Nijera Kori believes cultural activities are an integral part of mobilisation process. The purpose of cultural activities is to develop social awareness about disparities and all sorts of injustices and deprivations, remove prejudices from society and strengthen solidarity among the masses by promoting human values through cultural practices. With this aim in view and to develop cultural movement of common people Nijera Kori organises different types of cultural activities such as cultural discussion, people’s drama, people’s songs, paintings exhibition, cultural training and weeklong cultural procession where the true picture of the society, sorrows and sufferings of the poor, causes of these sufferings and means of solution are depicted in words, songs, gestures, postures and other forms of presentation before the audience by the participating group members.

Currently there are 54 cultural groups. Activities of the cultural groups mainly consisted of holding meetings, discussions on specific cultural issues, performing drama and organising musical festivals. During the training and workshops, the participants compose new dramas covering issues such as women’s right; rights of agricultural workers; against fundamentalism; rights to Khasland water bodies; and peoples/folksongs.

It is to be noted that, with support from the landless organisations, the cultural groups organise a 2-5 day cultural festival each year. On this occasion, the troupes make door to door visits in the village and also perform in the haat (bazaar) in their area.



Each activity year, in all of activity area (sub-centres), the landless groups identify their main problems and areas of concern. Subsequently, the cultural groups, after discussion with the landless organisations, conduct organisational activities and create public opinion for issue-based movements though cultural activities. As a result, in the activity year, there were more issue-based cultural activities than those for special days, which is a positive indication of the continuity of joint organisational and cultural activities. In the movements organised by the landless organisation, cultural activities such as people’s songs and dramas are playing an important role in creating public opinion, good will, and in disseminating information. This has a positive impact on building awareness and conscientisation.