Awareness approach

Gene Campaign has considerable experience in the field of IPR and drafting national policy and legislation, particularly the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmer’s Rights Act and the Biodiversity Act.

Marginalised communities who have very little sense of rights and empowerment find it difficult to understand empowering legislation so easily. That is why the legal messages were presented as more easily comprehensible texts. Songs containing legal messages have been composed in the prevalent tribal dialect. The rights awareness programs do attract a lot of people but how much of the message is retained remain to be seen.

A Street Play has also been developed which is enacted by tribal boys and girls. The communities identified well with them and they could use the local language effectively.The script was written with the help of local people. The legal matter was provided by the GC team.

The ground where the Rights Awareness programs are held, is typically dressed up in colourful banners and posters to create a celebratory atmosphere. Banners carry   rights based slogans like “ Hamara beej Hamara Adhikar” ( My seed, My Right), “Hamare Beejon par Patent nahin- Hargiz nahin” ( No Patents on my Seeds..No Never) , “Beejon ka Panjikaran karao, Beejon par adhikar Jatao”  (Farmers Register your Seeds, Register your Rights), “Hamare Gaon Ke Aaspaas ke jungle par Hamara Adhikar” ( The law says the forest belongs to us), “Desi gyan par koi Patent nahin”. A popular activity is trying to get the communities to come up with new slogans.

Analysis of Rights Awareness work.

Gene Campaign has devoted considerable attention to generate awareness about Farmers Rights and other legal rights granted to local communities over biological diversity and the IK associated with it. This work is complex and difficult because of low literacy and extreme marginalization of the communities in the area where we work.

Because of its presence in the region and decent track record of working with the local community Gene Campaign could take up the work on generating awareness about legal rights on abstract issues like Intellectual Property Rights and Bioresources. We find that since the rights granted in the new legislation are rather abstract compared to the more concrete provisions of legislation such as the Employment Guarantee  Act and Right to Information Act, they are not so easy to communicate.

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