Nonviolent protest is the practice of achieving goal such as social change through symbolic protest, civil disobedience, economic and political non-cooperation, Satyagraha or other methods without using violence. According to Albert Einstein Institution, so far, there are at least 198 methods of nonviolent actions.

The modern form of non-violent protest was popularized by Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi learned through philosophy of non-violence from American Henry David Thoreau (who spent a night in jail for refusing to pay tax for war) Russian writer, Leo Tolstoy and Hindu scriptures. Recent followers of Gandhi have been Marti Luther King Jr, Vaclav Havel, Andrei Sakharov, Lech Walesa, Gene Sharp, Anna Hazare, Otpor and protestor in Tahrir Square, Egypt.

From 1966 to 1999, nonviolent protest played critical role in 50 of 67 transitions from authoritarianism to non-authoritarianism government (sharp). Recently nonviolent protest led to the Rose Revolution in Georgia, the Orange Revolution in Ukaraine, Jeans Revolution in Belarus, Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia, The Tahrir Square Movement in Egypt and 2012Anti-Corruption Movement by Anna Hazare in India.

Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan in their book “Why Civil Resistance Works (2011)” analyzed the success rate of 323 violent and non-violent resistance campaigns around the world between 1900 and 2006.  Out of 323 campaigns 100 were violent campaign. Examining the first data set of 323 campaigns they found that non-violent movements worldwide were twice as likely to succeed as violent ones. Further Chenoweth and Stephan observed that over the previous fifty years, non-violent campaign had grown both more numerous and more successful, even under brutal authoritarian rule. Violent insurgencies, meanwhile, had grown increasingly rare and unsuccessful. In 2013, Foreign policy named Chenoweth, one of the year’s “top 100 Global thinkers” for as the magazine put it “Proving Gandhi Right”.

The 3.5% Rule

In their book they found a direct correlation between the success of a campaign and the popular involvement it managed to invite. Among the movement they studied the victorious one uniformly fostered broad based public sympathy. And yet Chenoweth found that the number of supporters who were actively engaged in successful movements could be quite small.

No campaign failed once they achieved the active and sustained participation of just 3.5 per cent of the population and lots of them succeeded with far less than that. Earlier researcher had shown that no government could survive if 5 per cent of its population mobilized against it. Chenoweth proved the earlier researchers wrong and found it to be less than 3.5 per cent rule. However spurring 3.5 per cent of a population to engage in any kind of campaign is not easy.

In a country of 100 million, it will take the active involvement of around 3 million people.

Active public support consists of several components. The first is showing up. A movement’s active supporters are people who take to the streets for marches. Attend teach-ins and staff phone bank. Without them, a movement’s rallies would be empty. Second, in societies that holds elections, active supporters vote with the movement. Third, active supporter persuade others to join. They express their opinion on social media and argue with friends and relatives and persuade them to join. Finally active supporters are the type of people who are moved to act independently to advance on issue with their social and professional spheres influence. This might mean lawyer taking on pro bono work (without payment) for a cause they believe in doctors providing free medical care, musicians holding free concerts.

Methods of non-violent Action

There are three general classes of nonviolent action:

Protest and persuasion: These methods include vigils, petitions, picketing, and walkout. They are largely symbolic in their effect and produce an awareness of the existence of dissent.

Non Cooperation: These methods include social boycotts, economic boycott, labour strikes, and many forms of political noncooperation, including boycotts of government positions, civil disobedience and mutiny.

Intervention: These methods include hunger strikes, sittings nonviolent obstruction, creation or strengthening of alternative institutions and parallel government. They posses some of the qualities of both previous groups.

198 METHODS OF NONVIOLENT ACTION

Practitioners of nonviolent struggle have an entire arsenal of “nonviolent weapons” at their disposal. Listed below are 198 of them, classified into three broad categories: nonviolent protest and persuasion, noncooperation (social, economic, and political), and nonviolent intervention. A description and historical examples of each can be found in volume two of The Politics of Nonviolent Action, by Gene Sharp.

THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT PROTEST AND PERSUASION
Formal Statements
                    1. Public Speeches
                    2. Letters of opposition or support
                    3. Declarations by organizations and institutions
                    4. Signed public statements
                    5. Declarations of indictment and intention
                    6. Group or mass petitions

Communications with a Wider Audience
                    7. Slogans, caricatures, and symbols
                    8. Banners, posters, and displayed communications
                    9. Leaflets, pamphlets, and books
                    10. Newspapers and journals
                    11. Records, radio, and television
                    12. Skywriting and earthwriting

Group Representations
                    13. Deputations
                    14. Mock awards
                    15. Group lobbying
                    16. Picketing
                    17. Mock elections

Symbolic Public Acts
                    18. Displays of flags and symbolic colors
                    19. Wearing of symbols
                    20. Prayer and worship
                    21. Delivering symbolic objects
                    22. Protest disrobings
                    23. Destruction of own property
                    24. Symbolic lights
                    25. Displays of portraits
                    26. Paint as protest
                    27. New signs and names
                    28. Symbolic sounds
                    29. Symbolic reclamations
                    30. Rude gestures

