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UPDATE 17: Supreme Court orders doubling of SGRY in summer
(May 2003)
Dear Friends,
The preceding update contained the latest order of the Supreme Court, dated 2 May 2003 (if you missed it, see the campaign website, www.righttofood.com). This is an important order, which includes potentially far-reaching measures such as the doubling of employment creation for an initial period of three months, and the inclusion of specific groups in the Antyodaya programme. For those interested in the details of the hearing, we copy below (item 4) an informal summary of the court proceedings.
The right to food campaign is based on the realisation that court orders may not accomplish much on their own, if they are not backed by public pressure. This is particularly applicable to the new court order, especially the direction on employment creation. The order takes immediate effect and administrative, logistic and other arrangements should be made and projects should be implemented by the end of July. The states have to wait for the allocations to be made and carry out the projects. Government of India is likely to put spanner in the wheels, and other stumbling blocks may come in the way. All these point out to the need for backing the court's directions with public pressure.
Intensive lobbying is already on in many states, to ensure that the additional resources are generated and utilised. Please consider disseminating this order widely (after translation in local language if necessary), with a sense of urgency. Other possible follow-up activities include sending delegations to the state officials; local meetings with the district collector et al; asking groups and individuals to write/fax the CM asking him to ensure that employment is doubled; asking agricultural labour unions to petition for work and a host of other activities. Needless to say, time is of the essence.
The latest order also gave a boost to the "right to work" activities, which are expected to intensify in the months to come. Two of them are covered in this update (see items 1 and 2). We also present below (item 3) a short comment from Dr N C Saxena, Commissioner of the Supreme Court, on the issue of use of labour-displacing machinery on public works, including SGRY. Dr Saxena is gearing up to take measures to curb the use of machines in public works, and is seeking support for this from organisations and individuals involved in the campaign. He is also advocating more radical measures to ensure that machines are not used in any public works including railways, highways, etc. when the work can be done by labour.
Before we go to the headlines, we request you to help us publicise the latest court order widely. The following documents are available on the campaign website for dissemination:
THE ORDER
SUMMARY OF THE
ORDER
HINDI TRANSLATION OF THE
ORDER
TODAY'S HEADLINES:
1. 'Sangharsh Sabha' Appeals to Trade Unions to
take up Right to Work
In the special update on the week of action on right to work, we had given
you a quick update on AIDWA'S "sangharsh sabha". The full report
of the sabha can now be accessed Here
The sangharsh sabha came out with the following as their main demands:
1. Universalisation of the Public Distribution system. The right to
cheap foodgrain through a strengthened rationing system be made a
fundamental right.
2. As an interim measure all BPL card holders to be given foodgrain at Rs.
3 per kg rice and Rs. 2 per kg wheat (Antyodaya scheme prices). All
widows, single adult women, disabled persons, persons over the age of
sixty and female headed families, regardless of whether they have BPL
cards or not, to be given immediate access to grain at these prices.
3. Ration quotas to be individual based not family based.
4. The right to work be made a fundamental right. Guaranteed employment
scheme with minimum wages and parity between men and women. The earlier
provision for minimum 30 per cent of workdays generated for women, to be
implemented.
5. The foodgrain component of all employment related schemes, including
food for work schemes, to be calculated at current Antyodaya prices.
6. A radical change in measurements of poverty, to include other factors
such as malnourishment and percentages of family income spent on food
requirements as well as collection of gender-segregated data
The sabha has also sent a call to various trade unions that are planning
an all India strike on May 21, 2003. To quote the report: "The
sangharsh sabha gave a call to intensify the struggle at all levels. It
extended full support to the May 21 all India strike call by trade unions
and called on women to organize rasta rokos and gheraos of FCI godowns and
Central Government offices, to add the two main demands for a new food
policy [detailed above] and for the passage of the Women's Reservation
Bill."
2. Plans for Massive Rally Plans in Jaipur to
Press for an Employment Guarantee Act(13 June, 2003)
With elections coming in Rajasthan in a few months, groups in Rajasthan are
sparing no efforts to mobilise for an employment guarantee in Rajasthan. A
systematic campaign has been on for the past few months where in groups have
reached out to people about the right to work across the state. We have kept
you updated of these efforts.
As a part of this ongoing mobilisation, a massive rally is being planned in
Jaipur on June 13, 2003 to press for an employment guarantee act. The
mobilisation is being complemented with dialogue with the government,
background research and efforts at information dissemination about
employment guarantee. Various groups are working in tandem to look at costs
of employment guarantee and developing a model Employment Guarantee Act. The
Budget Analysis Research Centre in Jaipur has been taking the initiative on
estimating the cost of an employment guarantee for Rajasthan. Mazdoor Kisan
Shakti Sangathan among others are working on a model "Right to work
Bill". We will keep you updated on these from time to time, some
initial materials about right to work is available already in our website (www.righttofood.com),
in the right to work section.
