http://pvchr.blogspot.com/2010/05/india-please-take-immediate-action-to.html
India: Please take immediate action to the save the life 5 families of dalits bonded labour in Varanasi of India
India: Please take immediate action to the save the life 5 families of dalits bonded labour in Varanasi.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
ISSUES: Bonded labour; corruption; impunity; threat to Dalit, right to live with dignity
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
3rd May, 2010
Dear friends,
Peoples' Vigilance Committee on Human Rights (PVCHR) came to know through its activist regarding the case of five migrant bonded labour families from Dalit community in village Mauza Sarai under jurisdiction Phulpur, tehsil Pindra of Varanasi district, Uttar Pradesh India. The Musahar are tortured and continuously getting threat from brick kiln owner. Now the musahars are hiding themselves in Mani Tal and surrounded by the influenced people of brick kiln owner.
Case detail:
The five mushars families of Mauza Sarai under jurisdiction Phulpur, tehsil Pindra of Varanasi district were working as labour in the brick kiln factory of Mr. Bablu Singh Mauza Umndi under jurisdiction Shivpur, Tehsil – Sadar district Varanasi since Hindu festival Dasahra, 2009 till now i.e. 7 months.
1). Ram Dayal Mushars s/o Lochan Mushar & Sunita
2). Bhola Mushar s/o late Lochan Mushar & Vaguara
3). Dinesh Mushar s/o Rajendra Mushar & Rita Mushar
4). Sudhir Mushar s/o Indrajeet Mushar and Seema Mushar
5). Manish Mushar s/o Rajendra Mushar and Himanshu Mushar
All five Mushars couples were engaged from mixing of mud till shaping of the brick. The Mushars were remunerated 300 INR for making the 1000 bricks. In seven month they make 9, 40,800 bricks and reimbursed with the advance of 5000 Rupees to each couple and 56000 Rupees for the foodstuff with the cost of 500 rupees for week. Still wages of 2, 67,880 Rupees is remaining
When the mushars started withdrawing remaining wages than brick kiln owner started torturing them. He only allows one person from each family to purchase the necessary things and return back to factory with in 10 – 15 minutes from market. While being late they were abused and soon after that brick kiln owner started to close the door from the outside. The Mushars hide themselves in Manital and they are frighten when they see any vehicle coming towards them.
PVCHR immediately intervened and gave telephonic information to the District Magistrate, Varanasi and also sent petitions to SDM Pindra & Sadar, District Magistrate, Varanasi and National Human Rights Commission, New Delhi. Hence till today no action taken by the appropriate authority.
Other relevant Facts:
This problem is not only faced by the five Mushars family but also 26 Mushars of village were working on the brick kiln factory of Mr. Raja Babu in Village Kashipura, block – Araziline in Varanasi district. On 11th March, 2010 they gave their official declaration but SDM (Sub – divisional Magistrate) Sadar & labour officer did not take any action against the brick kiln owner. On 18th March letters sent to various authorities, but still the bonded labour are not reimbursed with the remaining wages and not receive rehabilitation certificates. The same problem faced by eight mushers of Lakhirampur, under jurisdiction Badagaon of Varanasi district.
Background Information
In Varanasi district and other parts of Uttar Pradesh people from the socially and economically marginalized communities are still exploited for forced labour. People from these communities are treated inhumanly; physically abused and are paid nothing by their employers.
The domestic law against bonded labour – the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976 provides for punishment for compelling a person to engage in bonded labour. In addition to prescribing punishment for forcing persons into bonded labour, the Act by a declaration freed everyone from bonded labour and prohibits contractual agreements facilitating bonded labour and continuation or extension of any pre-enactment agreement of similar nature. The Act also writes off all pre-enactment debts and liabilities that had resulted in forced labour.
As of today, the practice of bonded labour still continues in several parts of India, particularly in northern India and in southern states except Kerala. Though the law has come into force since 1976, like much other domestic legislation - The Dowry Prevention Act, 1961 and The Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes [Prevention of Atrocities] Act, 1989 - the implementation of these laws have mostly failed in India.
