Thousands of landless reach New Delhi

NEW DELHI, Oct. 29 (UPI) -- Tens of thousands of India’s landless poor arrived in New Delhi Sunday, at the end of a long march to demand the government address their needs.

Britain’s Telegraph reported Monday the marchers, numbering more than 25,000, had walked some 185 miles. Among them are tribal groups and Dalits, who belong to the bottom rung in India’s outlawed caste system.

With their cries of “Give us land! Give us water!,” the marchers gathered at a meeting ground in central New Delhi, where they have vowed to stay until their demands have been met, the report said.

Tens of millions of India’s population are forced to earn their livelihood from land, even in the current environment of economic boom, and the marchers claim their woes have multiplied as more government projects such as mines and dams take away their meager possessions.

The marchers planned to ask the Indian parliament to set up a government commission authorized to grant legal titles to those who have been ejected from lands they had occupied for generations, the report said.