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Empowering Communities in Southern India

Fishing boats struggling for space among building work in Tamil Nadu © Tourism Concern

The issue

Aggressive tourism development along the coast of Kerala and Tamil Nadu in India continues to exploit the vulnerability of tsunami-affected communities, a Tsunami of Tourism which is raising a range of human rights issues, from displacement and loss of livelihood, to social and environmental issues which undermine traditional lifestyles. Our Tsunami and Displacement Project (2007-09) raised awareness of many of these issues, and in January 2010 we began a three year DFID-funded project which aims to empower civil society organisations in these communities to be able to effectively participate in tourism decision-making processes, so that their rights and access to resources are upheld and encroachment of their land is prevented. On this topic, see also our Putting Tourism To Right campaign.
 

Tourism Concern's solutions

Tourism Concern is undertaking this project in partnership with Indian NGO Kabani – The Other Direction. The project is enabling Kabani to link a wide range of local civil society organisations (CSOs) – including women’s groups, community organisations, and fishing co-operatives – in order to campaign in a more co-ordinated and hence effective way.
 

Project components include:

• Strengthening networks, identifying common concerns and interest groups, and raising awareness of tourism issues and campaigns. This includes the production of a film highlighting human rights and tourism issues on India’s southern coast.
• Advocacy training and capacity-building, including the production of six advocacy toolkits and skills workshops.
• Helping CSOs use the skills developed to advocate for more sustainable policies along the coast
• Kabani aims to work with over 100 local organisations over the project lifespan. By the end of the three years, it is hoped that current tourism policies and practice in the private and public sector will have been challenged and altered, with due protection afforded to the human rights of coastal communities.

See a map of the project areas.