This is because domestic legislations depend heavily of the local police to initiate actions against the perpetrator of a crime. It is for the local police to register a case, investigate it and submit it to the court for prosecution. However, in most cases where the victims are from the marginalized or socially ostracized communities the local police take no action. This is mostly because the widespread prevalence of corruption within the police and the complete lack of accountability on police inaction.
As of today policing in India suffer from corruption, nepotism, insensitivity, incapability to investigate crimes and political influence. Thus far the government has initiated no actions to address these issues, but has resisted all moves to retain policing under the clout of local politicians. The police on the other hand play into this caucus, allowing the rich and powerful to exploit them so that the officers and the establishment as a whole could benefit from the illegal proceeds of such an arrangement. Please visit given below URL to know the condition of Mushars, http://musahar.blogspot.com/2008/06/uttar-pradesh-musaharnama.html.
Sample letter
To,
……………………..
…………………………
Subject: Please take immediate action to the save the life of Dalit bonded labour
Name of the victim:
1. Ram Dayal Mushars s/o Lochan Mushar & Sunita
2. Bhola Mushar s/o late Lochan Mushar & Vaguara
3. Dinesh Mushar s/o Rajendra Mushar & Rita Mushar
4. Sudhir Mushar s/o Indrajeet Mushar and Seema Mushar
5. Manish Mushar s/o Rajendra Mushar and Himanshu Mushar
Name of alleged perpetrator:
Mr. Bablu Singh, village - Mauza Umndi under jurisdiction Shivpur, Tehsil – Sadar district Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India
Dear Sir/Madam,
I am writing to voice my deep concern regarding the cases of slavery and bonded labour reported from village Mauza Umndi under the jurisdiction of Shivpur.police station, Varanasi District, Uttar Pradesh. I am informed that five of families are being forced to work as bonded labourers for brick kiln factory of Mr. Bablu Singh Mauza Umndi under jurisdiction Shivpur, Tehsil – Sadar district Varanasi since Hindu festival Dashra, 2009 till now i.e. 7 months.
I am also informed that all five Mushars couples were engaged from mixing of mud till shaping of the brick. The Mushars were remunerated 300 INR for making the 1000 bricks. In seven month they make 9, 40,800 bricks and reimbursed with the advance of 5000 Rupees to each couple and 56000 Rupees for the foodstuff with the cost of 500 rupees for week. Still wages of 2, 67,880 Rupees is remaining
When the mushars started withdrawing remaining wages than brick kiln owner started torturing them. He only allows one person from each family to purchase the necessary things and return back to factory with in 10 – 15 minutes. While being late they were abused and soon after that brick kiln owner started to close the door from the outside. Now the Mushars hide themselves in Manital and they are frighten when they see any vehicle coming towards them.
PVCHR immediately intervened and gave telephonic information to the District Magistrate, Varanasi and also sent to SDM Pindra & Sadar, District Magistrate, Varanasi and National Human Rights Commission, New Delhi. Hence till today no action taken by the appropriate authority.
I am concerned by the fact that there has been no action taken by the District Magistrate, in spite of the fact that he has received a complaint from the victims detailing their plight. I therefore urge you to take immediate steps to put an end to slave-like practices and bonded labour in all industrial establishments, in the brick kiln owned by the perpetrators named above in particular, and to immediately free these persons from bonded labour
Our Demands
Instruct the DM, Varanasi to immediate to action to save the life of 5 families of Mushar and issue release certificate
Reimbursing of the remaining wages from the brick kiln owner
Yours sincerely,
----------------
PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:
1. Ms. Mayawati
Chief Minister
Chief Minister's Secretariat
Lucknow
Uttar Pradesh
INDIA
Fax: + 91 522 223 0002 / 223 9234
E-mail: csup@up.nic.in
2. Shri Mukul Wasnik
Minister, Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment
Sardar Patel Bhawan
Sansad Marg
New Delhi - 110 001
