Rural development and human rights in South Asia

In December 1982 seminar was held in Lanknow, budia, on Rural Development and Human Rights in South Asia organised by the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and the Human Rights Institute, Lucknow. This was the seventh of a series of third world seminars erganized by the ICJ, the previous ones being in Dar-e-Salsam (1976), Barbados (1977), Dakar (1978). Bogota (1979), Kuwait (1980) and Penang (1981).

The participants, who came from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka included practicing lawyers, judges, law teachers, economists and political scientists as well as members of grass-roots non-governmental organisations working with the rural poor, and representatives of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).

The main discussions took place in committees, and the sub jects discussed included agricultural and economic policies: socio-economic structures at village level; land tenure and land reform; organisations of rural workers; landless labour and bonded labour, tribals, migrants and other disadvantaged minori ties; the role of women in development; population control; health services; violence and counter violence; and legal aid and legal resources for the rural poor.

The basic issue was the socio-economic structures at village level, where the majority live in abject poverty dominated, intimi dated and exploited by wealthy farmers, traders and money lenders. Even the law enforcement authorities are under their sway and powerless to protect their victims. In face of this, the participants were unanimous in holding that, while a strong political will was needed to change this pattern of exploitation and poverty, nothing effective could be achieved unless and until the rural poor organised themselves to create a countervailing power to that of the merchant-farmer-money-lenders. Where this had been done, real progress had been made