An Indian indigenous peoples' movement revives a deliberative and participatory process of governance and uses it to tackle the challenges presented by new agricultural technologies

Girijan Deepika (People of the Forest ) is an indigenous peoples' organisation working in East Godavari District of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. In 1995 it recruited facilitators from local communities with a view to analysing local problems collectively. They learned that an indigenous system of regular community meetings known as the "Gotti" was in decline. These meetings allowed issues of concern to the whole community to be addressed, but over the years they had died out or become dominated by a small number of people who did not necessarily represent the diversity of views in the local population.

It became clear, however, that these meetings could offer an ideal forum for people to engage in dialogue. The reviving of the Gotti was therefore the first task and was undertaken through a campaign using street theatre, music, dance and painting. The Gotti is now restored as a vibrant forum for community debate. As an indigenous institution, it offers much greater chances of encouraging sustained participation than discussion and decision-making tools that have been developed by donor agencies in unfamiliar contexts. It is, in the words of participants, a space "to sit and talk", "to share our happiness and our sorrows" and "an opportunity to reflect".

Agriculture is consistently highlighted as a major concern, particularly where rapid changes have taken place following the introduction of cash crops such as cotton and tobacco. The Gotti offered a space to analyse key agricultural issues with historical maps portraying contrasts in agricultural practice over the previous thirty years. Crops grown for sale were identified as not offering any livelihood security other than cash, yet having considerable requirements, such as land, plough bullocks, seeds, capital, market, water supply, pesticide and labour. Furthermore, they had led to many negative consequences such as indebtedness, food shortages for people and livestock, no proper market, farmer suicides and health effects such as pesticide poisoning. In contrast, food crops were seen to be useful for encouraging communal work, providing food security and fodder for livestock and poultry, maintaining fertile soil, producing some cash if they were sold, and avoiding debts because the required inputs were so minimal. The disadvantages related to pests and the vulnerability of some crops to heavy rains or winds. The cumulative analysis over several weeks meant that the resultant actions were often substantial rather than piecemeal, with many communities deciding via a series of Gotti meetings to plant half their land with food crops, reversing the trend towards complete domination of the land by tobacco and cotton.

The meetings also initiated a political campaign to make the authorities responsible for most of the decisions in these remote mountainous areas take action on the Gottis' demands, particularly regarding the over-promotion of cash crops. Local people are clearly in control of what has become a catalyst for social and technological change in this region. At its outset the group received some guidance from urban professionals trained in participatory methodologies, but decisions about the long-term goals and strategies are made locally. Despite having low levels of literacy, rural people involved in Girijan Deepika have been able to critically assess the new technologies represented by government promoted packages of seeds, pesticides and fertilisers. They have managed to have their voice heard on this issue as well as other new technologies such as vaccination, GM crops and industrial forestry techniques.

Local circumstances will determine the extent to which adult literacy is a necessary pre-condition in any process of democratising technology. Girijan Deepika used adult literacy programmes over several years to help thousands of people from marginalised groups to influence the forces that impact on their lives. Often marginalised communities find that longer-term processes of building their capacity to use basic techniques of alphabetical and numerical literacy are an important part of achieving lasting policy changes and holding decision-makers to account. Rather than being a decision taken by outsiders, it should be for those people who have been excluded from power to assess whether their interests will best be served by a short-term interrogation of new external knowledge followed by advocacy. At a larger scale, societies need information and knowledge to be made available to a wide range of groups in order for them to be able to assess potential new technologies from varying perspectives.

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