UPDATE 3

Dear friends,

The main recent development is a long hearing in the Supreme Court on 3rd September. A range of issues were discussed in the hearing, including mid-day meals, social security and the right to work. The first three items in the "headlines" below relate to this hearing.

Today's headlines:

1. Mid-day meals: supreme court pulls up "delinquent states"
2. Further progress with the proposal for "ending destitution"
3. West bengal: workshop on the right to food and work
4. Pondichery breakfast scheme runs into trouble
5. Starvation deaths in karnataka and orissa
6. Reminders


1. MID-DAY MEALS: SUPREME COURT PULLS UP "DELINQUANT STATES"

On 28 November 2001, the Supreme Court directed all States and UTs to introduce cooked mid-day meals in all government and government- assisted primary schools within six months. Nine months later, many (in fact most) states are yet to introduce mid-day meals. They complain of lack of funds for the purpose. Taking a serious view of the situation, the Supreme Court stated on 3rd September that it cannot entertain this excuse for not implementing the order. It put the states on "verbal notice" that they have to decide by Monday 9th September to implement the scheme. Failing that, the court may allot
money for the scheme directly from the centre and deduct this from central grants to the states. These statements, prominently reported the next day in front-page articles published in Times of India and Dainik Bhaskar, apparently sent shock waves in the Planning Commission and Finance Ministry. (Update: The hearing on Monday 9th September has been adjourned.)

2. FURTHER PROGRESS WITH THE PROPOSAL FOR "ENDING DESTITUTION"

At the 3rd September hearing, the GoI agreed in principle to the application on destitution, which puts forward a proposal for a major programme of food-based social security for destitute households. The government has asked
for 4 months to frame the details of the programme. On 9 September, an inter-ministerial meeting was held for further discussion of this proposed programme. Despite some opposition from a representative of the Finance Ministry, the proposal was positively received (further details of the outcome of this meeting are awaited). We expect further rapid progress on this front during the next few weeks.

3. WEST BENGAL: WORKSHOP ON THE RIGHT TO FOOD AND WORK

In West Bengal, the "network for the right to food and work" proposes to conduct a workshop on 25-26 September. The programme includes a situation analysis relating to the right to food, the right to work, government schemes, and the status of the case in the Supreme Court. Also on the agenda are the strategies for the campaign, the campaign
structure, and other issues. Specifically, the workshop hopes to develop a plan of action for the Action Day being planned under the banner "Godam Kholo, Kam Do".

4. PONDICHERY BREAKFAST SCHEME RUNS INTO TROUBLE

On 14th August 2002, the Government of Pondichery introduced a Breakfast scheme with some fanfare. The scheme covers all children in government schools up to class 10, and involves the provision of bread and milk as breakfast. This pioneering scheme ran into some trouble last week when children in a school fell ill with food poisoning. This turned out to be due to the bad quality of the milk. The programme was suspended for a couple of days, but is now
back on track. This experience underlines the importance of the quality aspects of mid-day meal programmes, which have been a major concern of the Right to Food campaign.

5. STARVATION DEATHS IN KARNATAKA AND ORISSA

There were media reports this week of starvation deaths in Karnataka and Orissa. The governments rushed teams to "investigate" these deaths. It is safe to expect that they will return with the news that the deaths were not due to starvation. The Karnataka team is planning to get the help of doctors in the area to investigate and document the death.

Starvation deaths are complicated to document since the immediate cause of death is generally some disease due to weakening of the body and loosing the power of resistance. Dr. Abhay Shukla of CEHAT has worked on developing a method of documenting starvation deaths, looking not just at the immediate cause of a death but also at the long-term events that have an effect on the body. It may become important for the campaign to document starvation deaths systematically, if we are to debunk official claims of deaths being due to diseases and other immediate causes.

6. REMINDERS

Please remember to help spread awareness of the campaign by
reprinting items from these "Updates" in your organisation's
newsletter, if possible. Our thanks to Dr. Shabhunath Singh Research Foundation and www.humanrightskerala.com for deciding to publish items from earlier updates in the bimonthly newsletter "Paharua", and in the "Children" and "This India" columns of the website. Thanks to VANI also for venturing to print news about the two Supreme Court
applications in its newsletter.