[Reader-list] RTF (Right to Food) Articles - 3
Rakesh Iyer
rakesh.rnbdj at gmail.com
Sat Aug 1 12:00:49 IST 2009
Link: http://www.hinduonnet.com/2003/01/18/stories/2003011800081000.htm
Article:
Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jan 18, 2003 Group Publications Business Line The
Sportstar Frontline
The Hindu
About Us <http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/hindu.htm>
Contact Us <http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/contact.htm> *Opinion*
News: Front Page <http://www.hinduonnet.com/2003/01/18/01hdline.htm> |
National <http://www.hinduonnet.com/2003/01/18/02hdline.htm> | Southern
States <http://www.hinduonnet.com/2003/01/18/04hdline.htm> | Other
States<http://www.hinduonnet.com/2003/01/18/14hdline.htm>|
International <http://www.hinduonnet.com/2003/01/18/03hdline.htm> |
Opinion<http://www.hinduonnet.com/2003/01/18/05hdline.htm>|
Business <http://www.hinduonnet.com/2003/01/18/06hdline.htm> |
Sport<http://www.hinduonnet.com/2003/01/18/07hdline.htm>|
Miscellaneous <http://www.hinduonnet.com/2003/01/18/10hdline.htm> |
Advts: Classifieds <http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/classads/> |
Employment <http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/jobs/index.htm> |
Obituary<http://www.hinduonnet.com/2003/01/18/16hdline.htm>|
Opinion <http://www.hinduonnet.com/2003/01/18/05hdline.htm> - Leader Page
Articles [image: Printer Friendly
Page]<http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/print.pl?file=2003011800081000.htm&date=2003/01/18/&prd=th&>
[image: Send this Article to a
Friend]<http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/pgemail.pl?date=2003/01/18/&prd=th&>
* Right to food *
By C. Rammanohar Reddy
* Considering the way the Right to Food campaign has grown... it could turn
into a mass movement that is able to force state and society to finally
tackle the problem of hunger in India. *
QUIETLY AND effectively, a nationwide public campaign has built up over the
past couple of years to pressure the state to address nutritional
deficiencies among many groups of Indian citizens. There is much to yet
achieve, but using a number of techniques this loosely knit and
decentralised "Right to Food" campaign has already forced some changes on
the Central and State Governments. What is unusual is that this has been
entirely a citizens' effort, with mainstream political parties by and large
keeping away from a campaign which, if it maintains its momentum, is likely
to have a substantial impact on people's lives. The political classes may
have their eyes focussed on the business and pravasi conclaves, but
unbeknownst to them and without their involvement something more important
is happening in the public arena. The Right to Food campaign has been the
one serious attempt to deal with the obscene phenomenon of overflowing
godowns of food co-existing with chronic under-nutrition in the country. In
the late 1990s, more than half of Indian women suffered from anaemia, more
than 45 per cent of children were malnourished and more than a third of
newborn children suffered from low birth weight. Yet, the huge public food
stocks — which reached a peak of 65 million tonnes in late 2001 and now
stand at 55 million tonnes — have not been used by the state for a frontal
attack on under-nutrition in the country. It is now being pushed by this
campaign to react.
A series of events since 2001 has catalysed and given momentum to the "Right
to Food" campaign. In 2001, local groups in Rajasthan began putting pressure
on the State Government to use the Central stocks to deal with the effects
of the drought the previous year. In May 2001, the People's Union for Civil
Liberties filed what could turn out to be a landmark public interest
petition in the Supreme Court, drawing attention to the accumulation of
stocks. In April 2002, a nationwide day of events was organised to demand
implementation of the mid-day meal scheme. In 2002, individual groups
highlighted the occurrence of starvation deaths in Orissa, Rajasthan and
Jharkhand. These groups have also organised "public hearings" to put
pressure on local governments to respond to starvation deaths, corruption in
the public distribution system (PDS) and the failure to implement welfare
schemes. This culminated earlier this month in a `national' hearing in Delhi
where citizens and representatives from non-governmental organisations in 12
States gathered to hear "voices of hunger" and draw up an agenda to take
public action further. The Right to Food campaign has been at least partly
responsible for getting the Centre to lower PDS prices in late 2001 and has
been exerting pressure to expand the Antyodaya Anna Yojana, the programme
which supplies subsidised grain to the destitute and which by all accounts
has been, even for a government programme, reasonably successful in most
parts of the country. In the campaign are a number of citizens' groups, many
of whom are involved in other areas of work, who share a common interest in
making the state fulfil its constitutional duties.
