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UPDATE 5 Dear Friends, The Support Group has been working constantly to improve the flow of information regarding the Right to Food Campaign. Two most important initiatives have been the E-group (where in you are receiving this mail) and the website. We request you to help us in 1) spreading the information by spreading the word about the website & send us e-mail ids of people whom you think would be interested in receiving the update mails; 2) Tell us what is happening in your side regarding the campaign. A new link called events has been added wherein we hope to put information on various events that are happening in the states. I request you to use it. You could think of it as a 'home page' for your event. Have things about your event, the parchas you are using and other things in the website. All you need to do is to type things in MS Word and mail it to us. We will do the rest for you and send you the link. We have made a beginning with some `barebones' information about events happening in Orissa here. And now for today's headlines:
1. PUBLIC HEARINGS AND WORKSHOP IN ORISSA - KALAHANDI, BOLANGIR & BHUBANESWAR We organised two Public Hearings one in Bolangir and other in Kalahandi district on 20th and 22nd October respectively. Also under the banner of "Right to Food Campaign - Orissa Chapter we are planning to organise one sharing workshop at Bhubaneswar on 24th October 2002. The public hearing in Kalahandi received a good response from the people, but no government official participated. The concluding memorandum of the hearing is copied below. CONCLUDING MEMORANDUM A public hearing on the right to food was held at village Kaniguma (block Thuamul Rampur, district Kalahandi) on 22 October 2002. The hearing was attended by hundreds of tribals from five surrounding panchayats. The following is a brief summary of the main observations and complaints that emerged at the hearing concerning the functioning of basic-needs programmes in the area. EMPLOYMENT PROGRAMMES - Wage payments on local public works programmes are delayed, sometimes for months. - Wage rates on local public works programmes are much below the legal minimum wage. - Not enough work is available on public works programmes, especially in the remote villages, especially during stressful periods such as the present drought. PENSIONS - Number of pensions sanctioned for widowed, elderly and disabled persons is far below requirement. The quotas should be increased, especially for widows. - Sometimes the names recommended by the palli sabha are "changed" at the block office. (One person explained that this might be because some of the names are not of BPL households.) - Some participants complained that they can't get a pension without paying a bribe, and that they are too poor to pay the bribe. - Pensions are given mainly in the more accessible villages; the remote villages are left out. In the remote villages, often people don't even know about these schemes. - Pensions are not paid regularly. Because of delayed pensions, destitute persons are often unable to lift the BPL rice from the ration shop. - No-one among the participants received a disability pension, even though many of the families present had disabled members. PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM - Many people are unable to lift the BPL rice because they don't have enough cash, or they don't have cash at the right time. - Many ration shops open for only a few days each month, which makes it difficult for poor families to lift their rice as they may not have cash at that particular time. - The BPL price (Rs 5/kg) is so close to the market price (about Rs 6/kg) that people get little benefit from the PDS, especially taking into account the low quality of PDS rice. (Note: The official price is Rs 4.75/kg but illegal commissions are being charged, raised the price to Rs 5/kg.) - Some participants complained of fake entries being made in the ration cards. - In some remote villages, the BPL rice doesn't reach because the transportation allowances are very low. INTEGRATED CHILD DEVELOPMENT SCHEME (ICDS) - Because of low provisions for transportation costs, anganwadi workers are unable to provide food to the children in the remote villages. - There are complaints that ICDS food is being appropriated by private parties in some villages. - Because of poor functioning of ICDS centres, looking after young children is a big problem for many mothers. Some are unable to send their elder children to school because the elder children are needed to look after younger siblings. Others are constrained to leave young children unattended at home when they go to the forest. - Expectations from anganwadi workers do not match with their limitations. SCHOOLING - There is widespread teacher absenteeism in the local schools, especially in the remote villages. In one village, it was reported that teacher has been seen for the last 15 years, even though the villagers built a house for him. - When schools remain closed because teachers are absent, children don't get the mid-day meal. - In some villages, delinquant teachers harass people who attempt to submit complaints to the authorities. - In some residential schools, no food is provided and there is no teaching either, so the children stay away. - Some applications for EGS schools have been unsuccessful even though the village satisfied the requirements. - In some schools, teachers "train" some pupils to give rosy answers about mid-day meals in the event of an inspector's visit. As one participant describes it, these children are even trained to say that they have eaten eggs at school, even if they ate local papayas. OTHER COMPLAINTS - One widespread complaint is that villages are inaccessible, and approach roads have either not been constructed or their condition is very poor. - Lack of drinking water is another common problem. - There is widespread corruption in many of the above-mentioned schemes. - People's complaints are not being heard. Some of them spend considerable time and money to submit complaints at the Block or District offices, without result. - Illegal commissions are being charged in all food-related schemes. A report on the hearing and the letter to various offices of the government is available here HUNGER DEATHS IN BARAN DIST. OF RAJASTHAN The sahriya tribe is a very vulnerable group in Rajasthan and the Government has not focussed on there plight. They live in a situation of chronic hunger and deprivation. Their food security is tied to the agri - forest economy. With the rainfall being less than 30 % of the annual average therehas been a severe breakdown of their livelihood support base. They have been left to fend for themselves with hardly any State intervention coming to their rescue. A team including PUCL studied more than 18 deaths which included four adults and the rest were children The situation in the two tehsils of Kishanganj and Shabad, which Sahariya dominated is very bad. Most people are not getting two square meals a day. They are living of rotis made out of a grass seed. Eating a wild green called phang. The able bodied spend the entire day digging medicinal roots which they then sell to a contractor who comes from MP at five rupees a kg. In the areas where we went grain a gratuitious relief had been distributed, five kgs per family after the incident of death or only recently after the deaths caused the pulling up of the administration. The government had sent a medical team to inspect the deaths, and have been claiming that the deaths were not due to starvation. A large rally of over 1,500 people was organized in Jaipur on the 21st and a delegation of 20 went to meet the Chief Minister. A set of demands have been placed on the CM regarding the plight of people and demanding immediate and greatly enhanced relief work. To read the report of the barn issue and the letter to the chief minister, please clickhere. A PIL ON CORRUPTION IN THE PDS SYSTEM PUCL (U.P.) has filed a petition in the Allahabad H. Court regarding corruption in the public distribution system. Having documented corruption in the system in the District of Balia, the petitioner is praying for an inquiry committee to be set by the court. The petition is available here. PUNJAB STARTS MID-DAY MEALS The government of Punjab has decided to get started to provide cooked mid-day meal in certain districts. The programme was launched in a test basis in 17 blocks, one in each district. The pilot will go on for 50 days. A newspaper report in Tribune suggested that the Government of Punjab will file an affidavit in the Supreme Court based on the results of the pilot. RALLY FOR COOKED MID-DAY MEALS IN LUCKNOW ON NOVEMBER 14, 2002 Protesting the non-implementation of the order of the Supreme Court in uttar pradesh, various groups are planning a rally in Lucknow on children's day. The uttar pradesh government has blatantly violated the order of the Supreme Court to provide cooked mid-day meal in all government and government aided primrary schools. There are signs of this happening in many states. UP, Bihar, Jharkhand and some other states have displayed no signs of starting the scheme. Details about the rally, the location, etc. will be posted soon in the website. To check them out and the other events, please click here. |
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