INDIA
Fax: + 91 11 23742133
E-mail: ddpg2-arpg@nic.in
3. Chairperson
National Commission for Scheduled Castes
5th Floor, Lok Nayak Bhawan
Khan Market
New Delhi 110 003
INDIA
Fax + 91 11 2463 2298
E-mail: jointsecretary-ncsc@nic.in or chairman-ncsc@nic.in
4. Director General
International Labour Organisation
International Labour Office, 4, route des Morillons
CH-1211 Geneva 22
SWITZERLAND
Fax: + 41 - 227988685
E-mail: cabinet@ilo.org
5. Chairperson
National Human Rights Commission
Faridkot House, Copernicus Marg
New Delhi 110001
INDIA
Fax + 91 11 2338 4863
E-mail: chairnhrc@nic.in
6. Director and ILO Representative in India
International Labour Organization
Sub Regional Office for South Asia
India Habitat Centre, 3rd Floor, Core 4B
Lodi Road, New Delhi 110 003
INDIA
Fax: + 91 11 24602111
E-mail: sro-delhi@ilodel.org.in
7. Chief Technical Adviser
Promotion the Prevention and Elimination of Bonded Labour in South Asia (PEBLISA)
Sub-regional Programme, International Labour Organization
Sub Regional Office for South Asia
India Habitat Centre, 3rd Floor, Core 4B
Lodi Road, New Delhi 110 003
INDIA
Fax: + 91 11 24602111
E-mail: sro-delhi@ilodel.org.in
8. Ministry of Labour and Employment
Minister Labour and Employment,
120, A-Wing, Shram Shakti Bhawan,
New Delhi-110001
INDIA
Tel: +91 11 2371 0240/ 2371 7515
Fax: +91 11 2371 1708
E-mail: laborweb@nic.in
9. Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance
OHCHR-UNOG
1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Tel: + 41 22 917 93 88
Fax: + 41 22 917 9006 (ATTN: SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON CONTEMPORARY FORMS OF RACISM, RACIAL DISCRIMINATION, XENOPHOBIA AND RELATED INTOLERANCE)
Email: urgent-action@ohchr.org
Urgent Appeal Desk (pvchr@pvchr.org)
Peoples' Vigilance Committee on Human Rights (PVCHR)
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
http://www.hindustantimes.com/special-news-report/rssfeed/The-dying-heart-of-India/Article1-539004.aspx
The dying heart of India
Sravani Sarkar, Hindustan Times
Email Author
Satna, May 04, 2010
Nineteen-month-old Nanchu died barely 15 months after his elder brother Chhangu’s death in December 2008.
Records of the Madhya Pradesh (MP) women and child development department say both the deaths were due to malnutrition.
Shaken by Chhangu’s passing away when he was 18 months old, parents Kamlesh and Savitri had Nanchu, severely malnourished,
Phoolkali with her children — four-year-old Deolal and one-year-old Ruby — at Kirahipokhari village of Majhgawan block of Satna district. More than half a million children below five died in MP between 2005 and today. Mujeeb Faruqui/HT photo
registered with an anganwadi, a government-supported child- and mother-care centre, located at a distance of 6 km from their village, Kirahipok-hari. However, Nanchu too did not survive beyond March 19, 2010. The village is in Satna district, 500 km northeast of Bhopal.
The family belongs to the Mawasi tribe, which subsists on agriculture and hunting.
With India’s food-subsidy bill poised to double to Rs 1,00,000 crore per year if every family below the poverty line gets 35 kg of wheat or rice, up from the current 25 kg, Satna shows how it could be wasted if the corrupt bureaucracy isn’t reformed.
Kamlesh and Savitri, both landless labourers, have a ration card for those below the poverty line, fetching them only 20 kg of wheat and/or rice a month at Rs 5 per kg. When that is exhausted, they eat mahua dhubari (boiled mahua fruit) or some leafy forest vegetables with chapattis. Though eligible, they do not have an antyodaya card, for the poorest, most vulnerable people, who can get 35 kg of grain, rice at Rs 3 per kg or wheat at Rs 2 per kg.
The National Commission for the Protection of Children’s Rights recommended opening at least one anganwadi in the village, which reported five deaths a little more than a year ago. The commission held a public hearing in February last year after five malnutrition deaths in the village. Deepa Dixit, a member of the commission, told Hindustan Times that the district administration did not respond to its recommendations.
MP has a bleak child-care record, India’s worst, comparable to Ethiopia and Chad. Within the country, it’s ranked below Jharkhand and Bihar.
More than half a million children below five died in MP between 2005 and today.
