Don't Ever Think You Can't Make A Difference

[dogday]

One-Woman Protest Helps Halt Huge Indian Dam Project

From a hospital bed, a starving woman has brought the biggest infrastructure project in a booming India to its knees. The Supreme Court has ruled that work on a massive dam on the Narmada river cannot be completed unless thousands of people whose homes will be flooded are relocated and rehabilitated.

It was a victory for protesters who included the Booker Prize-winning novelist Arundhati Roy and the Bollywood movie star Aamir Khan. But mostly it was a victory for a woman who went on hunger strike for 20 days to draw attention to the plight of those living in the shadow of the dam.

Medha Patkar is the most famous human rights activist in India. But when she and fellow activists began a hunger strike in Delhi in March, it was dismissed as just a publicity stunt.

But the weeks passed and the hunger strike went on. After almost three weeks, Ms Patkar's health was deteriorating fast, but she had forced the dam on to the front pages of all India's national newspapers day after day, and made herself a political force the Indian government could not ignore.



http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0419-01.htm

Yes, We Can Make A Difference

[thereismore]

1. India is a democratic country. nt