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UPDATE 10 (March 2003)
Dear friends,
This is the second part of our two-part update for this week.
The headlines:
1. SECOND REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER
2. UTTAR PRADESH: STRUGGLE FOR RIGHT TO FOOD AND INFORMATION
3. ORISSA: FURTHER PUBLIC HEARINGS
4. KARNATAKA: MODEL SOCIAL AUDITS PLANNED
5. EXTENSION OF MID-DAY MEALS TO SUMMER VACATION
6. RAJASTHAN: EMPLOYMENT RESTRICTIONS ROLLED BACK
7. FIAN SEMINAR IN DELHI
8. ANTYODAYA PROGRAMME TO BE EXPANDED
9. PLANS FOR WEEK OF ACTION FROM MADHYA PRADESH AND KARNATAKA
10. MAHARASHTRA: DEMAND FOR INCREASED SPENDING ON HEALTH AND NUTRITION
11. "WOMEN'S RIGHT TO FOOD AND WORK" - THEME OF WOMEN'S DAY IN WEST BENGAL
12. MORE ACTIVITIES IN MADHYA PRADESH.
1. SECOND REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER
Dr N C Saxena, Commissioner of the Supreme Court, has been taking forward the system of monitoring food and employment schemes. In the past few months he has been travelling actively to various states including Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, and Orissa. In all these places he has been holding meetings with active participants of the Right to Food Campaign as well as with government officials. The second report of the Commissioner has also been presented to the Supreme Court. At the last hearing, on 3 March, Justice Sabarwal said that he had spent two hours studying the report, and he directed the states to respond to it carefully. He will be taking it up in detail in the next hearing, on 8 April. The report is available in the website (you can access it at http://www.righttofoodindia.org/links/reports/sctwo.html, or just go to www.righttofood.com and a link at the bottom of the page will lead you right there).
2. UTTAR PRADESH: STRUGGLE FOR RIGHT TO FOOD AND INFORMATION
On 11 January 2003, just a day after the President of India put his seal on the Union Right to Information Act, over 250 people from Bharawan village in Hardoi district (U.P.) staged a spontaneous dharna to demand information on development-related schemes in their block. The demand was fiercely opposed by vested interests, and the struggle intensified over the next two weeks, with the active involvement of Sandeep Pandey. After ten days of dharna and several days of hunger strike in icy weather, the administration turned hostile and even threatened a lathi charge. Despite dire warnings, the people of Bharawan moved towards the district headquarters in Hardoi. They marched with black bands tied across their mouth to symbolize the stifling of the voice of democracy. The District Magistrate, Mr M.A.A. Khan, assured them that he would complete an enquiry and give a detailed report by 15 February. As a first victory, the people of Bharawan got information about various public works taken up for a part of last year. Seeing unbuilt roads and ghost 'projects' has created a stir among the participants. This has also put pressure on the administration with various officials being suspended, possibly for the first time in UP with the use of right to information. To take this process forward, a workshop on the right to food and information was organised in Bharawan on 20-21 February. The workshop had widespread participation from people all over the block and even from different parts of UP. Members of PUCL (Rajasthan), Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, Parivartan (Delhi) and the support group of the right to food campaign facilitated the workshop. There are widespread irregularities in the region. Few people have seen ration cards. A survey done in five panchayats revealed that only 0.5 % of the people had a ration card. This is staggering even by UP's unusual standards. Only one woman among hundreds of participants had heard of a survey being conducted for identifying BPL families, even though local officials claimed that a door-to-door BPL identification survey had just been completed. Participants from just one panchayat had worked in an SGRY programme, and even they had not received their full wages. The meeting ended with a resolve to take up issues of employment, pensions and the public distribution system. The team hopes to make use of the right to information in securing better compliance in the region with respect to these schemes. Hopefully this would lead to a much larger movement in the whole of Uttar Pradesh.
3. ORISSA: MORE PUBLIC HEARINGS
In Kalahandi district, a team of volunteers is making preparations for public hearings in all the 16 panchayats of Thuamul Rampur block. A major public hearing is expected to take place in Kerpai, the remotest panchayat of this remote block of a remote district. Meanwhile, there are signs that the district administration is beginning to respond to these initiatives. Further details are awaited. If interested, please contact Rajkishore Mishra at rajkishor_mishra@hotmail.com.