At 60 per cent, the state has India’s highest proportion of malnourished children (India has the highest number of malnourished children in the world). It also has the highest infant mortality rate in the country (70 per 1,000 births), and for tribals, the figure is 95.6 per 1,000, according the National Family Health Survey III.
India is 66th among 88 countries on a United Nations hunger index, worse than many African countries. In South Asia, India is only better than Bangladesh.
In rural MP, anyone who earning less than Rs 327.78 per month is below the poverty line; in urban areas Rs 570.15. According to a central government estimate, 37.43 per cent of MP’s population is below the poverty line.
The Integrated Child Development Scheme, the world’s biggest programme for the health of children under six, is stuttering in MP, which has 69,738 anganwadis when it should have 136,000. About 20,000 are in various stages of establishment.
Satna Collector Sukhveer Singh admitted the delay and said Kirahipokhari would have an anganwadi in a month.
Singh said the village representatives were not doing enough to tackle malnutrition. “The administration alone can’t curb the menace,” he said.
Other programmes are failing as well.
Although Kamlesh and Savitri have a job card under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, they have not got work for one year. Though the law guarantees 100 days of work each year, violations are rampant.
In the remote areas, sarpanchs (headmen) and panchayat secretaries often hold back payments to tribals citing data and other delays. Sometimes, sarpanchs say they did not receive job applications.
In some way, this is true. A flawed system discourages job applicants.
Kamlesh and Savitri were not fully paid for their job two years ago.
About 10 km east of Kirahipokhari, nine children below three died of malnutrition between June last year and March in Madulihai village, where the staple diet is chapatti and salt. Sometimes, when available, they add chana (gram) leaves and other leafy vegetables.
Malnourishment is a feature of Majhgawan block (in which Kirahipokhari and Madulihai are located), where 25 per cent of the population are tribal. Dependent on forests for livelihood, the tribals struggle to feed themselves and their children.
Only 150 of the 3,400-odd tribals who claimed rights to forest land have received papers. No one from Kirahipokhari or Madulihai, both forest villages, is among them.
The Scheduled Tribes and Other Forest Dwellers Act gives tribals forest land and resource rights. In MP, more than 60 per cent of tribals’ claims have been rejected, mainly on the grounds that they could not prove residence for 75 years on the lands they claim, or could not establish that they held the land before the cut-off date of December 13, 2005, under the Act.
This is how well-meaning laws, enacted in distant Delhi, change nothing here in the heart of India.
Sravani Sarkar, Hindustan Times
Email Author
Satna, May 04, 2010
Nineteen-month-old Nanchu died barely 15 months after his elder brother Chhangu’s death in December 2008.
Records of the Madhya Pradesh (MP) women and child development department say both the deaths were due to malnutrition.
Shaken by Chhangu’s passing away when he was 18 months old, parents Kamlesh and Savitri had Nanchu, severely malnourished,
Phoolkali with her children — four-year-old Deolal and one-year-old Ruby — at Kirahipokhari village of Majhgawan block of Satna district. More than half a million children below five died in MP between 2005 and today. Mujeeb Faruqui/HT photo
registered with an anganwadi, a government-supported child- and mother-care centre, located at a distance of 6 km from their village, Kirahipok-hari. However, Nanchu too did not survive beyond March 19, 2010. The village is in Satna district, 500 km northeast of Bhopal.
The family belongs to the Mawasi tribe, which subsists on agriculture and hunting.
With India’s food-subsidy bill poised to double to Rs 1,00,000 crore per year if every family below the poverty line gets 35 kg of wheat or rice, up from the current 25 kg, Satna shows how it could be wasted if the corrupt bureaucracy isn’t reformed.
Kamlesh and Savitri, both landless labourers, have a ration card for those below the poverty line, fetching them only 20 kg of wheat and/or rice a month at Rs 5 per kg. When that is exhausted, they eat mahua dhubari (boiled mahua fruit) or some leafy forest vegetables with chapattis. Though eligible, they do not have an antyodaya card, for the poorest, most vulnerable people, who can get 35 kg of grain, rice at Rs 3 per kg or wheat at Rs 2 per kg.
The National Commission for the Protection of Children’s Rights recommended opening at least one anganwadi in the village, which reported five deaths a little more than a year ago. The commission held a public hearing in February last year after five malnutrition deaths in the village. Deepa Dixit, a member of the commission, told Hindustan Times that the district administration did not respond to its recommendations.