"Talwar nahin, trishul nahin, kam ka adhikar chahiye" (neither
trishul nor talwar, we want the right to work) has been one of the key
slogans of the campaign in Rajasthan. The campaign has been trying to
creatively canalise the energy of the masses into positive ventures like the
right to work, and away from the `campaign of hatred' being promoted by the
VHP and other right wing groups.
We are certain that there is much more to report from Rajasthan and other
places, given the intensity of the campaign today. Unfortunately, despite
the strong links we have in the state, the flow of information is quite lax.
We request all of you to share with us information on your campaign
activities so that we can gain inspiration from each other.
The campaign for right to work is taking a significant new turn with the
demand for labour intensive practices in public works. One person who has
been advocating this is Dr Saxena (Commissioner of the Supreme Court), who
has contributed a small passage for the update, which is the next item in
this update…
3. Commissioner's Campaign against use of
Labour-Displacing Machines in Public Works
The paradox of using labour displacing machines on the one hand and creating
special employment programmes on the other has been on for a long time now.
While using labour intensive processes in all public works must be thought
of, machines are being used even in SGRY works. Dr Saxena has contributed
the following paragraph highlighting this paradox:
"In flagrant violation of the guidelines, in many States projects
are being executed by using excavators, trucks and tractors instead of
more labour intensive approaches. This is being done with full knowledge
of the senior officials. For example in one of the study (Deshingkar and
Johnson 2002) in Krishna district - out of 54 works, excavators were
employed in 40 cases. Poclaines (the trade name for a kind of earth
excavator) are becoming the preferred machine for undertaking a variety of
village works through all kinds of programmes from the point of view of
the rich who own the machines and hire them out for public works. One
Poclaine can displace 17x8 persons in an eight hour day (at 17 person-days
per hour), whereas it costs Rs 800 to hire a Poclaine for an hour. The
ideal policy should be to discourage its use even by construction
Ministries, such as Railways and CPWD, and compensate them financially to
build incentives for employing more manual labour. However, the reverse is
happening. Not only labour is being displaced in the so-called employment,
food meant for the poor is sold in the market, thus distorting market for
farmers."
4. Notes from the Supreme Court Hearing on
May 1, 2003
[What follows is an informal, partial summary of the proceedings of the
Supreme Court of 1 May, 2003. It is based on notes taken by observers
at the hearing.]
May 1st was the last day the Supreme Court was to hear cases in detail
(the last non-miscellaneous day) before it went for a summer break. The
right to food litigation came up with just ten minutes to go for the lunch
break. A new bench headed by Justice Sabharwal indicated that we should
take up issues that are urgent for summer. In his quick and efficient
opening remarks, Adv. Colin Gonsavles outlined priority issues for summer,
which paved the way for a detailed discussion that continued thru the
noon.
When hearing began, Justice Sabharwal remarked that "this is the
most important petition we are dealing with" and asked the states
and the Government of India to take this petition with `all the seriousness
it deserved'. Having looked at the responses of the states on various
issues, including mid-day meals, the bench remarked, "We never get
to hear of politicians making political statements saying they cannot
provide basic amenities. But when it comes to the affidavits provided
to the Supreme Court, they always say they don't have money"!
The counsel for the petitioner, Adv. Colin Gonsalves indicated that the
government had been exporting massive quantities of grain, amounting to
about 19 million tonnes in the past two years, at almost BPL prices. This
is done to pull the rug under the feet of people who argue that relief
works must be expanded since large quantities of grain are lying idle
in public godowns.
Colin laid out the important issues that needed to be dealt with expediently.
These issues included:
IMPLEMENTING THE FAMINE CODES: These are administrative codes that all
the states have and they indicate the kind of activity the governments
have to take up during periods of scarcity. The petitioner mentioned the
issue of implementing famine codes in the early stages of the case. The
bench asked if there were any replies from the states on the issue, but
unfortunately, no replies were filed by either the Government of India
or the states.
The counsel for Government of India told the Supreme Court that the codes
do not pertain to the centre but pertain to the states alone. But he said
that the answer to the problems from the Government of India is SGRY,
or provision of employment. The bench remarked that the codes are of much
greater significance than the SGRY scheme for it provides for declaration
of drought, for provision of relief to the destitute and takes up a wider
range of issues. Justice Sabharwal added that he was unhappy that the
Government of India had not replied to an application filed much earlier
by the petitioner on relief codes. He said that he is not willing to accept
general statements by the counsel and would prefer to listen to factual
statements provided to the court in the form of affidavits.
AN ORDER WAS SUBSEQUENTLY PASSED THAT ENFORCED THE FAMINE CODES AND DIRECTED
THE GOVERNMENTS TO FOLLOW THE CODES TO PROVIDE DROUGHT RELIEF. |