4. KARNATAKA: MODEL SOCIAL AUDITS PLANNED
Groups in Karnataka are actively taking forward the system of social audits. They have organised two rounds of training for this purpose. Members of the campaign groups have also participated in a couple of social audits organised in Rajasthan and in Delhi. They are well on their way to conducting audits in parts of Karnataka. This would be one major step in using the tools of right to information to promote the right to food.
5. EXTENSION OF MID-DAY MEALS TO SUMMER VACATION
The support group has started lobbying for an extension of mid day meal programmes during the summer months, especially in drought-affected districts (this proposal is also included in the second report of the Commissioner). In drought-affected areas, mid-day meals can play a crucial role in protecting children from hunger. Towards this, the support group has argued for an extension of mid day meals into summer, improved quality and quantity of mid-day meals, and inclusion of out of school children during the summer vacation. Similar demands have been made by various individuals and organisations involved in the right to food campaign, notably in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. The demand for extension of mid-day meals to the summer vacation was presented by Akal Sangharsh Samiti to Mr. Ashok Gehlot, Chief Minister of Rajasthan, at the end of a one-day dharna held on 3 March (see part 1 of this update). The Chief Minister welcomed the idea and a provision for this was made in the budget presented the next day in the State Assembly. Similar efforts are being made elsewhere.
7. FIAN SEMINAR IN DELHI
FIAN International organised a three-day seminar on the right to food at the Indian Social Institute on 24-26 February 2003, under the theme: "Towards Full Realization of the Right to Food: Exploring the potentials of a Framework Law". The seminar reviewed the implementation of the right to food in India and explored the potential for a so-called "framework law" on the right to food, i.e. a law aimed at defining the broad parameters of legal action in this domain. FIAN has been working on "voluntary guidelines" for the right to food with the UN's Food and Agriculture Oragnisation (FAO). The guidelines proposed by FIAN are available in the organisation's website (see http://www.fian.org/COC.ENG.rtf ). We hope to share the report of the seminar with you in due course.
8. ANTYODAYA PROGRAMME TO BE EXPANDED
In his budget speech on 28 February, the Finance Minister Mr. Jaswant Singh announced that Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY), a programme of food-based social security for destitute households, would be expanded to cover 50 lakh additional families, in addition to the current 1 crore families. This is an achievement of sorts for the campaign, in so far as the announcement appears to be directly linked with the campaign's activities. It may be recalled that some months ago the support group had submitted a detailed proposal for the extension and improvement of AAY to the Supreme Court. This proposal (available in the "legal issues" section of the website) was also presented to the Food Ministry, the Planning Commission, etc. The forthcoming extension of AAY seems to be a result of these lobbying efforts. Having said this, the announced extension is only about half of what the Food Ministry had recommended, based on this proposal. Further, the proposal included wide-ranging suggestions for the consolidation of the scheme, which are yet to be accepted by the government. The lobbying efforts continue (it seems that a modified version of the proposal submitted to the Supreme Court has been sent by the Food Ministry to the Cabinet). One specific suggestion made in the proposal was that some specific "priority groups" should be given Antyodaya cards as a matter of right, e.g. widows without support, disabled persons without support, and elderly persons without support. Informal communications from the Food Ministry suggest that these groups will receive priority in the proposed extension of the Antyodaya programme. Revised guidelines are awaited.
9. PLANS FOR WEEK OF ACTION FROM MADHYA PRADESH AND KARNATAKA
Plans for week of action is being made actively by various groups across the country. In a meeting of participants of active participants of right to food campaign in Madhya Pradesh, it was decided that all the organisations present will take up some activity or the other for the week of action. This may be organising a meeting of ten or more panchayats, rallys, dharanas, etc. Plans are on to involve the media actively in the process. This is one of the first states to put its plans in place for the week of action. Simultaneously in Karnataka campaign groups are in planning activities in all 27 districts of the State. They are also planning to work with the National Law School, Bangalore to revise the Maharashtra employment guarantee act and produce an improved draft for Karnatka. To take the message of the campaign among people effectively, plans are on to involve cultural activists to produce songs to spread the message effectively. Activities are being planned for every day of the week across the state. The current plan is to have a theme for each day based on which activities would be organised in different parts of the state. Plans include involvement of government officials and media in all levels; call for action for all community based organisations, trade unions, NGOs et al; taking up the cause of migrant workers, youth, women, child labourers and children in general. On May 1st there will be rallies in front of the vidhan sabha (legislative assembly of the state) and also in every district headquarters.
