Right Livelihood
Krishnammal and Sankaralingam Jagannathan, founders of LAFTI, have been honoured with this year’s Right Livelihood Award for their lifelong work with Dalit labourers and farmers. They have also received other awards and recognition for their work. From their website, in Krishnammal’s words:
My only prayer was to study, and equip myself to work for the uplift of the most downtrodden people. Fortunately, I became the first woman among the dalits (”untouchables”) within my community to study at the local school. In those days, there was no local newspaper. I used to draw pictures of a small hut, and explain the suffering of the people, and send it to all educated youth throughout the entire district, hoping to awaken their
minds and develop within them a commitment to service.Throughout my life, I have been lucky. My prayers were answered. After graduation in 1952, I was privileged to be able to join Vinoba Bhave, as we walked from village to village in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, obtaining gifts of land for the landless.
But something remained burning in my heart. The wretched, airless mud huts were damaged every year by rain. Generally, the landless dalits live outside the village in low-lying areas. They have become so habituated to their suffering that they hardly pay attention anymore.
There was a woman living in a small hut near here that I couldn’t get out of my mind. After heavy rains last year, I couldn’t sleep, thinking of the awful conditions of the mud hut. In the early morning, I went to express my feelings to her. She laughed, and replied, “This is not much suffering. When the water comes in, I place vessels to collect the water as best I can. It is the best that can be expected.”
