Anganwadi Divas Update

The idea to celebrate Anganwadi Divas / Bal Adhikar Yatra germinated in the Hyderabad Convention (April 2006) and has evolved in the following months. Preparations to organize such an activity are underway by different organizations and networks in many states such as Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Kerala and Assam. These activities will be concentrated from November 14th to November 21st 2006.

Planned activities include surveys and fact-findings of ICDS (anganwadi) centres, public meeting to explain provisions of ICDS, cultural programmes at anganwadis, special meals for children on that day, district level meetings with district collector, CDPOs, health officer and other officials. Apart from activities spread over the week, in some places special activiries are being planned for 21st November 2006 (child rights day).

Annual Convention of the Right to Food Campaign.

The first preparatory meeting for the Annual Convention was held on 7th October 2006 in Delhi. The dates for the convention have been decided as 6th - 8th April 2007. The tentative venue is Gaya (Bihar). Some broad themes for inclusion in the convention were also discussed, such as Poverty Estimation, social exclusion, tribal and dalit rights, land and livelihood issues, globalization, urban poor etc. The Convention will also be an opportunity for sharing from different regions and a review of past achievements among others.

The themes stated above are not final and your suggestions are sought. More details on the same will follow in the future updates. The minutes will be placed on the website shortly. www.righttofoodindia.org

Rozgar Adhikar Yatra, Madhya Pradesh

Conceived and initiated by the National Conference of Dalit Organisations (NACDOR), and supported by Wada Na Todo Abhiyan, Samarthan, Poorest Areas Civil Society (PACS) and several other national and regional networks, a Rozgar Adhikar Yatra has been launched from three places in Madhya Pradesh: Rewa, Tikamgarh and Balaghat. This Rozgar Adhikar Yatra will travel through all the 18 districts notified under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) in Madhya Pradesh and will culminate into a Rozgar Adhikar Rally in Bhopal on 31st October. A state level tribunal is also planned in Bhopal on 1 November.

This Rozgar Adhikar Yatra aims at generating public consciousness on the rights of poor under the NREGA and to sensitise state machinery to implement this scheme in its sprit and intentions with utmost seriousness. The Rozgar Adhikar Yatra is also undertaking social audit of implementation of NREGA in MP and would prepare a Charter of Demands, which would be submitted to the state and the central governments for immediate action. Public hearings and social audit exercises will also be undertaken in course of Yatras.

Ekta Parishad Update (contributed by Rajgopal P.V., Ekta Parishad)

a) This report is from Kawardha district, Chhattisgarh. The forest department has destroyed crops of 600 tribal families living in 8 villages of Kawardha district. This is an ongoing battle between forest department and tribals of India. Here the tribals will cultivate land during the Monsoon and the forest department would destroy everything. This happens among a particular primitive tribal community, called the Baigas.

b) Apart from this an investigation team has been constituted by Government of India, Ministry of Panchayati Raj to look into the various violations prevailing in the tribal areas (Mr. Rajgopal P.V., President Ekta Parishad is also part of this team). He reports that across the country one can see a total violation of economic and human rights of the tribal communities by the industrial houses and mining companies. For instance in village Barpali, situated about 25 K.M. away from Rourkela, there are two iron factories on both sides of the village resulting in high levels of pollution. Thus many residents are migrating and others are getting sick in such villages. Another disheartening news is that recently 12 Adivasis (tribals) were shot dead in Orissa; their crime was that they did not agree to give their land to industrial houses in order to build a steel factory.

Nonetheless there is some good news. The Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) has recommended that the claims of Adivasis on forest land should be settled. There is a lot of opposition to this recommendation and we are hoping that the Parliament will pass an Act to settle these long standing claims. The second good news is that the Sub-committee on Land Reforms, set up by the Planning Commission of India has formulated some very good recommendations on the land reform agenda.

Ekta Parishad and National Campaign Committee on Land (NCCL) are working together on these issues. During Chetawni yatra in October 2006, we are planning to popularize the Planning Commission Report and create public opinion around these issues.

c) In Bihar too the new Government setup a Land Commission to look at the land reform agenda. Ekta Parishad organized a state level consultation to create a common platform in order to generate pressure on government and also on the Land Commission. In Bihar, a Ghero Dalo Dhera Dalo (Indefinite Sit-in Programme) is to be organized in Patna from September 24 onwards. About ten thousand landless people and activists will protest for three days and will demand resolutions of the land and livelihoods problems. They will also demand for progressive land reforms policies in the state. Tamil Nadu government has also announced two acres of land to the landless. In this context, Ekta Parishad has recently organized a Padyatra and a National Convention on Land and Livelihood Rights to create a climate as a support to this program. Across the country, especially in states where is Ekta Parishad is active for many years, many programs are taking place like Cycle Yatra, Foot march, Rallies, Sit-in and protest. Presently everything is focused on Chetawni Yatra and Janadesh 2007.