MP has a bleak child-care record, India’s worst, comparable to Ethiopia and Chad. Within the country, it’s ranked below Jharkhand and Bihar.
More than half a million children below five died in MP between 2005 and today.
At 60 per cent, the state has India’s highest proportion of malnourished children (India has the highest number of malnourished children in the world). It also has the highest infant mortality rate in the country (70 per 1,000 births), and for tribals, the figure is 95.6 per 1,000, according the National Family Health Survey III.
India is 66th among 88 countries on a United Nations hunger index, worse than many African countries. In South Asia, India is only better than Bangladesh.
In rural MP, anyone who earning less than Rs 327.78 per month is below the poverty line; in urban areas Rs 570.15. According to a central government estimate, 37.43 per cent of MP’s population is below the poverty line.
The Integrated Child Development Scheme, the world’s biggest programme for the health of children under six, is stuttering in MP, which has 69,738 anganwadis when it should have 136,000. About 20,000 are in various stages of establishment.
Satna Collector Sukhveer Singh admitted the delay and said Kirahipokhari would have an anganwadi in a month.
Singh said the village representatives were not doing enough to tackle malnutrition. “The administration alone can’t curb the menace,” he said.
Other programmes are failing as well.
Although Kamlesh and Savitri have a job card under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, they have not got work for one year. Though the law guarantees 100 days of work each year, violations are rampant.
In the remote areas, sarpanchs (headmen) and panchayat secretaries often hold back payments to tribals citing data and other delays. Sometimes, sarpanchs say they did not receive job applications.
In some way, this is true. A flawed system discourages job applicants.
Kamlesh and Savitri were not fully paid for their job two years ago.
About 10 km east of Kirahipokhari, nine children below three died of malnutrition between June last year and March in Madulihai village, where the staple diet is chapatti and salt. Sometimes, when available, they add chana (gram) leaves and other leafy vegetables.
Malnourishment is a feature of Majhgawan block (in which Kirahipokhari and Madulihai are located), where 25 per cent of the population are tribal. Dependent on forests for livelihood, the tribals struggle to feed themselves and their children.
Only 150 of the 3,400-odd tribals who claimed rights to forest land have received papers. No one from Kirahipokhari or Madulihai, both forest villages, is among them.
The Scheduled Tribes and Other Forest Dwellers Act gives tribals forest land and resource rights. In MP, more than 60 per cent of tribals’ claims have been rejected, mainly on the grounds that they could not prove residence for 75 years on the lands they claim, or could not establish that they held the land before the cut-off date of December 13, 2005, under the Act.
This is how well-meaning laws, enacted in distant Delhi, change nothing here in the heart of India.
Monday, April 19, 2010
The paradox of hunger amidst potential plenty
Tags: FCI, National Advisory Council, National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, BPL, UPA
Grain stocks in the current procurement season will be enough to feed all those who go hungry, and the FCI only needs to invest in proper storage facilities, says N Chandra Mohan.
A truly landmark legislation on ensuring food security in India [ Images ] is on the anvil. Those following its twists and turns cannot but have a sense of déjà vu.
Before the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme became a reality - due to pressure from the National Advisory Council (NAC) - there was a similar tension within the UPA as reformers wanted to fiscally pare down its importance.
A reconstituted NAC now wants the draft food security bill to be more inclusive and provide 35 kg of food grain, forcing the Empowered Group of Ministers to redraft their earlier version that restricted the provision to 25 kg to those below the poverty line (BPL).
As the scope of the bill will be widened, as desired by NAC's chairperson Sonia Gandhi [ Images ], this will be the first time a constitutionally guaranteed safety net will be erected to combat widespread hunger.
If the NREGS guarantees 100 days of work to anyone who wants it, the draft food security bill ought to be similarly demand-driven to ensure that food is supplied to whoever goes hungry in the country.
This includes not just the poor who live in the countryside but also vulnerable groups like the urban homeless and migrants in the towns and cities. One way to ensure this will be to universalise access to a radically revamped public distribution system.
