AHMEDABAD, Gujarat (SAR NEWS): Civil society should come together to fight the ill effects of globalisation, said renowned human rights activist, Father Thomas Kocherry, convener of the National Alliance for People’s Movement and executive committee member of the National Fishworkers’ Forum.

Addressing a packed audience on “Globalisation and its Impact on the Poor” at PRASHANT, the Ahmedabad-based Jesuit Centre for Human Rights, Justice and Peace, March 18, the priest traced the advent of globalisation from the times of the colonial rule.

He pointed out that “throughout history, the poor have constantly been at the receiving end because of the economic and political powers of vested interests.

“Even today, we do not realise how we even forego our own dignity by selling ourselves to a world which is highly materialistic and consumeristic.

“At the heart of any true people’s movement,” Kocherry said, “is our ability to work towards just land and aquatic reforms. The SEZs (special economic zones) in Gujarat and in several other parts of the country have taken away land from the poor and ordinary people to ensure profits for the rich. Privatisation is in fact a denial of God the Creator who has entrusted us with the stewardship of all natural resources, especially land, water and air. Today, the poor people have no access to clean drinking water while efforts are made to privatise rivers all over.”

Citing the example of the fishermen’s struggle across the country, he highlighted the fact that Gujarat, with one of the longest coastlines in India, had systematically ensured that the livelihood of small fisher folk was destroyed. The big mechanical fishing vessels had cleared the waters of marine life and simultaneously polluted it, he added.

Sagar from Kinara Bachao Sangharsh Samiti, Umbergaon (South Gujarat), also shared with the audience the plight of the fishermen of this small coastal town and how big industry in connivance with the government was bent on destroying their legitimate source of income.

Earlier, director of PRASHANT, Father Cedric Prakash, welcomed Father Kocherry saying such significant interventions were part of the Centre’s mandate in the implementation of the United Nations International Year for Human Rights Education.

Source: indiancatholic