10. MAHARASHTRA: DEMAND FOR INCREASED SPENDING ON HEALTH AND NUTRITION
Anna Adhikar Abhiyan organised a mass protest on 11-13 March in Mumbai (coinciding with the opening of the budget session of the State Assembly), demanding a major increase in public spending on health and nutrition. The dharna, attended by some 1500-2000 people on all the three days, was accompanied by a mass relay fast. It was addressed by a number of leading social activists. The demands included increasing budgetary allocations for nutrition and health, reverting to a universal public distribution system, distribution of BPL cards in the interim to various identified social categories, proper implementation of the mid-day meal scheme and the integrated child development scheme, availability of drugs in public hospitals, stopping privatisation of health services, public audit of the Rs 727 crore World Bank loan to the health sector, and posting of health workers in every village.
11. WOMEN'S RIGHT TO FOOD AND WORK" - THEME OF WOMEN'S DAY IN WEST BENGAL
In West Bengal, over 35 women's organisations and NGOs held demonstrations on 8 March 2003 (Women's Day) under the banner of Maitree. The demonstrations held in the College Square had the right to food and work as the primary theme. This was featured as one of the prime concerns along with domestic violence and other issues. Songs and plays added colour to the programme, and all the participants wore caps saying "No war, we want food, No war, we want work". Leaflets were circulated linking the right to work with the right to food. A special issue of the magazine 'Haq Katha' was brought out, focusing on the right to work, the public distribution system, and related issues. Shramajibee Mahila Samity, a rural working women's organisation, performed a play at College Square. Problems in enlisting names in BPL list, non-availability of food grains from ration shops, and violations of Supreme Court orders in rural areas were among the themes of the play. Besides this, many other NGOs like Sanlaap, ISW and individual members of the platform put up dance dramas, recited poems and sang anti-war songs. After the play, 'Maitree' took out a rally from College Square to Sealdah Railway Station. About 700 women participated in that rally. The event was well covered by print and visual media. Apart from Maitree, many other women's groups have taken up food as one of the key themes of Women's Day.
12. MORE ACTIVITIES IN MADHYA PRADESH
There has been a fair amount of activity in Madhya Pradesh in recent weeks. In Jhabua, a training programme on the right to food took place with a five-point agenda: 1-the concept of food security, 2-food security & right to food campaign, 3- Supreme Court orders & its implementation at community level, 4-various public welfare schemes being implemented by Government, 5- taking forward the campaign at various levels. Various issues came up at the workshop. In social security pension schemes, for example, the beneficiaries are asked by the bank to get the signatures of the sarpanch or the village secretary. The poor have to part with some bribe to do the same. Further, the eligibility criteria of the scheme are found to be problematic. In mid-day meal scheme, where 'dry-rations' are being provided, it has been found not to reach the children. SAMPARK has agreed to disseminate information on the schemes, the orders of the Supreme Court, and the BPL survey. The workshop also discussed the need to spread awareness about globalisation among people since it is connected to right to food and work. Meanwhile, there is also some movement in the Gwalior-Chambal area of Madhya Pradesh. Recent reports suggest that the drought situation in districts such as Shivpuri and Sheopur is extremely alarming, especially among the Sahariyas. For instance, there isn't a blade of grass in the entire eastern part of Sheopur district, and cattle are dying like flies. Villagers are already reporting cattle losses of 50 per cent or so, and expect the bulk of the livestock to perish during the next few months. The condition of the people is not much better. Undernutrition levels in that area are among the highest in India even in ordinary years, and hunger is intensifying further with the spread of drought conditions. Immediately after Holi, mass migration began, with entire villages leaving the drought-affected areas to look for work elsewhere. Ekta Parishad is doing useful work on drought and related issues in these districts, and Lok Adhikar Manch, a coalition of organisations based in the area, is planning a training programme on the right to food for local activists during the second week of April. Also in Madhya Pradesh, activists of the right to food campaign recently joined an antiwar demonstration also involving ActionAid (bhopal) , Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti (BGVS), Samajvadi Jan Parishad, Jansangharsh Morcha, Science Centre, Tulika Samvad , Pragatisheel & Janvadl Lekah Sangh, Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udyog Sanghathan, Narmada Bachao Andolan, and Eklavya, among others. The demonstrators pointed out that apart from being a violation of human rights in itself, the war also distracts us from concentrating on efforts to eradicate poverty and hunger.
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