Tribal rights activist Dayamani Barla wins Ellen L Lutz award

New York: Tribal rights activist Dayamani Barla who has been at the forefront of several mass movements in the past 15 years, including the campaign against Arcelor Mittal’s steel plant in Jharkhand, has been awarded the Ellen L Lutz indigenous rights award. Barla will receive the award from Cultural Survival, a Massachusetts-based non-profit organisation which supports the rights of indigenous people, at a ceremony at the Museum of the American Indian, in New York on 23 May. “Her work makes a difference and impacts all of us by shaping hope and promise for the future — one story at a time, one protest at a time,” said the selection panel which sifted through a long list of nominees before picking the fiery Jharkhand land rights activist. Barla’s life story is one of extraordinary determination and achievement in the face of crushing poverty. Barla who belongs to the Munda tribe in Jharkhand saved on her small income as a housemaid to complete a Master’s degree. She later entered journalism, becoming the first Adivasi woman journalist from Jharkhand. For her writing, she won the Counter Media Award for rural journalism in 2000. [caption id=“attachment_779199” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Dayamani Barla, a rousing voice against displacement, is also an outspoken critic against the injustices Adivasi communities face. Image credit: Cultural Survival.[/caption] Much to the vexation of corporate houses and government officials, Barla has succeeded in upending their best-laid plans through peaceful Gandhian protests which have draw masses. She has been jailed on several occasions for tenuous reasons; once for nearly two months because of leading a protest that caused a roadblock in 2006. But threats, jail time, and a slew of cases and warrants against her haven’t broken her resolve to oppose the displacement of tribals. In 2008, the BBC forecasted that for Arcelor Mittal, Barla would prove to be as much trouble as Mamata Bannerjee has been for Tata Motors in West Bengal. Sure enough, Barla’s spirited campaign against ArcelorMittal’s proposed steel plant in Gumla-Khunti, in Jharkhand has now forced the company to relocate to Bokaro. Arcelor Mittal wanted to invest $8.79 billion to set up one of the world’s biggest steel plants in the largely tribal dominated forest area. The steel project required 12,000 acres of land and a new power plant which would have displaced 40 villages in Jharkhand. Barla’s group, the Adivaasi, Moolvaasi, Astitva Raksha Manch fought the move tooth-and-nail. They successfully convinced villagers not to negotiate with the steel-maker because apart from causing massive displacement, the project would have destroyed the forests in the area, contaminated water sources and hurt the ecosystem. The same reasons propelled Barla to fight the Koel Karo dam project. Miranda Vitello, development assistant, at Cultural Survival said India’s land rights activist edged out over 50 nominees to win the Ellen L Lutz award which comes with a $10,000 cash prize.