Why is Sonam Wangchuk on a Padyatra to Delhi?

Brut India

With two demands in mind, climate activist Sonam Wangchuk is making his way to Delhi on foot. Here’s why...

Transcript

00:00Climate activist Sonam Wangchuk and over 100 volunteers are walking from Leh to New Delhi.

00:08The journey is called the Delhi Chalo Padhyatra.

00:10They have two demands.

00:12Firstly, a local appeal to the Prime Minister of India to please safeguard these fragile

00:19ecosystems of the high Himalayas under the sixth schedule of the Indian Constitution.

00:25Our second appeal is a global appeal to the world leaders and citizens of the world to

00:32please cut down on carbon emissions as urgently as possible because we have very little time

00:40left.

00:41The Delhi Chalo Padhyatra began on 1st September 2024 from Leh and will end on 2nd October

00:472024 in the National Capital.

00:49It is organised by the Leh Apex Body and Kagal Democratic Alliance and Wangchuk is leading

00:55the Padhyatra.

00:56In these high Himalayas, our glaciers, you can see there, are melting very fast, leaving

01:05behind flash floods and droughts.

01:10These glaciers are our lifelines and they are going away and soon we will become climate

01:15refugees.

01:16In 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Party promised in its manifesto to include Ladakh in the

01:24sixth schedule.

01:25Now, what is the sixth schedule?

01:27The sixth schedule of the constitution gives tribal communities the right to make laws

01:32on subjects such as water, land, forest and mining at the district level.

01:37Under the sixth schedule, autonomous district councils, which can have up to 30 members,

01:41can make laws.

01:43The council's permission is also required to set up industries.

01:46And nearly 97% of Ladakh's population is tribal.

02:13Since the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019, Ladakh was made a separate union territory

02:21without a legislature.

02:22While the decision was celebrated by a section of people, others expressed concerns over

02:27the central government's decision.

02:29After the abrogation of Article 370, several leaders from Ladakh made four demands to the

02:34centre, including separate Lok Sabha seats for Leh and Kagal districts and the establishment

02:39of a public service commission to help the youth get jobs.

02:43So, over the next few years, the centre held multiple rounds of negotiations with the leaders

02:47of Ladakh regarding the four demands.

02:49On 3 February 2024, thousands of people in Ladakh protested to reiterate their demands.

02:55To address the demands, the centre then made a committee to hold talks but an agreement

02:59could not be reached.

03:00Wangchuck said the centre broke people's trust by failing to keep its promises.

03:30On 6 March 2024, Wangchuck began a hunger strike, surviving only on salt and water,

03:47in Ladakh's sub-zero temperatures alongside hundreds of people.

03:51His climate fast ran for 21 days.

04:16Six months later, the Delhi Chalo Padhyatra began, urging the centre to resume talks with

04:21Ladakh's leadership on their four-point agenda.

05:16For more urgent timelines like Finland has done and to all the journalists, social media,

05:25citizen journalists, we appeal to you to please take this message to every person in your

05:32circles and every country on this planet so that it finally reaches the head of state

05:40of all the countries.

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