ABOUT US

Referring to social movements and liberation of the oppressed masses, Late Baba Amte used to often say: 'Sangharsh without nav-nirman is impotent, nirman without sangharsh is sterile'. Drawing inspiration from this, the two-pronged strategy guided this process – 'sangharsh' (struggle) for rights and 'navnirman' (reconstruction, re-creation) for dignity. The principles of social emancipation and liberation, propounded by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar guided the whole process – organise/collectivise, educate/conscientise and agitate/struggle. A firm belief and a commitment to the human right to life, liberty, dignity and equality has shaped the programmatic action of JMS through its campaigns for political, economic, social and cultural rights of Dalit women.

Through a process of social mobilisation and collectivisation, interrogation of the structures of oppression, Madiga women battled an uphill struggle for justice, equality and dignity using these strategies to confront the caste and gender based violence. The Dalit Madiga women have come a long way, from not having the space and the power to sit even for an hour at the sangha meetings in villages to entering the thresholds of gram panchayats, district offices and to be able to demand their entitlements, monitoring local public institutions such as primary health centres and anganwadis. JMS carved out its own identity through its collective power raising a collective voice against injustices and violence wherever and whenever possible. The human rights vision and work of JMS has also expanded to embrace other marginalised communities in the area and to show solidarity with all the struggling masses in the country.

Governance structure of JMS is in concentric circles:

• Membership and basic units: The village sanghas and labour groups are the building blocks of JMS, and are the basic units. It is headed by a president and a vice-president.
• Karyakarthara Samiti (Coordination Committee): Each sangha with consensus nominates two experienced women with leadership qualities to be representatives to the JMS karyakarthara samiti. This is the coordination committee or general body of JMS that meets every two months.
• Sanchalana Samiti (Conveners' Committee): Women who volunteered to give full time to the sanghatane in 2005 (this was a two year long process of consultation and preparing women to steer the sanghatan), were nominated with consensus by the karyakartha samiti as the first conveners. The committee began with 12 members. This samiti has now five senior women members. The sanchalana samiti is supported by two male-facilitators from the community who have contributed to the JMS formation for over 15 years. The sanchalana samiti (Composed of sanchalakis) nominates women with qualities to leading and representing JMS as president and vice-president. JMS is ably supported by an administrator and financial manager from within the community. Sanchalana samiti is responsible for the execution of day to day work, responding to issues and to lead the campaigns.
• Associates and supporters [staff]: Periodically, from the communities around or from other places, professional staff and those with skills, work with JMS on specific campaigns or projects. They are considered staff.
• JMS Mentors: JMS is supported by mentors for its technical work. They also guide JMS in strategising work and if required representing JMS in external spaces, as and when requested by JMS.

Sanchalana Samiti (JMS Convener Committee)

Smt. Chinnamma, President
Smt. Lakshmi, Vice President
Smt Sunandamma, Member
Susheelamma, Member
Devaputhra, a local community members, associated with JMS since 2000
Kariappa, a local farmer, grew up as community leader in JMS, associated since 2005

The six districts (Kalburgi, Yadgir, Raichur, Koppal, Ballari and Bidar) of Hyderabad Karnataka region were under the direct rule of Nizam of Hyderabad till its forceful integration with India in 1948 by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the then Home Minister of independent India. Before merging, there were severe riots, arson and looting, largely directed against dalits in this region because dalits had fought against Nizam's autocratic rule and the oppression of local desais, deshmukhs, feudal landlords (Patils, Gowdas and so on) and Razakars. Following the merger, large pieces of lands owned by these landlords were transferred or grabbed mostly by the Lingayats and other middle castes in the region. Due to utter poverty, lack of resources, extreme caste oppression, and social and cultural distance from the upper castes, dalits could neither take possession of land nor consolidate political, economic or social power following the unification. However, large chunks of lands continued to be with the feudal landlords of the earlier era. Landlessness was an important cause and condition for extreme caste oppression in the region, including very inhuman forms of unwritten untouchability. Dalits continue to be socially out-casted living in large concentration outside every village layout, structurally deprived of basic necessities of water, primary health and educational facilities resulting into very poor Human Development Indices (HDI).

