Biplab Halim

Biplab Halim

Mr. Biplab Halim was born on 14th September 1947 at Kolkata in a renowned political family. His father Late Abdul Halim was one of the founders of Communist Party of India and his mother was a dedicated whole timer of the Party. Mr. Biplab Halim grew up in an intense political environment which helped him to understand socio-economic and political dynamics of "Development" from quite an early age. He joined active politics for eradication of poverty and emancipation of poor and became a well-known name in the state and outside.

In mid 70s Biplab Halim left mainstream politics but not his ideology of eliminating discriminations and empowering poor. He joined in a college in Birbhum district of West Bengal as a lecturer and simultaneously with few friends he founded Institute for Motivating Self-Employment (IMSE), an organization to mobilize radical youths to reflect on the political and social scenario of the state and to motivate them for joining social work. Their journey started with working among poor and landless peasants to bring significant change in their lives by promoting land reform and bringing a change in unequal power structure in rural belt. They worked mainly on land rights in selected pockets of eastern India and in mid 80s they formed Indian Federation of Toiling Peasants (IFTOP). Biplab Halim and his colleagues contributed significantly in operation Barga and other steps of land reform initiatives of the government in the state. Under the leadership of Mr. Halim, youths as well as peasants, agricultural labourers and share croppers came together and claimed their legal rights to land and to get registered as share croppers. Demanding the rights of the above group Mr. Halim organized a rally of thousands of peasants and indigenous people from Birbhum, remote rural district of West Bengal, India to Kolkata and marched more than 300 km. to the capital city of West Bengal to draw the attention of the larger civil society towards the fundamental issue of genuine agrarian reform. Later on through IFTOP & IMSE he emphasized on awareness raising of peasants, peasant women and youths; introduced adult education programme, low cost sanitation, surface water harvesting programmes among them and helped them to establish many cooperatives as well as grain banks for getting rid of intermediaries and local money lenders. IMSE gained strength among rural population in its working areas i.e. in West Bengal, Odisha and Jharkhand. Biplab Halim was champion of the ideology of food sovereignty. Through IFTOP & IMSE he promoted principles of food sovereignty among the small and marginal peasants and encourage them to adopt agro-ecological models of production with an aim to serve the local market with a priority. At the initiative of IMSE villagers have developed seed banks in different places to fight back patent acts and to save, preserve and promote traditional varieties of crops denouncing GMO Seeds and terminators.

Mr. Halim also worked among the poor fishers in coastal Odisha, in particular to ensure their livelihood security for long time. His close association with fishers' groups started in 80s when he became actively involved in an anti-eviction movement in coastal Odisha, which threatened existence of more than hundred poor villages inhabited by the poor fishers and peasants. Due to intense struggle of people the government had to abandon the eviction plan.

Mr. Halim was always very active in policy advocacy and networking with like-minded organizations at regional, national and international levels. Through this work he promoted genuine agrarian reform and a conducive climate for food sovereignty, where each and every peasant, without discriminations, would be able to exercise their right to livelihood and right to development to the fullest extent. He took active role in the negotiation of Voluntary Guideline on Right to Food at FAO of UN and further worked for facilitating its implementation in India and South Asia. Biplab Halim was the member of many International Organisations/Networks like FIAN International, APRN, IPC, PCFS and so on. He was the founder member and Secretary General of South Asian Peasants Coalition (SAPC) and was also the Chairman of Asian Peasants Coalition (APC) for a long time.

Failing health could never stop him from supporting people's movements. Despite serious ailments, Biplab Halim was the first social activist who highlighted the cause of struggling farmers in Singur, who were victims of state led land grabbing. Besides building large-scale public opinion in favour of the peasant groups, he took the matter to court as a PIL and continued the legal battle for next ten years until the Supreme Court gave a verdict in favour of the peasants. Biplab Halim further played an important role in facilitating movements of peasants in Nandigram too, who were facing threats of imminent evictions due to proposed construction of chemical hub under Special Economic Zone (SEZ), compromising agriculture and allied livelihoods. Due to popular protests government had to abandon this project too. During this period Biplab Halim organized International Fact-Finding Mission and International Peoples Tribunal on Singur and Nandigram in which many retired chief justice of India, eminent social personalities, politicians and renowned peasant leaders from Philippines, Malaysia, Nepal, Bangladesh and other countries participated.

At behest of Biplab Halim a regional network was formed in early 2000 i.e. Food Sovereignty Network of South Asia and peasant groups of six South Asian countries joined this platform to raise their common concerns like land grabbing, impact of climate change on agriculture, regional trade policies etc. The platform provided them a space to share and learn and to implement components of food sovereignty in their work and life.
The contribution of Mr. Halim in empowering rural community in general and the peasants in particular could not be described adequately within the limitation of pages. He lives in the hearts of hundreds of poor peasants and fishers. He was a relentless human rights activist, a passionate social reformer and a dedicated organiser, who enriched our society by his selfless & priceless contribution, till last breath. His memory continues encouraging people not to give up to the growing pressure of socio-economic discriminations and exploitations and to fight for rights. Biplab Halim believed in inclusive democracy, he always stressed on strengthening Panchayat system, in particular Gram Sabha, so that our democracy could be strengthened through an inclusive and bottom up approach. He was a crusader for real development, development with equity and justice, development with harmony, peace and co-existence. He was involved in many organisations as director, board member or advisor to promote communal harmony and national integration in India.

Till his last day he believed that small and marginal peasants, peasant women as well as landless rural workers and youth must be self -reliant and these groups are the future of the world as only they have the capacity to feed the world in the face of growing concern of climate change and food price volatility in global markets. We salute the life-long contribution of Biplab Halim for his tireless efforts to empower poor and to develop an institution like IMSE, which in turn supported many other institutions and initiatives, starting from women rights, tribal rights to electoral policy reforms and promotion of communal harmony. 'It is not length of life but depth of life' that describes Late Biplab Halim best and makes his memory immortal among many.