Liberty International is raising funds to help impoverished Indian farmers and villagers gain clear title to the lands that they have homesteaded. Without secure title, their government can drive them off their land for the benefit of the elite. Securing their land rights not only prevents government-sanctioned land grabs, but greatly enriches the poor. Clear title makes them land owners instead of squatters. Click here to help them!
Hundreds of thousands of desperately poor, subsistence farmers in India now urgently need help to protect their land and their lives. Thousands of small farms and forest villages, where native Indians have lived sustainably for centuries, are being stolen by corrupt corporations and government officials, using increasingly brutal tactics.
It’s a land grab of epic scale and epic inhumanity.
In the last six months, the situation has become critical: Without our help, thousands will soon be homeless and destitute, or worse. Everything these poor people have is at risk, including their lives and way of life. Once their land is taken, it’s gone forever.
Liberty International is rushing to their aid. Our goal of $400,000 will enable us to protect land and lives in 200 native villages. Over 100,000 native Indians in over 250 villages have already been helped by Liberty Institute and ARCH teams we are working with in India. (ARCH: the Action Research in Community Health & Development, India). But for every Indian villager who has been saved, dozens more remain in danger.
Thousands of native lives saved
Over the last few decades, India’s land rights movement has dramatically transformed the lives of hundreds of thousands of poor, native Indians – protecting their land, their homes, and their lives.
Trupti Mehta of ARCH (India) explains that before the land rights movement:
“The people lived in squalor. They hovered around the fire in bitter cold winter for lack of clothing, blankets, and shelter. They scrounged for roots to eat. Their huts were straw and demolished at the whim of Forestry officials.” They “were constantly beaten by officials and the local police. Forestry officials would fine them, force them to do labor for the government, wreck their homes and fields, seize their livestock.”
To stop these outrages, Liberty International is working with Liberty Institute and ARCH land rights teams in India using hand-held GPS units to register their land, and legal teams to defend their rights.
With secure land titles, villagers are protected from forced labor and the confiscation of their produce, homes and livestock. For poor Indian farmers, secure land rights have made the difference between extreme poverty and economic security . . . starvation and plentiful food . . . and even life and death.
You can help make the difference between desperate poverty and prosperity for thousands! Your support for Liberty International’s India Land Rights Initiative will help secure land rights and end poverty for thousands of poor villagers and farmers.
Technical, legal and other costs average $2,000 a village to train villagers, use GPS to register property, teach them to non-violently stand up for their land rights, and legally protect their land.
Please contribute whatever you can to Liberty International’s Emergency India Land Rights Intervention. Every dollar counts. A small donation now can literally help change the course of a nation.
For U.S. contributors, donations are 100% tax deductible. Liberty International is a 501(c )(3) nonprofit organization. Help us save thousands of desperately poor Indians and change the course of a nation. Click here to donate whatever you can.
