[act-ma] 4/19: Talk: Organizing workers for a Democratic & Secular India: Challenging Power Structures in Rural Bihar

[Mona Mandal]

Hello,

You are invited - hope you will join us.
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Association For India’s Development, MIT & Boston Chapters,

Alliance For Secular & Democratic South Asia, TwoCircles.Net and

Massachusetts Global Action


present


Organizing Workers for a Democratic & Secular India

Challenging Power Structures in Rural Bihar

WHEN: Sunday, June 19, 2016 (4-6pm)

WHERE: MIT | Bld. 4, Rm 231

We wants to invite you to this talk by our partners Jeevan Saathi Kamayani
Swami and Ashish Ranjan. Kamayani and Ashish work full time on labor issues
such as temporary/seasonal migration, minimum wage, employment guarantee &
pensions for the elderly. They are based in Bihar where Kamayani helped
form a trade union of unorganized sector rural workers Jan Jagaran Shakti
Sangathan (http://www.jjabihar.org). See the poster attached at the end of
the email.

About *Kamayani*:
https://conference.aidindia.org/frontpage/speakers/kamayani-swami-work-in-bihar

About *Ashish*:
https://conference.aidindia.org/frontpage/speakers/ashish-ranjan

About *JJSS*:
Jan Jagran Shakti Sangathan grew from an intensive survey on NREGA
initiated by the G.B. Pant Institute (Allahabad University) and Prof. Jean
Dreze, in May, 2008. The survey focused on assessing ground realities of
NREGA in two districts of Bihar, namely Kaimur and Araria. The survey also
had related campaign activities like awareness generation, checking if
transparency safeguards were in place to check corruption and documentation
of irregularities and cases of corruption.

The survey showed high levels of lack of awareness about NREGA program. As
part of checking the transparency safeguards the survey team also did
muster roll verification exercise (kind of social audit) and found a
leakage of about   50% in wages that have been paid.

These activities generated a lot of interest amongst local groups and
people who were genuinely interested in issues of social change. This
interest became the basis of the formation of the 'Jan Jagaran Abhiyan',
Araria and was later renamed to Jan Jagaran Shakti Sangathan (JJSS). JJSS
currently focuses on NREGA, Right to Information (RTI) and issues of
justice.
Attachments area