Earth Democracy
Earth Democracry comprises three
Swarajs, or sovereignties:
Seed Sovereignty (Beej Swaraj)
Food Sovereignty (Anna Swaraj)
Water Sovereignty (Jal Swaraj)
We need once more to feel at home
on the earth and with each other. We need a new paradigm to respond to the
fragmentation caused by various forms of fundamentalism. We need a new
movement, which allows us to move from the dominant and pervasive culture of
violence, destruction and death to a culture of non-violence, creative peace
and life. That is why in India, Navdanya started the Earth democracy movement,
which provides an alternative world view in which humans are embedded in the
Earth Family, we are connected to each other through love, compassion, not
hatred and violence and ecological responsibility and economic justice replaces
greed, consumerism and competition as objectives of human life.
Food sovereignty
At the Anna Panchayat (Public
Tribunal on Hunger) in May 2001, Navdanya launched its campaign on food rights
and food sovereignty (Anna Swaraj), for a genuinely decentralized democratic
and sustainable food system. We demand that food be accepted as a Fundamental
Human Right. The entry of company like Cargill into direct procurements,
transportation and processing is leading to the closure of small, local and
larger agro-processing units that provide livelihood to lakhs of people.
Under the Anna Swaraj, the local
communities take pledge to save our food and food culture from the onslaught of
corporate takeover. More than 2500 villages have taken the pledge all over the
country to protect their food from MNCs control and they wrote a letter to the
Prime Minister to defend our freedom to food and food culture.
Seed sovereignty
Following Gandhiji’s inspiration
from the Salt Satyagraha we declared the launch of ‘Bija Satyagraha’ against
Seed Laws and Patent Laws that seek to make sharing and saving of seed a crime
and make seed the “Property” of Monsanto forcing us to pay royalties for what
is our collective heritage. The Bija Swaraj campaign, launched by Navdanya,
demands that Indian laws do not legalize patents on seed and food; and TRIPs is
reviewed to exclude patents on seed and food. Under Bija Swaraj, we pledged to
protect sovereignty to save our seeds and grow our food freely without MNCs
domination and control. We have received the precious gift of biodiversity and
seeds from nature and our ancestors. We pledge to protect our rich biological
heritage and fundamental freedom to save and exchange seeds.
Water sovereignty
The Green Revolution and the
various policies of the World Bank related to water have already created acute
water shortage throughout the country. Today, bowing again to World Bank and
W.T.O. pressures, the government is rushing to privatize water and hand over
its ownership to giant corporations. Privatization of water will totally bypass
people’s needs, sustainability and equity in the use of water. The government
is signing away the water rights of the people to giant MNCs like Coca Cola,
Pepsi, Monsanto, Mitsubishi, Hyundai,
The Jal Swaraj Movement was
launched by Navdanya in the year 2000, to protect our water from privatization
and commodification as well as to bring awareness among the people on the
subject of the traditional water harvesting system and diverse river cultures
existing in biodiversity rich
Navdanya means nine crops that
represent