MARCH FOR RIGHTS

The Concept of Adhikar Yatras (Marches for Rights) is based on the idea of massive mobilisation of primary stakeholders asserting their rights through a four-fold strategy of democratic assertion propounded by Baba Saheb Dr. B. R. Ambedkar.

Dr. Ambedkar said, “My final words of advice to you are educate, agitate and organize; have faith in yourself. With justice on our side I do not see how we can lose our battle. For ours is a battle not for wealth or for power. It is battle for freedom. It is the battle of reclamation of human personality.” This four-fold strategy essentially relies on the peoples’ action for themselves.

Adhikar Yatras assume that social-political education of the right seekers (or the beneficiary) enable them to realize their rights in a democratically run country. We believe that the rights are never regained by appeals to the conscience of the usurpers, but by relentless democratic assertion. Mobilization processes involving active ownership of the rights seekers is the first step in claiming rights. The Adhikar Yatra is the strategy and a tool to create the ownership of the right seekers. It involves orienting and training of the committed social activists or leaders of the right seeking people or the affected community in such a way that they mobilize their own community for realizing their rights.

All Adhikar Yatras takes the form of entourage of committed, well oriented and trained band of people trained in communicating messages in common community dialects, motivating the community to break its self-imposed silence, indifference and inertness and hence enabling the members of the community to actively engage, promote, participate and take leadership in realizing their rights. The Adhikar Yatra Teams are essentially trained in conveying the central and peripheral messages to the community orally and through cultural performances to build the stake of the community in desired outcomes.