Q.1 What do you think is meant by the expression ‘power over the ballot box’? Discuss.

Solution:  By the expression “power over the ballot box” we mean power of the common people,
who are availing the right to vote in every election and choose their representatives.
1. By voting people elect or replace their representatives. So, the elected representatives
have to work for the welfare of the people. Otherwise, they may be replaced in the next
election.
2. The ballot box provides the equality that the vote of one person, rich or poor, is as good
as of any other.
Q.2 What issue is Tawa Matsya Sangh fighting for?
Solution: In 1994, the government gave the rights to fishing in the Tawa reservoir to private
contractors. These contractors drove the local people away, brought in cheap laborers from
outside and threatened the ones who did not leave, by bringing in hoodlums.
The villagers stood united and decided that it was time to set up an organisation and do
something to protect their rights. Thus, they formed the Tawa Matsya Sangh (TMS), which
organised rallies and protests demanding their right to continue fishing for their livelihood.
Q.3 Why did the villagers set up this organisation?
Solution: The villagers set up this organisation in order to protect their livelihood and their land.
They also set it up with the additional objective of highlighting the injustice meted out to them by
the government by providing fishing rights to private contractors and thus impacting their
livelihood.
Q.4 Do you think that the large-scale participation contributed to the success of the TMS? Write
two lines on why you think so.
Solution: In response to the large-scale protests by the TMS, the government created a
committee to assess the issue. The committee recommended that fishing rights be granted to
the villagers for their livelihood. In 1996, the Madhya Pradesh government decided to give fishing
rights for the reservoir to the people displaced by the Tawa dam. A five-year lease agreement
was signed two months later.
On January 2, 1997, people from 33 villages of Tawa started the new year with the first catch.
With the TMS taking over the fish, workers were able to increase their earnings substantially.
Thus, it can be said that the large-scale participation by the people forced the government to
review the situation in the villagers’ favour, as they worked out a deal which would be beneficial
for all the parties.
Q.5 What role does the Constitution play in peoples' struggle for equality?
Solution: Constitution plays a significant role in the people’s struggle for equality in the following
ways:
1. It ensures that there is a free and fair treatment.
2. In the eye of the constitution, everyone is equal.
3. No one is superior to the other. It ensures that every person must get equal rights under
the law.
4. It makes sure that everyone has access to the basic and fundamental rights.
Q.6 How do the construction of a dam impact the lives of people staying in the area?
Solution: When a dam is built, the lives of the people living near it are impacted in the following
ways:
1. When a dam is built, a reservoir is formed where lots of water are collected, and it
submerges a lot of land around it
2. Thousands of people are thus displaced from their homes, villages are uprooted, and
people are forced to go and build new homes and start new lives elsewhere. Most of the
people impacted are poor.
 3. When they relocate to new areas, their work, livelihood and their children’s schooling is
severely disrupted

Q.7 In what ways the Tawa Matsya Sangh help the villagers after fighting for justice and getting
their rights of fishing the Tawa reservoir?

Solution: After getting the fishing rights in the Tawa reservoir, the Tawa Matsya Sangh (or the
TMs) helped the villagers in the following ways:
1. They setup a cooperative which would buy fish from the villagers at a fair price
2. The cooperative would then arrange transport and sell this fish in markets where they
would get a good price. Due to this, the villagers started earning three time of what they
were earning before.
3. They TMS also started giving loans to the fishermen to repair and buying fishing nets