During the initial years Disha witnessed to its great horror rampant exploitation of poor baan (rope) makers at the hands of contractors and traders. The contractors used to purchase raw material for ropes bhabbhar (a wild grass growing in the Shiwalik hills) from the Forest Department in bulk and sell to the rope makers on high prices, even as the department overlooked customary rights of the rope makers. On the other hand the traders purchased rope on low prices from the rope makers. Obviously the rope makers were caught in between contractors and traders, their operating margin became narrower with each passing year and they were forced to live in pecuniary.

In the year 1985 Disha in collaboration with another local voluntary organisation led the rope makers to unite themselves to fight for their rights and thus was born GKMM. The GKMM forcefully protested contractor system in the Forest Department, which through a major policy decision resolved to make the grass available to the rope makers at a fair price through warehouses constructed at strategic locations.

This solved the problem of rope makers as far as availability of grass at fair price was concerned. But soon complaints started pouring in that grass supplied from the warehouses was of inferior quality and that good grass was still being cornered by the contractors and big consumers like paper mills. This resulted into further protests, leading to improvement in the situation now and deterioration then. Price of the grass had to be negotiated every two years.

In the meantime, structural and policy changes continued in the department. The Government formed the Forest Corporation to trade in the forest produce. Bargaining about price of the grass with a commercial organisation became tough, but because of the unity rope makers were successful in getting the grass at fair prices.

Around the year 2000 in a policy decision Forest Corporation withdrew itself from trade in non-timber forest produce (NTFP) because such trade was increasingly becoming unviable for it. The front bargained with the authorities and became successful in getting rate of the grass fixed on head load basis.

During the same year a hill state of Uttaranchal was carved off from parent Uttar Pradesh. The Shiwalik hills are in Dehradun and Hardwar districts and they have gone to Uttaranchal. The question looming large before the rope makers is whether they will be able to continue to access forests for their livelihood or not.

Back

Home