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Issues We work
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Right
from issue No. 1, regarding trafficking
of a Dalit girl from Antarvedipalem village
in Sakinetipalli Mandal of East Godavari
District to the issue of admission fee scam
for Dalit and Tribal students in the Government
Colleges, Gamana strived to uphold the rights
of these marginalized sections.
Gamana has actively involved itself in many
issues. Apart from this, Gamana addressed
the problem of industrial pollution to resolve
the multi dimensional issues in a holistic
manner. (E.g. issue of migrant bonded Labor
from the tribal tracts of Koraput Malkangiri
District of Orissa) in Himayath sagar case
(W.P.No 17644/2002 where tribal bonded labors
were engaged in stone quarrying mining).
As far as the Right to Life is concerned
it was the intervention to protect the tribal
people of different stature and recognition
i.e. the fishing community in the coastal
tracts of East Godavari and Prakasam districts,
where the very setup and the pollution aspects
of the industrial interventions, have proposed
to further marginalize the disadvantaged
sections of the society. It was the opposition
to protect the livelihood system of the
community that was threatened by the proposed
ship breaking unit, the most hazardous and
polluting industries, on the lines of Alang
in Gujarat the impact of which is an ultimate
concern, even now, to the environmentalist
all over the country including Green Peace.
Gamana was able to stall its establishment
through a Public Interest Litigation Petition
(W.P.No.19005/2002). In another issue of
same nature involving Reliance Industries
Ltd. Gamana at present is seriously pursuing
the case where the existence of Bio diversity
in a Wild Life Sanctuary involving the fragile
mangrove forests and that of fisherman village
are under serious threat due to the proposed
Gas pipeline and the processing and refinery
plant of Reliance Ind.Ltd. Nearby Kakinada.
On development issues, Gamana’s intervention
are of technical nature with its technical
team guiding, assisting and supervising
the works of the tribal people of Vanthada
in Eleswaram Mandal to lay the village road
under food for work programme. Apart from
this Gamana has done an extensive work of
feasibility studying the streams, springs
and natural water falls in its targeted
area eastern Ghats to plan for the setting
up of micro hydro power projects for power
generation to electrify the interior remote
tribal villages nearby these streams. Gamana
proposes to achieve the above objectives
through setting up of tribal village cooperatives
to mobilize community fund and institutional
finances. |
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To create
models of Sustainability in Cooperative
Movement on Gandhian principles the effective
intervention of Gamana is through setting
up of “Vanthada village tribal Labor
contract cooperative society” with
a view to bid for the developmental works
offered by the government for implementation
in tribal areas which so far have been procured
by the outsiders/non tribal in disguise
of registered Government contractors, the
instruments for transfer of funds. The objective
of Gamana is to offer ideological and technical
support and inputs to see that the resources
and funds meant for tribal people and the
tribal areas should be ploughed back only
through tribal initiatives such as the cooperative
societies. Gamana arrived to its mechanisms
in a bid to stall the nefarious designs
of a private mining company, which tried
to mine “LATERITE” available
in this area, through “Benami”
(False Fronts) transactions in the name
of three individual tribal people. Gamana
succeeded in checking this through formation
of cooperative society to exploit upon the
clauses of preferential treatment to cooperative
society. Though ideologically Gamana is
against the mining activity in tribal areas,
it forced itself to mobilize the community
to form the cooperative society and bid
for mining lease as the external players
involved were of high political profile
and the cooperative mechanisms was the only
alternative to create litigations on the
evil designs of the company. As the cooperative
would give place for many intricacies that
may at some stage avoid the aspect of mining
activity itself at least through judicial
intervention. As explained, the purpose
of making it as Labor contract cooperative
instead of mining co-op is to facilitate
the bidding for contract workers notified
by the government.
The purpose of dwelling upon all the above
facts in detail is to demonstrate that Gamana
could be able to pursue all these endeavors
without any project funding or institutional
support from any quarter. It could be able
to meet the above requirements from the
consultancy works given by the government
for evaluation studies of governmental interventions
such as CMEY, Watershed program. As a policy
matter Gamana could take up only consultancy
works with a view to decline the intricacies
involved in getting the project funding.
It is the same ideology by which Gamana
preferred to register only for Sec. 12A
under Income Tax act but not under Sec.80G
also for accepting donations from the public.
It is basically to uphold the objectives
“Whatsoever is offered to the community
whether it is service or funds from the
individuals or institutions it shall be
without any “self interest”
of whatsoever nature and true to its value
and benefit”.