It is a shame that a country that prides itself on becoming a future economic power in the world also has the appellation of being a "republic of hunger". The pervasive dimension of the problem has been known for long and was even detailed in official Economic Surveys!
The prevalence of hunger, as measured in months in which any member of a household had inadequate food, was as high as 9 in West Bengal [ Images ], 5.3 in Orissa, 5 in Assam and 2.7 in Bihar, when compared to the national average of 1.9 months in 2004-05. Its spread, depth and intensity is unlikely be any different when the 2009-10 round data of the National Sample Survey becomes available.
If any thing, the endemic character of hunger probably has only worsened of late with high and persisting food inflation - wholesale prices were up by 17.7 per cent in the week ending March 27 and show no sign of climbing down.
Costlier food adversely affects small and marginal farmers and landless labourers, whose market-dependence for purchasing cereals like rice and wheat is high. After assuring itself that this is largely a supply-side problem, the UPA government and 10 state governments are now contemplating whether harsh provisions under the Essential Commodities Act should be introduced to crack down on hoarding and speculation.
But food inflation is unlikely to go away soon. The rationale for a more inclusive food security bill is all the more pressing, as the rate of growth of food grain production has, in fact, decelerated to 1.6 per cent per year, while India's population has continued to grow by 1.8 per cent between 1990-91 and 2008-09.
This has resulted in a decline in per-head availability of cereals - from a peak level of 468 grams per day to 375 grams per day over this period, a massive drop of 25 per cent!
When compared to the 1980s, when per capita availability averaged around 420 grams per day, this situation deteriorated during the noughties when it fell to 410 grams per day.
The upshot is that there is an inbuilt inflationary bias in the system, which just needs a trigger to be set off. Last year, that trigger was a failed monsoon that was 27 per cent below normal.
This, in turn, affected kharif food grain production and set off the current food inflation. In this milieu, what makes a more inclusive food security bill feasible is that there will be adequate buffer stocks with the FCI. The current stocks of rice and wheat are around 42.4 million tonnes.
With the FCI expected to procure 25 million tonnes of wheat from Baisakhi onwards till July, the stocks will be more than comfortable at 60 million tonnes-plus to feed anyone who goes hungry.
With the latest population estimates, there are around 23.5 crore families in India, out of which the BPL component could be 8.74 crore families if one uses the Tendulkar Committee's estimates of poverty or 11.75 crore families if one considers the N C Saxena Committee's number.
The required amount of food grain, thus, ranges between 37 million tonnes and 49 million tonnes if 35 kg of grain is given to these families every month in a year. Clearly, the grain requirement is well within the likely buffer stocks with the government.
With such potential plenty, why then should there be pervasive hunger? The passage of the food security bill could be a favourable juncture for the FCI to invest in proper storage facilities to bring down wastage of food grain. The time has run out for letting grain rot with impunity while hunger stalks the land.
The author is Professor of Economics and International Business at IILM Institute of Higher Learning.
N Chandra Mohan
Grain stocks in the current procurement season will be enough to feed all those who go hungry, and the FCI only needs to invest in proper storage facilities, says N Chandra Mohan.
A truly landmark legislation on ensuring food security in India [ Images ] is on the anvil. Those following its twists and turns cannot but have a sense of déjà vu.
Before the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme became a reality - due to pressure from the National Advisory Council (NAC) - there was a similar tension within the UPA as reformers wanted to fiscally pare down its importance.
A reconstituted NAC now wants the draft food security bill to be more inclusive and provide 35 kg of food grain, forcing the Empowered Group of Ministers to redraft their earlier version that restricted the provision to 25 kg to those below the poverty line (BPL).
As the scope of the bill will be widened, as desired by NAC's chairperson Sonia Gandhi [ Images ], this will be the first time a constitutionally guaranteed safety net will be erected to combat widespread hunger.
If the NREGS guarantees 100 days of work to anyone who wants it, the draft food security bill ought to be similarly demand-driven to ensure that food is supplied to whoever goes hungry in the country.
This includes not just the poor who live in the countryside but also vulnerable groups like the urban homeless and migrants in the towns and cities. One way to ensure this will be to universalise access to a radically revamped public distribution system.
