being nutritious food favoured
by the elite, they were once relegated as Dalit or poor man’s food and
ignored in mainstream agricultural policy.
In the second segment, the films deal with efforts to control
technology and markets through biofertilizers and millets. It aims at
presenting the work of women sanghams in the area to regain their hold
over their lives. The next set of films, termed, ‘A New Grassroots
Globalism in Action’, shows international advocacy agendas and
inter-country exchanges. The film that brings forth interactions
between the women farmers and the Quechua community in Peru and the
commonality of the concerns is a well thought out presentation.
The final section presents the real challenge of democratizing
research. While large seed giants have gone whole hog to promote
genetically engineered Bt Cotton to farmers of the country, the cmt is
able to delve into a domain of hardships. Two films on how the
grassroots confront the technology has testimonies of farmers of
Warangal in Andhra Pradesh and some countries in Africa where Bt
Cotton has failed. The films and its research take on the propaganda
through a deep challenge to governments and corporate sector to look
beyond profits.
The multimedia publication is a substantive visualization through the
audio visual medium. P V Satheesh and Michel Pimbert, with dds and
International Institute of Environment and Development (iied), uk, are
associated with them in this publication. The two authors who have
over the last many years journeyed with the cmt have penned their
thoughts that knit together the wide array of films and issues that
they attempt to highlight.
The message is clear. It is important to understand, “the degree to
which the marginalized communities and local institutions involved can
set research agendas and frame policies for food, farming, environment
and human well-being”. The challenge is how policy makers, scientists
and urban consumers deal with this as it will require a lot of
unlearning and humility, from one and many.
The branch manager wends his way through Village Singeetam, drawing an ever-swelling crowd of curious onlookers. Finally he arrives at the far edge of the village where Dalits (“Untouchables”) have been relegated to live. Pentamma is waiting. Though she has never been visited by so many people, she greets the crowd with a calm nod of resolve.
Pentamma and four other Dalit women proceed to a neighbor’s dirt courtyard where they must now pass the Group Recognition Test. Pentamma clutches a large white piece of paper as she sits cross-legged on a straw mat with her group, their SKS trainer and the branch manager. The crowd presses in from all sides to witness the challenges ahead.
o — according to Hindu culture — have no value. They sit in a circle, have elected a group leader, and take turns speaking.
Pentamma unfolds her piece of paper and flattens it out beside her. Finally, it is her turn. She is handed the notebook and pen. Taking a deep breath, she awkwardly weaves the unfamiliar implement between her fingers. Placing the point onto the page in front of her, she very slowly begins to write. She stops, checks her work against what is written her own paper, and readjusts the pen. Pentamma’s marks get larger and start to drift downward, but she continues across the page until the last oversized curve has been made. Pentamma has just accomplished, at age 25, what others more fortunate than her accomplish by age four or five. This illiterate Dalit has just written her own name. It is the only word she can write, but it is enough.
them to grow a micro-business. Ellevva and her husband, Durgiah, live in a small, one room house made of mud and sticks. Before taking a loan from SHARE, both worked as day laborers for meager wages (usually 20rs per day for a woman and 40 rs per day for a man) and struggled to make ends meet.
nd grinds the rest (the pulses [legumes] and dal [lentils]) into flour. Already thinking ahead to her next loan, Ellevva wants to purchase another buffalo.
for help, to date OM has established 80 schools across India that are providing 13,000 Dalit children with an education. At the request of local leaders, the students follow an English-medium curriculum emphasising a Christian worldview of personal worth to God. Each Dalit Education Centre also hosts adult evening classes, health seminars and self-help groups for the local community.