The capacity building and building up of
the team is slowly taking shape as the funding
pattern and position has not been stabilized
so far. Basically it is all a need-based
approach and personnel are employed/engaged
as per the requirements. The personnel policy
is well in place with an equitable approach
and safeguards evolved as the concept of
internal democracy and transparency |
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Field
Area:
The interventions of Gamana are in response
to emerging requirements depending upon
the spatial and temporal factors. The kind
of involvement is area specific and in tune
with aims and objectives of the organization.
In the tribal tracts of Eastern Ghats covering
East Godavari and Vizag Districts, the intervention
is for the implementation of Integrated
Water resources Management (IWRM) as supported
by Oxfam India, Bangalore. For Gamana IWRM
is not the conventional concept of Conservation
but Utilization as the tribal areas are
abundant in water resources, but there is
hardly any utilization owing to the difficulties
imposed upon by the terrain and lack of
exposure to the modern and scientific means
of consumptive utilization. Gamana believes
that a little interest and committed involvement
in the interventions will yield amazing
results rightly addressing the issues of
health and nutritional standards. A crude
example for the lack of interest is that
even today the concept of safe drinking
water is vague in almost all the tribal
villages. Leave alone chlorination, even
filtration techniques are not prevalent.
It is just direct consumption from the streams
and stagnant water from springs which is
causing havoc in the form of Diarrhoea,
viral fever and other water borne diseases
especially during rainy seasons. Apart from
addressing the above issue for creating
alternate livelihood system, Gamana plans
to intervene through design and development
of Micro Hydro Power project for generation
of electricity from springs and natural
water falls in a sustainable manner. ****With
electrical power a wide range of interventions
especially by gaining control over flow
of water through diversion and lifting,
for cultivating medicinal plants and organic
products by bio-dynamic vegetable gardening.****
In pursuit of this, Gamana has identified
various springs and streams in the interior
areas where the interventions of government
sector and development sector were not made
so far. Geographically this intervention
at present is limited to three mandals each
of East Godavari and Visakhapatnam Districts.
In Visakhapatnam it is Araku valley Ananthagiri
and Dumbriguda mandals, covering the catchment
area of Sarada River. In East Godavari it
is Eleru River encompassing Y. Ramavaram,
Addatheegala, and Rajavommangi mandals.
The pursuit of Gamana is to demonstrate
the extension of the famous and widely perceived
phrase “Health of hills is wealth
of plains”. For Gamana it should be
wealth of tribal people also.
Environment Pollution:
In the nature, pollution is not limited
to any specific area. The source may be
stationary but its impact knows no boundaries.
Hence Gamana attempts to address the issue
of Air, Water and other environmental violations
irrespective of the area of operation. |
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Web
Profile
GAMANA is a Non Governmental Development
Organization devoted to improve awareness
among the masses of Rural and Tribal areas
on various socially relevant aspects of
their lives and to motivate them to help
shape their own destiny. It has been set
up with a motto of “Responding to
the needs of the community” especially
the socially deprived sections of the
society and to respond to the impending
requirements of the protection of environment
of the country.
Our major activities
include:
a) Tribal Advocacy and Support:
To work towards a people and
environment friendly development of the
Eastern Ghats region. To enable community
based organizations working with the tribals,
farmers' etc build up their capacities
with the support and experience of Gamana.
To endeavor towards development alternate
development designs for optimal utilization
of natural resources. To empower poor
communities in the Eastern Ghats and help
them in they're right to decision-making
and right to gain control over their natural
resources.
b) Industry Watch: It
monitors the industrial policy of the
state and projects proposed and set up
in north coastal Andhra Pradesh. It addresses
people’s rights vis-à-vis
industry, participates in public hearings,
disseminates project related information
to communities affected, undertakes training
on environment monitoring for local communities.
c) Alternate Development Activities:
The Organisation explores and helps local
communities and community based groups
in finding viable alternate development
designs for addressing local needs through
utilization of local natural resources
like setting up micro-hydro projects,
rain water harvesting for drinking water,
small irrigation systems, eco-tourism,
marketing interventions for local commodities,
etc.
e) Documentation and Studies:
The Organisation takes up studies
and action research on issues related
to people, development, state policies
and programmes, social conflicts and struggles,
collective development activities of the
communities, etc like industries and displacement,
EIA Reports, Watershed Program evaluation,
CMEY Program evaluation etc. |
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Copyright
2006 Gamana. All rights reserved. |
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