The Hindu : New Delhi News : A yatra for a cause

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Friday, Mar 28, 2008
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New Delhi

A yatra for a cause

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: Traversing across 16 States over the past two months, the “Jan Hakk Yatra” speaking out for the rights of the marginalised as well as the minorities culminated in the Capital on Thursday.

Organised by NAFRE Jan Andolan, the march began in Manipur on January 23 with the message that the current development mode that favours the haves and exploits the working class, who are mostly Dalits, Adivasis and minorities, was not acceptable.

Demanding a just and equitable society, representatives from 16 States including Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and West Bengal also deliberated over various issues for two days here.

NAFRE general secretary Lakhi Das recalled how the organisation’s sole aim initially was to make education a Fundamental Right. “In fact, it was largely because of NAFRE’s efforts that the Bill on education was considered in Parliament. Later NAFRE grew into a people’s movement for equity in all spheres of child and human rights.”

Sharing their views on the movement, the vision paper and the current social structure, Nasreen and Faisal Anurag, members of the NAFRE Central Secretariat, said Brahmanical, patriarchal system and the communal fascist structures need to be demolished to establish a society where all have access to resources and opportunities.

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