Screening of Short Videos & Talk Marginalised Voices in Climate Crisis
With National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR)-DAAA
Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan New Delhi
Critical Zones, what do they mean for the marginalised communities of India constituted by the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST), roughly 25% of the country’s population? 60 percent of Dalits and 90 percent of nomadic groups are landless. It is difficult to identify the land on which they live or from which they live, for they do not own it or its soil. Land is not just an asset, but one’s social identity, which is denied to the Dalits, and others like them. They remain colonized by their countrymen, and their government, and are yet to taste independence from slave-like living conditions. Their contribution to the economies is ignored, and their pro-Earth actions are overlooked.
This event will bring to its audience an opportunity to learn about the varied forms of disenfranchisement suffered by these communities, which bear the bane of inequality, caste, and ethnic discrimination, untouchability in brazen forms-physical and systemic, and forced alienation from their natural ecosystem, preserved and conserved by their traditional and symbiotic relationship with nature and its rich resources. Their relationship with land and land-based resources is being increasingly threatened, snatched for private gains, leading to de-recognition, and a lack of social protection, restoration, and rehabilitation measures for their losses and the ecosystem.
The event will provide an opportunity to touch upon some of the climate adaptation concerns of the neglected and marginalised communities, found to be generally forgotten or silenced in dominant climate discourses. It will be an event to propel a dialogue on what Climate Justice should look like from the marginalised people’s perspective.
Beena J Pallical is a Dalit women Leader and currently General Secretary, National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR)-DAAA. Over the last eleven years she is with the NCDHR working on Dalit Economic Rights. She has been passionately working towards policy changes within Central and State governments towards the marginalised communities (Dalits &Tribals) and been demanding that Dalit Women be included in policy formulation. Her main focus continues to be on Economic Justice and specifically looking at Gender Equity. She also works around targeted budgets, fiscal accountability and governance. Her focus the last 5 years has been on how to enable youth to access their right to education, ensuring that the budgets allocated for them is effectively implemented. Through this campaign across ten states has enabled many students to get their scholarships and complete their education. She is also the Chair of the Asia Dalit Rights Forum (ADRF). A large part of her work is focused on the UN mechanisms and has worked closely with both OHCHR at Geneva and the HLPF at NY. She has been involved in the sustainable development goals since 2015 and the inclusion of voices of the marginalised and taken this agenda to the High-level political forum in NY. She has also been looking at how finances can be better managed to ensure that the SDGs can be achieved specifically from the perspective of the marginalised. She has worked with all the various mechanisms and has represented the Dalit Women’s rights at the UN platforms. She has contributed to the overall work of Dalit Rights in NCDHR and participated in several national and international seminars raising the voice of Dalits and Adivasis and advocating stronger policy measures with effective implementation.
(Adv) Griijesh Dinker, hails from a Dalit family, is a lawyer and has been working for the Dalit community's rights and justice for over a decade. She started her work at a Rajasthan-based Dalit organization and gained insights into the Dalit social, economic, political, and legal rights of the Dalits and women. Her work is focused on advocacy with the state and national governments and policymakers to strengthen the implementation of preventive laws and policies to improve the situation of the Dalit communities and attain the situation of social justice and dignity as enshrined in the Constitution of India. She believes that the inclusive and equitable approach in all the state programs could only improve the situation of Dalit women and can ensure the rights, dignity, and justice to marginals among marginals. She has vast experience in guiding legal aid to Dalit women in cases of caste and gender-based violence. She contributed to developing the evidence on the violence against women and minor girls, the status of implementation of the SC/ST PoA Act and POCSO Act; research and analysis of government data on violence (NCRB) for advocacy with the law enforcement agencies and policymakers.
Ms Lee Macqueen is a trained rights worker and professional on various aspects of human rights, child rights and humanitarian rights. Her work centres on building the collective leadership of the socially marginalised communities to acquire the ability and wherewithal to become climate and disaster risk aware and resilient. Her work highlights the nexus of the intersection of social identity with gender and age identities that compound vulnerabilities and injustice in public disaster relief and damage and loss assessments in climate change-based/aggravated disasters. She engages in making Humanitarian, Disaster Risk Reduction, and Climate Justice policies, programmes, budgets, and services inclusive and equitable for Dalit and Adivasi communities. In 2022, she became the first woman chairperson representing Dalit inclusion in the governance of Sphere India, a national coalition of humanitarian, DRR, Climate and Development organisations, augmenting inclusive governance, accountability, and transparency policies and practices.
Kuldeep Kumar Baudh, an accomplished activist, advocate, and researcher hailing from Jalaun, Uttar Pradesh, holds a postgraduate degree in social work from Bundelkhand University and an LLB from Lucknow University. Over the past decade, he has spearheaded a youth-focused campaign on Dalit Rights and Dignity in the Bundelkhand region, based on constitutional rights and values, and promoting Dr. Ambedkar's philosophy of Educate, Agitate, and Organize. In 2008, he founded 'Prayas Jan Utthan Samiti (PJUS)' and the Bundelkhand Dalit Adhikar Manch (BDAM) on 14 April 2010. His current efforts are focused on Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction in Uttar Pradesh, with a particular emphasis on the drought-prone Bundelkhand region. He identifies and amplifies the vulnerabilities and adaptation needs of marginalized communities, many of whom are landless. Additionally, he is dedicated to ensuring that public programmes and financing are inclusive and accessible to the Dalits, Adivasi, and other marginalized sections of society.
Details
Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan New Delhi
3, Kasturba Gandhi Marg, Near Vakil Lane
110001 New Delhi