It is a shame that a country that prides itself on becoming a future economic power in the world also has the appellation of being a "republic of hunger". The pervasive dimension of the problem has been known for long and was even detailed in official Economic Surveys!
The prevalence of hunger, as measured in months in which any member of a household had inadequate food, was as high as 9 in West Bengal [ Images ], 5.3 in Orissa, 5 in Assam and 2.7 in Bihar, when compared to the national average of 1.9 months in 2004-05. Its spread, depth and intensity is unlikely be any different when the 2009-10 round data of the National Sample Survey becomes available.
If any thing, the endemic character of hunger probably has only worsened of late with high and persisting food inflation - wholesale prices were up by 17.7 per cent in the week ending March 27 and show no sign of climbing down.
Costlier food adversely affects small and marginal farmers and landless labourers, whose market-dependence for purchasing cereals like rice and wheat is high. After assuring itself that this is largely a supply-side problem, the UPA government and 10 state governments are now contemplating whether harsh provisions under the Essential Commodities Act should be introduced to crack down on hoarding and speculation.
But food inflation is unlikely to go away soon. The rationale for a more inclusive food security bill is all the more pressing, as the rate of growth of food grain production has, in fact, decelerated to 1.6 per cent per year, while India's population has continued to grow by 1.8 per cent between 1990-91 and 2008-09.
This has resulted in a decline in per-head availability of cereals - from a peak level of 468 grams per day to 375 grams per day over this period, a massive drop of 25 per cent!
When compared to the 1980s, when per capita availability averaged around 420 grams per day, this situation deteriorated during the noughties when it fell to 410 grams per day.
The upshot is that there is an inbuilt inflationary bias in the system, which just needs a trigger to be set off. Last year, that trigger was a failed monsoon that was 27 per cent below normal.
This, in turn, affected kharif food grain production and set off the current food inflation. In this milieu, what makes a more inclusive food security bill feasible is that there will be adequate buffer stocks with the FCI. The current stocks of rice and wheat are around 42.4 million tonnes.
With the FCI expected to procure 25 million tonnes of wheat from Baisakhi onwards till July, the stocks will be more than comfortable at 60 million tonnes-plus to feed anyone who goes hungry.
With the latest population estimates, there are around 23.5 crore families in India, out of which the BPL component could be 8.74 crore families if one uses the Tendulkar Committee's estimates of poverty or 11.75 crore families if one considers the N C Saxena Committee's number.
The required amount of food grain, thus, ranges between 37 million tonnes and 49 million tonnes if 35 kg of grain is given to these families every month in a year. Clearly, the grain requirement is well within the likely buffer stocks with the government.
With such potential plenty, why then should there be pervasive hunger? The passage of the food security bill could be a favourable juncture for the FCI to invest in proper storage facilities to bring down wastage of food grain. The time has run out for letting grain rot with impunity while hunger stalks the land.
The author is Professor of Economics and International Business at IILM Institute of Higher Learning.
N Chandra Mohan
Saturday, April 3, 2010
more than 100 families were evicted from the Rajaji National Park in direct violation of the court order. These families are still outside the park, f
Uttarakhand
In December 2006, Parliament passed the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act. This historic legislation marks the first time in India’s history that a law has been passed recognising the rights of forest communities. Implementation of the Act is an unfolding political struggle, and some aspects in Bengal have been published before.
General issues in implementation across states
There are three issues that come up in the majority of the States. Here’s an explanation of the terms and the problems that are being referred to.
1. WHAT KIND OF GRAM SABHAS ARE BEING CALLED: The “gram sabha” (village assembly) is the first tier of decision-making in the Act. But which gram sabha? In reality gram sabhas can be called at three levels. A typical gram panchayat includes multiple revenue villages, which each in turn include multiple hamlets. Hence the gram sabha can be called either as the assembly of all voters in a gram panchayat, as the assembly of all the residents of a revenue village, or as the assembly of the residents of a hamlet. The movements had long demanded that the gram sabhas for this Act should be at the level of the actual settlements - the hamlets, or at most the revenue villages - and not at the artificial administrative level of the gram panchayat, where they would be very large and make democratic functioning impossible. The Act requires hamlet level gram sabhas in Scheduled Areas and revenue village gram sabhas elsewhere.