The Nanjundappa Committee set up by the Govt. of Karnataka to study regional disparities noted that the HDI in Hyderabad Karnataka region was the poorest in the entire state of Karnataka due to poor access to basic services, health care facilities and lack of development. The condition of Dalit agricultural labourers was extremely precarious as dalit men frequently migrated in distress to big cities for low-paying unorganised jobs, leaving behind women and children. This meant that the Dalit women had to take care of entire family responsibilities, largely through the agricultural wages earned by them. This created multiple burdens for dalit women forcing large number of children into child labour in agriculture fields as well as bonded labour. Most dalit children dropped out of the non-functional schools in villages.

Towards Asserting Human Dignity!
When in late 1999 and early 2000, two of the community organisers of JMS went around villages of Manvi taluka of Raichur district, there was a visible and palpable sense of fear among the Dalit women. It was very difficult to get them even to talk to JMS organisers as they worked in the agriculture fields. Even to seek 10 minutes time during their afternoon food break required the permission of the upper caste landlord for whom they worked! Initial efforts to bring them together yielded some results, as a group of 30 dalit women (all agricultural wage labourers) dared to travel outside the district for a training of four days. It was this moment of crossing the boundaries of a village structure to come together and talk to each other without fear, which marked the genesis of a community led process of conscientisation to 'name' caste based discrimination and economic oppression. Through this process of conscientisation dalit women named untouchability not as 'cultural practices' but as violence against them that undermined their very human existence and human dignity!

Resistance and Struggle...
This was followed by intense and widespread collectivisation processes, wherein sanghas were formed in over 50 villages. During this phase dalit women collectively confronted physical violence and other forms of oppression which brought them into head-on conflict with powerful feudal landlords, caste forces and lethargic state machinery. Confrontation became the norm of the day as Dalit women decided 'enough was enough'. In several villages JMS women leaders were socially boycotted while some experienced physical assault on several occasions. In almost all instances JMS responded with mass assertion and rallies (ranging from 1000 – 4000) largely of dalit women.

Relentless struggles continued against all forms of violence and discrimination (domestic as well as caste based) against Dalit women, forcing the otherwise unresponsive and lethargic police and administrative machinery to Dalit women's issues in Raichur district. Rooting out violence and discrimination, eventually got transformed into campaigns for claiming public spaces in public institutions by Dalit women: 'nodi namma panchayat' brought women into Gram Panchayats and gram sabhas (2002), 'nodi namma prathamika aarogya kendra' (primary health centres — 2003) introduced women to PHCs, 'nodi namma nyaya bele angadi' (PDS shops — 2004/05) introduced women to the idea of right to food security and their own entitlements. JMS was the first social organisation in Karnataka which translated the first orders of the Supreme Court of India on the Right to Food PIL into Kannada langauage and campaigned in 100 villages of Raichur district in 2005.

Larger Struggles and Solidarity for Social Justice
JMS-led agricultural workers' struggles to make it a labour movement of all subaltern communities during the prolonged years of drought (2001-2004) which included the struggle against harvesting machines resulting in a historic ban on the paddy harvesting machines in 2004-05. JMS extended solidarity to Dalit movements on issues of atrocities as well as demand for proportionate sub-reservation for Madigas (Madiga Meesalathi Horata Samiti) in Karnataka. At the national level JMS continued its solidarity with National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM), Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), People's Health Movement (PHM), Right to Food Campaign, Pension Parishad, and many other social movements and campaigns.

Community Education for Liberation
Raichur district topped India in mid-90's, in the number of child labourers! Caste oppression, feudal stranglehold and extreme poverty forced Dalit children to dropout of dysfunctional primary schools and pushed them into bonded labour or 'jeeta padhati'. Along with JMS' efforts to make schools accessible to Dalit children, Chilipili Child Labourers' Special School began in the year 2000 in collaboration with the Central Labour Ministry. It was programmed as a bridge-school to wean out children from child labour and introduce them to literacy and then enrol them in the mainstream schools. It began in Markamdinni village (about 12 kms from Pothnal) with the dream of confronting the systemic violence against young children and to restore their dignity. Initially, during 2000 - 2008, it was a day school which was run in the community centre (Ambedkar Bhavan) located within the Dalit community. The school moved to Thorandinni, Tadakal, Byagwat and Bagalwada villages during these years. From 2008-2015, it was recognised as a residential school and was located at the JMS centre (Pothnal). Overall, this initiative educated over 1000 Dalit boys and girls in equal number, most of whom were doing 'pledged labour' in the houses of upper castes and landlords.

