Dayamani Barla
Dayamani Barla | |
|---|---|
| 𞓡𞓐𞓓𞓕𞓧𞓐𞓨𞓚 𞓗𞓕𞓣𞓒𞓕 | |
 Dayamani Barla inViBGYOR Film Festival,2012 | |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Organization | Adivasi-Moolvasi Astitva Raksha Manch |
| Awards | Counter Media Award for Rural Journalism (2000) National Foundation for India Fellowship (2004) |
Dayamani Barlais an Indiantribaljournalist and activist from the Indian state ofJharkhand.She became notable for her activism in opposingArcelor Mittal's steel plant in Eastern Jharkhand that tribal activists say would displace forty villages.
Barla has won a number of prestigious awards for journalism.[1]She unsuccessfully ran from theKhunti Lok Sabha Constituency,Jharkhand in the2014 Lok Sabha electionsas anAam Aadmi Partycandidate.[2][3]
Early life
[edit]Dayamani was born in a tribal family (also known asAdivasiin India) in the Jharkhand state of eastern India. Her family belonged to theMundatribe. Dayamani's father, like other tribals in the region, was cheated out of his property because he could not read and lacked paperwork to show his rights to the land. Her father became a servant in one city, and her mother a maid in another. Barla remained in school in Jharkhand but worked as a day laborer on farms from the 5th to 7th grades. To continue her education through secondary school, she moved toRanchiand worked as a maid to pay her way through university. She sometimes slept at railway stations in order to continue her education in journalism.[4]
Career
[edit]Barla works in a popularHindinewspaperPrabhat Khabarto bring attention to myriad problems facing the Munda people and other tribal communities in the Jharkhand region. She is the National President of Indian Social Action ForumINSAF.Her early journalistic work was supported by a small fellowship through theAssociation for India's Development(AID).[5]Barla owns and runs a tea shop that effectively supports her journalistic work and career. She chose the business consciously because tea shops are gathering places where social issues are discussed.[1][4]
Activism
[edit]The Jharkhand region is rich in natural resources and many government and private companies have appropriated land to build a number of natural resource extracting factories. Although the tribal people are supposed to receive compensation, a number of activists allege that they do not receive adequate compensation.[4] Arcelor Mittalwants to invest US$8.79 billion to set up one of the world's biggest steel plants in the area. The Greenfield steel project requires 12,000 acres (49 km2) of land and a new power plant. According to Barla, that would displace forty tribal villages.[1]Barla and her organisation,Adivaasi, Moolvaasi, Astitva Raksha Manch(Forum for the Protection of Tribal and Indigenous People's Identity) argue that, apart from causing massive displacement, the project will destroy the forests in the area. It will also affect the water sources and ecosystems, thereby threatening the environment and the very source of sustenance for indigenous peoples. Arcelor Mittal on its part says that it does not want to grab local people's land and that it is willing to negotiate with all stake holders.[1]But Barla counters that the subsistence tribal communities will not survive the alienation from their native land and they cannot be compensated for such a loss.[1]
Barla's activist work was the subject of the 2013 documentary filmBallad of Resistanceby filmmaker Leena Manimekalai.[6]
Awards
[edit]Barla won the Counter Media Award for Rural Journalism in 2000 and the National Foundation for India Fellowship in 2004. Counter Media Award is funded by royalties from journalist P. Sainath's bookEveryone Loves a Good Drought,and is meant for rural journalists whose (often outstanding) work gets ignored or even appropriated by the larger press at the state or national level in India. [5]In 2013, she was the recipient of the Ellen L. Lutz Indigenous Rights Award instituted by Cultural Survival, an international NGO.[7]In 2023, she was named the Greeley Peace Scholar by the University of Massachusetts Lowell.[8]
References
[edit]- ^abcdeBasu, Moushumi (2008)."Steely resolve:Dayamani Barla".BBC.Retrieved14 October2008.
- ^"AAP introduces seven candidates in fray in Jharkhand".
- ^Kislaya, Kelly (18 May 2014)."NOTA ahead of AAP in many seats".The Times of India.Retrieved15 December2015.
- ^abc"Off India's Beaten Path".UCLA.2008. Archived fromthe originalon 5 June 2011.Retrieved14 October2008.
- ^ab"Dayamani Barla: Indigenous Journalist and Activist from India".Media Activism. 2007.Retrieved14 October2008.
- ^"Ballad of Resistance".2013.Retrieved10 April2023– via YouTube.
- ^Anumeha Yadav (23 May 2013)."Jharkhand tribal activist gets Ellen L. Lutz Award".The Hindu.Retrieved23 May2013.
- ^"Dayamani Barla Named 2023 UMass Lowell Greeley Peace Scholar | UMass Lowell".uml.edu.Retrieved10 April2023.
External links
[edit]
- Dayamani Barla:The voice of JharkhandArchived5 September 2008 at theWayback Machine
- Journalists from Jharkhand
- Indian women environmentalists
- Munda people
- Living people
- Aam Aadmi Party candidates in the 2014 Indian general election
- Aam Aadmi Party politicians
- Women in Jharkhand politics
- 21st-century Indian journalists
- 21st-century Indian women journalists
- 21st-century Indian women writers
- 21st-century Indian writers
- Indian activist journalists
- Indian human rights activists
- Indian environmentalists
- Women writers from Jharkhand
- Adivasi women writers
- Activists from Jharkhand
- Adivasi activists
- Adivasi writers
- 20th-century Indian journalists
- 20th-century Indian women writers
- People from Khunti district
- 21st-century Indian women politicians
- 21st-century Indian politicians
- Adivasi women
- Scheduled Tribes of India
- Indian newspaper journalists
- Indian environmental writers