2. THE FOREST RIGHTS COMMITTEES: Each village is to elect a committee of 10 - 15 people from its own residents as a “Forest Rights Committee”, which will do the initial verification of rights and place its recomnendations before the gram sabha (which makes the decision).
3. COMMUNITY RIGHTS: Contrary to common conception, the Act is not solely or even primarily about individual land claims. Many of the rights, such as the right to minor forest produce, are to be exercised as a community. The most powerful sections of the Act concern the community right to manage, protect and conserve forests, the first step towards a genuinely democratic system of forest management (sections 3(1)(i) and 5). In most areas the State and Central governments have made concerted efforts to deny or ignore these community rights and to instead treat the Act as if it is purely about individual land rights. A key aspect of the struggle is to use and expand these community rights and powers.
No implementation of the Act has yet begun. It was reported in the press that the Chief Minister had stated that there is no need for this Act in Uttarakhand, as all forest rights are already settled (which is untrue). However, recently the Nainital High Court had issued a contempt notice to the director of the Rajaji National Park for attempting to forcibly relocate the Van Gujjar communities in the park, in violation of the earlier orders of the High Court directing him to recognise their rights under the Forest Rights Act. The park director had responded that he had no authority to recognise rights under the Act. The state government was then made a party to the petition and in its order dated 26.9.08 the High Court instructed the government to constitute the required committees under the Rules and initiate the process of claims being filed within a period of 60 days.
In mid October more than 100 families were evicted from the Rajaji National Park in direct violation of the court order. These families are still outside the park, fighting to return to their lands.
In December 2006, Parliament passed the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act. This historic legislation marks the first time in India’s history that a law has been passed recognising the rights of forest communities. Implementation of the Act is an unfolding political struggle, and some aspects in Bengal have been published before.
General issues in implementation across states
There are three issues that come up in the majority of the States. Here’s an explanation of the terms and the problems that are being referred to.
1. WHAT KIND OF GRAM SABHAS ARE BEING CALLED: The “gram sabha” (village assembly) is the first tier of decision-making in the Act. But which gram sabha? In reality gram sabhas can be called at three levels. A typical gram panchayat includes multiple revenue villages, which each in turn include multiple hamlets. Hence the gram sabha can be called either as the assembly of all voters in a gram panchayat, as the assembly of all the residents of a revenue village, or as the assembly of the residents of a hamlet. The movements had long demanded that the gram sabhas for this Act should be at the level of the actual settlements - the hamlets, or at most the revenue villages - and not at the artificial administrative level of the gram panchayat, where they would be very large and make democratic functioning impossible. The Act requires hamlet level gram sabhas in Scheduled Areas and revenue village gram sabhas elsewhere.
2. THE FOREST RIGHTS COMMITTEES: Each village is to elect a committee of 10 - 15 people from its own residents as a “Forest Rights Committee”, which will do the initial verification of rights and place its recomnendations before the gram sabha (which makes the decision).
3. COMMUNITY RIGHTS: Contrary to common conception, the Act is not solely or even primarily about individual land claims. Many of the rights, such as the right to minor forest produce, are to be exercised as a community. The most powerful sections of the Act concern the community right to manage, protect and conserve forests, the first step towards a genuinely democratic system of forest management (sections 3(1)(i) and 5). In most areas the State and Central governments have made concerted efforts to deny or ignore these community rights and to instead treat the Act as if it is purely about individual land rights. A key aspect of the struggle is to use and expand these community rights and powers.
No implementation of the Act has yet begun. It was reported in the press that the Chief Minister had stated that there is no need for this Act in Uttarakhand, as all forest rights are already settled (which is untrue). However, recently the Nainital High Court had issued a contempt notice to the director of the Rajaji National Park for attempting to forcibly relocate the Van Gujjar communities in the park, in violation of the earlier orders of the High Court directing him to recognise their rights under the Forest Rights Act. The park director had responded that he had no authority to recognise rights under the Act. The state government was then made a party to the petition and in its order dated 26.9.08 the High Court instructed the government to constitute the required committees under the Rules and initiate the process of claims being filed within a period of 60 days.
In mid October more than 100 families were evicted from the Rajaji National Park in direct violation of the court order. These families are still outside the park, fighting to return to their lands.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
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