Chilipili shale went beyond literacy and the educational curriculum to be a school of life and learning where dalit children learnt to live together, respecting each others' spaces and boundaries. Most of them were over 9 years old and totally unfamiliar with the written word or numerals. However, with two years of intensive facilitation most of them enrolled in the 5th or 6th standard while some exceptionally talented children enrolled in 7th and even 8th standard in mainstream school. Most of them cruised ahead of the other privileged children in their schools to become leaders. Renuka, one such girl from Tadakal village, even brought laurels to the district by scoring 78% in 10th Standard. Several children continued to complete their graduation, post-graduation and professional training as primary and secondary teachers. Several others, started their career as anganwadi teachers, police constable, and some prepared themselves for the competitive exams such as Karnataka Administrative Services.

The quality of the work, dedication of teachers and ownership of children over the Chilipili School tested JMS' resolve to negotiate with a sponsoring government programme (National child labour programme) without giving bribe for 15 long years! Chilipili School, was JMS' investment for the future of Dalit community.

Reconstruction Activities
Working with the most marginalised, landless, Dalit, women and agricultural wage labourers implied that it was literally the most resourceless community one could think of! Therefore the challenges confronted during 'navnirman' or reconstruction activities had no answers in the text books of social work in the universities. Walking the untrodden path the women learnt by doing, by trial and error as and when they confronted a situation. Women learnt a range of skills - preparing incense sticks, tailoring, embroidery, preparing organic pesticides, organic cultivation of paddy and pulses, community land development, vermi compost, herbal medicines, making terracotta articles, neem fertiliser and so on. The list of trials is quite long. This also meant that women had to firmly believe in a process that was unfamiliar and invest their time in it with a hope that returns would come soon. The initiatives which survived the test of time and persistence, got consolidated under the banner of CHIGURU ENTERPRISES and consisted of terracotta jewellery, herbal medicines unit and neem fertilisers.

The experiment was also with the process of building ownership and control over the processes of production and decision making. The terracotta unit led by a group of women from Pothnal village, neem fertiliser unit led by group of women from Muddanaguddi village and herbal medicine unit consisting of health workers across the villages grew as autonomous units with total control and ownership of the entire process. The colours of terracotta jewellery have reached far and wide, the healing touch of the herbal medicines have yielded miraculous results for paralysis, leucoderma and skin diseases, and the neem fertiliser has been certified by local farmers for its quality. The CHIGURU enterprise has won awards for women for enterprise and leadership. Women's perseverance against all odds survived 20 years. The vagaries and challenges of market have affected them and the economic returns. However, amidst the ups and downs, the old leadership seeks younger more educated comrades to join the sanghatan to expand its scope to meet new challenges in dalit madiga women's struggle for equality, dignity and justice.

Awards and recognition
Awards recognising their journey and struggle came their way at various intervals – and included Citigroup National Award for community venture of neem fertiliser (2006), Community Leadership Award by Karnataka state government and an award for Community Leadership by the National Commission for Women (2013). The individual leaders have been locally recognised for their work as committed social change makers.

• Dr. E. Premdas Pinto, Human Rights Advocate, a public health expert and co-initiator of JMS (1999-2006), continues to mentor JMS in perspective building, organisational strengthening and strategising
• Dr. M. Bhagyalakshmi – offers administrative, programmatic and organisational support to JMS
• Ms. Sathyasree Goswami - Gender and Women's Health expert and psychotherapist, mentors youth and gender related work and organisational processes
• Ms. Shruthi D. – Manages communication, social media, documentation and mentors staff
• Dr. Akhila Vasan – Mentors health rights campaign and campaign on violence against women