EGA is Proving to be Otherwise for Tribals, Betul district (contributed by Anurag Mody, Samajwadi Jan Parishad & Shramik Adivasi Sanghatan)

The much publicized National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) is proving otherwise for tribals of Betul District in M P as tribals are losing their resources of survival in lieu of employment. Thousands of tribals are losing their land and pasture to the scheme as the M P government has found a good opportunity and money at their disposal to evict so called tribal encroachers from government land.

The Chief Minister of M P Shivrajsingh Chouhan has announced plantation of crores of saplings under the Hariyali Mahotsav. To implement the program the M P government has issued instructions to each Panchayat through district administration to plant trees on government land. This is being done under the NREGA scheme. In Betul district alone this year 1460000 saplings are to be planted over 4669.55 hectors of government land. All most all the land selected under the scheme is occupied by tribals either for cultivation or as a pasture. In village Tadhar of Chicholi block of Betul district alone, tribals have lost 58.88 hectors of land. Pits are being dug up in standing crops. Surendra singh s/o Bhaiyalal said the land is being occupied by his family for four generations. Even in 1998 they were issued pattas for the land. He said they were neither issued any notices nor consulted before work started and they don't have any other land to survive.

The Shramik Adivasi Sanghathan (SAS), an organization of tribals, and Samajwadi Jan Parishad had a demonstration at Chicholi Block office on 12th September and Shahpur on 13th September to oppose the move. According to SAS the government plan's to evict the tribals from government land, disguised as plantation before it is given to companies. Recently on 22 August MP Cabinet had taken a decision to lease out 1000000 hectares of non forest waste land mainly to private parties in the denomination of 100 and 250 hectors.

Maharashtra Right to Food Cases (contributed by Priyanka Josson, India Centre For Human Rights and Law)

Tribal Malnutrition Case: On 20th Sept, 2006 the tribal malnutrition (right to food) case hearing took place in Mumbai High Court. With regard to this a compliance report (i.e report stating whether the order has been implemented and to what extent) is due to be filed on 19th October 2006. For the order please write to righttofood@gmail.com

Urban Malnutrition Case: The 2nd hearing of the urban malnutrition petition took place on 27th Sept, 2006. In light of this, the urban malnutrition PIL No.118/2006 (BHA and others v/s State Of Maharashtra and Others) has been clubbed with the tribal malnutrition petition. Both of them would be heard together on 19th October 2006. The Respondents (State of Maharashtra and others) will file their replies before 19th October 2006.

PDS-SHG Case: On 16th August 2006, the last hearing of the case of PDS-SHG was held. In this case the ration shop owners had filed petitions against the state on the Government Resolution that ration shops should be handed over to SHGs. During this hearing the Supreme Court Commissioners report was presented to the court. This report was sent to Nagpur bench via the Women and Child Development Department. Since then the court case hearing has been listed on board a number of times but it has not come for hearing as yet.

People's Tribunal on Right to Food, Varanasi Uttar Pradesh (contributed by Dr. Lenin, People's Vigilance Committee for Human Rights)

The People's Tribunal on Right to Food was initiated by the People's Vigilance Committee for Human Rights (PVCHR), which is based in Varanasi, in cooperation with the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), a regional human rights organisation based in Hong Kong. The tribunal was held on 30 September 2005 and, on October 1 2006 some of the tribunal members also visited affected villages.

People's Tribunal on Food sought to analyze and record the nature of problems and situation of the targeted communities (Musahar, Nut, Kanjar, Ghasia, Kol, Weaver & Migrant worker community). For this a public hearing was organized. The tribunal directly heard 25 detailed complaints of starvation from persons of various communities. It learnt that within the last three months, four starvation deaths had been reported in Shankarpur village of Vanarasi and Tanda village of Ambedkar Nagar, Uttar Pradesh; and that the victims' families are not receiving proper attention from the government authorities. Food-for-Work schemes too are not being properly implemented. Apart from that the prevailing wage rate has not changed since 20 years and the use of power looms has completely ravaged the lives of weavers as no alternatives are available.

