The Subaltern Can Speak: Are you listening?

The Subaltern can speak, are you listening? - Lessons from Malanpur Campaign

Malanpur is an industrial town in Madhya Pradesh with a population of over thirty thousand. It reels with community leaders and a population adamant to fight for its rights.

With a promise of better jobs and public infrastructure, thousands of migrant workers moved to the town. While factories and companies provide jobs/ daily wage work to these workers, lack of government assured social security places them in a vulnerable position. The surplus of workers in Malanpur also means many of them? don’t have the luxury to demand for better working conditions, they become easily replaceable if they do so.

Lack of identity creates path blocks to access social security. Zenith has been trying to support these workers? in accessing government entitlements such as Aadhar, E-shram, Ayushman Card etc for over a year through our Samudayik Adhikar Kendra (community centre.)??

We are thrilled to report our findings from our most recent campaign from 25th - 27th November:

• We saw an overwhelming number of over 600 people wishing to get their claims done.?
• Many of them are women who make an active effort to shelter their family with social security schemes.?
• These numbers have been mobilised by community leaders who work tirelessly for the town’s development. Our community leaders reach out to government authorities, write applications and follow up on various government schemes.?
• They’re supported by sub-centres run by young volunteers, who are trained by the leaders themsleves.?
• What’s more is that for these leaders the personal is political ??: they are passionate about social justice and actively participate in government affairs.
• More importantly, it tells us that social justice isn’t always about the BIG-nationwide movements, but in “little places” in not-so-little things.

The subaltern can speak, it’s time we listen to them.?