Pressures on Individuals
                    31. “Haunting” officials
                    32. Taunting officials
                    33. Fraternization
                    34. Vigils

Drama and Music
                    35. Humorous skits and pranks
                    36. Performances of plays and music
                    37. Singing

Processions
                    38. Marches
                    39. Parades
                    40. Religious processions
                    41. Pilgrimages
                    42. Motorcades

Honoring the Dead
                    43. Political mourning
                    44. Mock funerals
                    45. Demonstrative funerals
                    46. Homage at burial places

Public Assemblies
                    47. Assemblies of protest or support
                    48. Protest meetings
                    49. Camouflaged meetings of protest
                    50. Teach-ins

Withdrawal and Renunciation
                    51. Walk-outs
                    52. Silence
                    53. Renouncing honors
                    54. Turning one’s back

THE METHODS OF SOCIAL NONCOOPERATION

Ostracism of Persons
                    55. Social boycott
                    56. Selective social boycott
                    57. Lysistratic nonaction
                    58. Excommunication
                    59. Interdict

Noncooperation with Social Events, Customs, and Institutions
                    60. Suspension of social and sports activities
                    61. Boycott of social affairs
                    62. Student strike
                    63. Social disobedience
                    64. Withdrawal from social institutions

Withdrawal from the Social System
                    65. Stay-at-home
                    66. Total personal noncooperation
                    67. “Flight” of workers
                    68. Sanctuary
                    69. Collective disappearance
                    70. Protest emigration (hijrat)

THE METHODS OF ECONOMIC NONCOOPERATION: ECONOMIC BOYCOTTS

 
Actions by Consumers
                    71. Consumers’ boycott
                    72. Nonconsumption of boycotted goods
                    73. Policy of austerity
                    74. Rent withholding
                    75. Refusal to rent
                    76. National consumers’ boycott
                    77. International consumers’ boycott

Action by Workers and Producers
                    78. Workmen’s boycott
                    79. Producers’ boycott

Action by Middlemen
                    80. Suppliers’ and handlers’ boycott

Action by Owners and Management
                    81. Traders’ boycott
                    82. Refusal to let or sell property
                    83. Lockout
                    84. Refusal of industrial assistance
                    85. Merchants’ “general strike”

Action by Holders of Financial Resources
                    86. Withdrawal of bank deposits
                    87. Refusal to pay fees, dues, and assessments
                    88. Refusal to pay debts or interest
                    89. Severance of funds and credit
                    90. Revenue refusal
                    91. Refusal of a government’s money

Action by Governments
                    92. Domestic embargo
                    93. Blacklisting of traders
                    94. International sellers’ embargo
                    95. International buyers’ embargo
                    96. International trade embargo

THE METHODS OF ECONOMIC NONCOOPERATION: THE STRIKE

 
Symbolic Strikes
                    97. Protest strike
                    98. Quickie walkout (lightning strike)

Agricultural Strikes
                    99. Peasant strike
                    100. Farm Workers’ strike

Strikes by Special Groups
                    101. Refusal of impressed labor
                    102. Prisoners’ strike
                    103. Craft strike
                    104. Professional strike

Ordinary Industrial Strikes
                    105. Establishment strike
                    106. Industry strike
                    107. Sympathetic strike

Restricted Strikes
                    108. Detailed strike
                    109. Bumper strike
                    110. Slowdown strike
                    111. Working-to-rule strike
                    112. Reporting “sick” (sick-in)
                    113. Strike by resignation
                    114. Limited strike
                    115. Selective strike

Multi-Industry Strikes

116.                    Generalized strike
117.                    General strike

Combination of Strikes and Economic Closures

118.                    Hartal
119.                    Economic shutdown

THE METHODS OF POLITICAL NONCOOPERATION

 
Rejection of Authority
                    120. Withholding or withdrawal of allegiance
                    121. Refusal of public support
                    122. Literature and speeches advocating resistance

Citizens’ Noncooperation with Government
                    123. Boycott of legislative bodies
                    124. Boycott of elections
                    125. Boycott of government employment and positions
                    126. Boycott of government depts., agencies, and other bodies
                    127. Withdrawal from government educational institutions
                    128. Boycott of government-supported organizations
                    129. Refusal of assistance to enforcement agents
                    130. Removal of own signs and placemarks
                    131. Refusal to accept appointed officials
                    132. Refusal to dissolve existing institutions

Citizens’ Alternatives to Obedience
                    133. Reluctant and slow compliance
                    134. Nonobedience in absence of direct supervision
                    135. Popular nonobedience
                    136. Disguised disobedience
                    137. Refusal of an assemblage or meeting to disperse
                    138. Sitdown
                    139. Noncooperation with conscription and deportation
                    140. Hiding, escape, and false identities
                    141. Civil disobedience of “illegitimate” laws