It also heard comments from many other persons who gathered for the hearing. The tribunal noted that the state government of Uttar Pradesh was failing in its obligations not only by international standards but also relative to many other parts of India. For instance, Andhra Pradesh and Tamilnadu both provide for a verbal autopsy in cases of malnutrition deaths, whereupon if children under five die then everybody is called in for the autopsy-including family and community members-and it is found out whether it was a hunger death or not. This is not done in Uttar Pradesh. The state also has very high child malnutrition, estimated at 51-55 per cent, but it spends just Rs 30-50 on nutrition programmes per child, while other states like Gujarat, Punjab and Haryana spend Rs 90-100, and northeastern states spend more than Rs 500 per child.

The members of the tribunal included Justice Rambhoosan Malhotra (Retd. Judge of Allahabad High Court), Bijo Francis (South Asia Desk Officer of the Asian Human Rights Commission), Professor Deepak Malik (Director of Gandhian Institute for Studies), Dr Arvind Kumar Singh (State Secretary of the Uttar Pradesh Indian Medical Association), Dr. Ms. Rolee Singh (Chairperson of the Child Welfare Committee, Varanasi range), Mr. K K Roy (State General Secretary of the People's Union for Civil Liberties, UP) and Mr. Ashok Kumar Sinha (former Programme Officer, Action Aid International, Lucknow).

Special Announcements

• Special Mass Hearing on NREGA is being organized by Paschim Banga Khet Majoor Samity on 31st October, 2006 at Kolkata at University Institute Hall, College Square, Kolkata. The hearing will start at 10-00 a.m. Different unions, organisations working among agricultural and rural workers, eminent intellectuals, distinguished political personalities and trade union leaders, representative from West Bengal State Women's Commission will attend the hearing and give their valuable suggestions and advice after listening to the experiences of the rural workers.
• India Social Forum 9th to 13th November 2006, Delhi. The overall theme for the ISF is 'Building Another World: Visions for the Future'. Various contributions to the ISF are being planned by the secretariat of the Right to Food Campaign, in collaboration with other groups, including: (1) a stall on the right to food; (2) a crèche facility; (3) a workshop on children's right to food; (4) workshops or seminars on employment guarantee, the public distribution system, and (possibly) the general issue of the right to food. If you have any ideas or suggestions please send a line to righttofood@gmail.com
• BAL ADHIKAR SAMVAD A public meeting on Children's Right to Food, `Bal Adhikar Samvad, is being planned for 19 th December 2006 in Delhi. This meeting is part of the follow-up to the convention on children's right to food, held in Hyderabad on 7-9 April 2006. The aim is to bring to the forefront rights of children under-six and the role of ICDS. A report of the FOCUS study, which looked at the status of ICDS in six states, will be released during the meeting. Other suggestions for the public meeting include a panel discussion, testimonies by activists, community members/leaders, anganwadi teachers etc. on the status of the ICDS, cultural activities, including songs and theatre on children's rights. Prof. Amartya Sen has agreed to participate and to be a keynote speaker. Planning for the event is underway. Your comments and suggestions are invited.
• Bal Adhikar Yatra is being organized in Delhi from the 14th to the 21st of November 2006. During this week about 15 anganwadis will be visited, where activities will be planned by the organizations active in that locality. This yatra is expected to culminate in a big gathering on the 21st of November. The venue and details of this yatra are still under planning. More details will follow in the future updates. If you wish to keep continually informed about activities in the area of children's right to food, you can join our interactive group: www.childrensrighttofood@googlegroups.com .

The secretariat of the `Right to Food Campaign' has prepared a series of PRIMERS (easy-to-read booklets) on various aspects of the right to food, like the National Employment Guarantee Act, Mid-day Meals, ICDS, and the Supreme Court Orders on the Right to Food writ petition (196/2001). These primers are written in simple language and are ideal for training workshops, awareness generation campaigns etc.; and are nominally priced. To buy these primers please contact us at the email address given below. The National Book Trust is also printing these primers in all Indian languages.

[NOTE: These Updates are prepared by the secretariat of the right to food campaign (tel. 011-435 01335, e-mail righttofood@gmail.com), based on communications received. If you'd like to send any material for inclusion in the next Update, please send a line to righttofood@gmail.com. See also the campaign website (www.righttofoodindia.org) for the full list of earlier Updates, and plenty of information on various aspects of the right to food.]