Since I was young, I’ve been involved in many movements and this is why I consider myself an activist at heart. I have been engaged in the 1989 student movement that was defending students’ rights in the university. I also attempted to fight against the Ram Mandir Andolan movement in the 1990’s. Further, when Iraq was attacked by America, I…
The government and a power company are forcefully acquiring Dalit land, leading to violence.
“It is ridiculous that they want to use such fertile land for a power company,” says Ajeet. “And that too, at the risk of ruining the lives of almost 50,000 people. I can’t believe it. Even today, industrialization always happens in areas where people are barely subsisting. The priorities of our country’s government need to change.”
Eight villages are being affected by the conflict caused around this project. Thousands of farmers have been out protesting for more than a month now, and clashes with the police led to the death of one farmer. The farmers have established a union and have set up camp close to the wire fences around the land and refuse to let anyone from the power company to resume construction work. The company, JP, is now in the process of preparing to build a helipad on the land.
“They came to the place I work in Allahabad. They came to request help from certain politicians and I was at the office of the activist’s union, which is in the same building. I started talking to them because they seemed so disturbed. I went to where they had set up camp to do this video. I came back disturbed.”
If you ask Video Volunteers’ Community Correspondent Bideshini Patel to rate her childhood on a scale of 1-10, she would probably give it a negative marking due to the neglect and abuse she faced. But if you ask her to evaluate her professional life as an impactful journalist, resolving basic...
Inspiration can come from many sources, but one of the most powerful is seeing someone walk the path before you. Our Community Correspondent, Syed Amir Abbas found his inspiration in Stalin K., the founding director of Video Volunteers. “I met Stalin at VV’s national meet in 2017 and I...