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Pastoral Parliament: a space to strengthen the voice and positioning of pastoralists within governance processes
processes do not always develop in a clear and linear way. Flexibility, patience, and understanding are prerequisites to participating and supporting the Parliament.
Growing promise The Pastoral Parliaments have also provided needed space for pastoralists to identify and set a development and political agenda that can be shared with NGOs, community based organisations and even political parties in Gujarat. For example, the work plans of MARAG and MVS have been directly informed by the mandate of the Pastoral Parliaments. Moreover, the Parliament provides a space where pastoralists can discuss their problems and take action. For example, after participating in the Parliament, Sitaben, a pastoralist from Nakhatrana village took steps to address challenges related to low prices for wool and access to land. He met the District Collector and wrote an application to the Chief Minister. There is a general sense emerging that now is the right time to begin to develop a two-tier structure of the Parliaments: one at the state and one at the national level. With growing
interest in other states to organise a similar process, plans are developing to replicate the process in seven other states of India in 2016-17 and in more than ten states by 2019. Such a platform could serve to bridge the gap between the pastoralist communities and the government at the state and national level and hence improve governance. With emerging interest from pastoralists outside India, there is a possibility to develop a South Asian Pastoral Parliament to act as a legitimate representative voice of pastoralists and to function as a pressure group for pro-pastoralist policy advocacy across South Asia. Note: This article was originally published in Farming Matters, December 2016 Issue ď ľ
Monika Agarwal (monikka.agarwal@gmail.com) is facilitator of South Asia Pastoralist Alliance (SAPA). Jessica Duncan (jessica.duncan@wur.nl) is Assistant Professor in Rural Sociology at Wageningen University. Both authors have collaborated with the pastoralist organisation MARAG since 2010.
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