“Child Rights is Human Rights “
For a healthy society with the human rights values and principles, it is central that we have a healthy, safe and protected future generation. MARAG works for the protection of the rights of all children in general. But our special focus is on all children in need of care and protection, especially the more vulnerable section- girls and children at margins.
Women Empowerment
MARAG believes that in order to uphold the development, women needs to be integrated in all the interventions. Thus, our major focus is to Organize and empower women - socially, economically and culturally. It is evident that to sustain pastoralism, women’s role is crucial, thus, our focus is also on reviving pastoral women’s role.
Inclusion of Youth
For an inclusive society, the recognition and promotion of the needs, interests, rights and aspirations of youths needs attention. MARAG emphasize much towards their active participation and inclusion in all the decision making processes and all the interventions, especially on governance and livelihoods.
Diversified Land Tenure system
One of the causes of poverty is restricted access, control, ownership over natural resources, that impacts on the increasing inequalities. MARAG’s ideology that roots back in pastoralism and indigenous culture, teaches that prosperity lies in communal ownerships, rather than individualistic. Thus, we emphasise on recognizing, protecting, reviving and restoring the diverse tenure and production systems, as it increasingly affects the lives and livelihoods of the communities dependent on it.
Biodiversity conservation Climate Change
The practices in pastoralism support biodiversity conservation. Thus, to sustain it, it is crucial to sustain the traditional livelihoods systems, focusing on people centered governance systems. It also addresses the climate change issue. This needs to be facilitated through community-led and indigenous (pastoral) knowledge-led resource management.
Food Sovereignty and Security
Food sovereignty connects with nature, builds on localized food systems, is based on indigenous knowledge and skills, ensures the access and control of resources to producers and values people (producer, consumer). Ultimately, it makes the individual and community self-reliable and makes the society equitable and just. We work on broadening the definition of "farmers" to include pastoralists for ensuring their rights and entitlements. We also work with small and marginal farmers, especially women farmers in rain-fed areas.
Forest Rights
Respecting and protecting the inherent and territorial rights of the communities dependent on the natural resources, like forest rights, alongwith respecting the indigenous knowledge and culture is the key to sustainable, equitable and just development and effective management of the environment. MARAG focuses on rights over the forests from the perspective of other traditional forest dwelling community, as hardly any attention is given to it.