Action by Government Personnel
                    142. Selective refusal of assistance by government aides
                    143. Blocking of lines of command and information
                    144. Stalling and obstruction
                    145. General administrative noncooperation

146.                    Judicial noncooperation
                       147. Deliberate inefficiency and selective noncooperation by enforcement agents
                         148. Mutiny
     Domestic Governmental Action
                         149. Quasi-legal evasions and delays
                         150. Noncooperation by constituent governmental units

International Governmental Action
                    151. Changes in diplomatic and other representations
                    152. Delay and cancellation of diplomatic events
                    153. Withholding of diplomatic recognition
                    154. Severance of diplomatic relations
                    155. Withdrawal from international organizations
                    156. Refusal of membership in international bodies
                    157. Expulsion from international organizations

THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT INTERVENTION

 
Psychological Intervention
                    158. Self-exposure to the elements
                    159. The fast
                                        a) Fast of moral pressure
                                        b) Hunger strike
                                        c) Satyagrahic fast
                    160. Reverse trial
                    161. Nonviolent harassment

Physical Intervention
                    162. Sit-in
                    163. Stand-in
                    164. Ride-in
                    165. Wade-in
                    166. Mill-in
                    167. Pray-in
                    168. Nonviolent raids
                    169. Nonviolent air raids
                    170. Nonviolent invasion
                    171. Nonviolent interjection
                    172. Nonviolent obstruction
                    173. Nonviolent occupation

Social Intervention
                    174. Establishing new social patterns
                    175. Overloading of facilities
                    176. Stall-in
                    177. Speak-in
                    178. Guerrilla theater
                    179. Alternative social institutions
                    180. Alternative communication system

Economic Intervention
                    181. Reverse strike
                    182. Stay-in strike
                    183. Nonviolent land seizure
                    184. Defiance of blockades
                    185. Politically motivated counterfeiting
                    186. Preclusive purchasing
                    187. Seizure of assets
                    188. Dumping
                    189. Selective patronage
                    190. Alternative markets
                    191. Alternative transportation systems
                    192. Alternative economic institutions

Political Intervention
                    193. Overloading of administrative systems
                    194. Disclosing identities of secret agents
                    195. Seeking imprisonment
                    196. Civil disobedience of “neutral” laws
                    197. Work-on without collaboration
                    198. Dual sovereignty and parallel government

Gene Sharp, stressed that to sustain a long struggle activists cannot display just one tactic rather, they need to create a sequence of actions that builds over time. The goal is to “escalation of disorder without violence.” The track record of what escalation can accomplish is impressive and still is rarely attempted. When confronted with the possibility to escalate, groups (organizers) find too many reasons to play it safe.

Berhampur Children’s Federation today celebrated the ‘National Girl Child Day’on 24 January, 2017. On this occasion the members of children’s federation organized meetings and awareness rallies in slums such as Raghupati Nagar and Lanjipalli Goudabandh Street.

Children conveyed the importance and need of girl child to their parents and communities. Girls touch the heights with success in many sectors like science, technology, politics, defence and social work by innovating ideas that change human lives. But the irony is that our society still believes boys are better than girls. As per census 2011, the child sex ratio in Ganjam district remains 908 as the state and national average remains 941 and 914. This shows a dismal picture of just and equal society and also creates gender disparity. This discrimination creates many social problems like child marriage, child trafficking and violence against children and women.

On the other hand girl’s education also not that encouraging in our society which is due to the gender differences, poor infrastructure for girls in various institutions (e.g. unavailability of separate toilets for girls in schools), violence against girls as per National Crime Record Bureau in Odisha during 2015, there are 2562 cases reported as crime against children similarly during 2014, there are 2196 cases and during 2013 there are 1123 cases reported as crime against children. Among of these, during 2013 there are 509, during 2014 there are 753 and during 2015 there are 1052 cases reported as rape. Among of these, there are also many cases reported as sexual harassment, insult to modesty of women (girls children), kidnapping & abduction of women to compel her marriage and procuration of minor girls etc.

Keeping all this in mind the children not just celebrated the girl child day but created a sense among the communities, parents that girl child are equally important, they have equal rights and powerful for complete society. They also highlighted issues of female foeticide, poor enrolment of girl child in schools, early girl child marriage, poor mensuration hygiene practice among girls, early pregnancy, maternal death, infant death and other issues related to children and adolescents.

Children urged elected representatives, government and communities to equally take the responsibilities to protect the rights of the girl children and adolescent. They particularly highlighted the role of citizen and various committees like slum committees, youth clubs, mother’s committees and self-helpgroups and citizen committees like Gaon Kalyan Samiti, School Management Committee, Standing Committees of local self-governments to highlight the issues, monitor public programmes and prioritise the needs and aspirations of the girl children.

In this occasion child leaders and children’s federation members such as Smruti Kumari Sahu, Ankita Sahu , Amit Kumar Das, Pooja Das, Kalia Das  and from Youth for Social Development Chandan Sahu, Abhiram Kanhar, Bala Das, Archana Sahu facilitated children’s federation members.