One leg of the Right to Food campaign is in the new tradition of drawing
attention to the Constitution to make the Central and State Governments
accountable for their (lack of) action. There was the right to information
campaign, initially organised by the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan of
Rajasthan in the late 1990s, which resulted in legislative action at the
State and Central Government levels to make the administration more
transparent. Then there was the right to education campaign, which led to
the amendment to the Constitution to make elementary education a fundamental
right. And now we have the food campaign. While the PUCL petition was based
on a reading of Article 21 (the right to life), more recently the activists
have focussed attention on the directive principle contained in Article 47:
"The State shall regard the raising of the level of nutrition and the
standard of living of its people and the improvement of the public health
among its primary duties..."
Since 2001 the Supreme Court has issued a number of interim orders that have
prodded the Central and State Governments into action. The orders have
directed the State Governments to complete identification of the
beneficiaries of welfare programmes, improve implementation of food schemes
such as the AAY and employment programmes such as the Sampoorna Grameen
Rozgar Yojana and led to the appointment of commissioners to monitor
progress in executing the court's rulings. The most important order came in
November 2001 when the court directed the State Government to implement a
cooked mid-day meal scheme for primary school children. This went further
than the existing Central Government scheme (on paper in many States) in
which only grain was supplied to the States. The follow-up by the State
Governments has not been entirely satisfactory. But there has been progress.
Rajasthan has complied with the court order, Karnataka and Chhattisgarh have
introduced the programme in some parts of the State and more recently Andhra
Pradesh has begun a cooked mid-day meal programme for children. In the
meanwhile, the campaign continues to maintain pressure on the State
Governments to improve implementation.
After achieving a measure of success in focussing judicial, executive and
public attention on the food consumption issue, the campaign has, after the
recent public hearing in Delhi, drawn up a five-point "call for action":
social security for the destitute as a matter of right, revamping of the
PDS, recognition of the right to work, expansion of financial allocations
for food programmes and implementation of the Supreme Court's directions. As
the Right to Food campaign builds up momentum, it will inevitably have to
deal with three sets of issues, two of which have already cropped up in the
five-point call for action. The first is that is it possible to
operationalise the right to food — even `only' for the destitute — without
explicit recognition of the right to work? If the right to work too moves
centre stage then the question becomes one of state funding and organisation
of employment guarantee programmes, to begin with for unskilled labour. It
then will become imperative to pressure the state to substantially fund
existing and new employment programmes. This is not impossible, but it does
widen the campaign. The second and equally important issue is that the food
mountain of 55 million tonnes does permit expansion of the AAY and also
channel grain to expanded work programmes.
A permanent and substantial expansion of food and employment programmes
will, however, require the state to commit financial resources, not to
mention increase procurement to keep the programmes going once the present
food mountain is run down. This too is doable, if we accept, as we should,
that meeting the right to food should be a top priority for the country. The
third issue is how far this public action programme can go without the
support of the parliamentary political parties. Expanding the agenda and
increasing its effectiveness will require involvement of the political
organisations. Unfortunately, the political class has other agendas to
pursue. Yet, considering the way the Right to Food campaign has grown in the
past couple of years and considering the success it has had, it could turn
into a mass movement that is able to force state and society to finally
tackle the problem of hunger in India.
* *
Printer friendly
page<http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/print.pl?file=2003011800081000.htm&date=2003/01/18/&prd=th&>
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail<http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/pgemail.pl?date=2003/01/18/&prd=th&>
Opinion <http://www.hinduonnet.com/2003/01/18/05hdline.htm>
News: Front Page <http://www.hinduonnet.com/2003/01/18/01hdline.htm> |
National <http://www.hinduonnet.com/2003/01/18/02hdline.htm> | Southern
States <http://www.hinduonnet.com/2003/01/18/04hdline.htm> | Other
States<http://www.hinduonnet.com/2003/01/18/14hdline.htm>|
International <http://www.hinduonnet.com/2003/01/18/03hdline.htm> |
Opinion<http://www.hinduonnet.com/2003/01/18/05hdline.htm>|
Business <http://www.hinduonnet.com/2003/01/18/06hdline.htm> |
Sport<http://www.hinduonnet.com/2003/01/18/07hdline.htm>|
Miscellaneous <http://www.hinduonnet.com/2003/01/18/10hdline.htm> |
Advts: Classifieds <http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/classads/> |
Employment <http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/jobs/index.htm> |
Obituary<http://www.hinduonnet.com/2003/01/18/16hdline.htm>|
Stories in this Section
- Change of guard in
Maharashtra<http://www.hinduonnet.com/2003/01/18/stories/2003011800111000.htm>
- An incautious
approach<http://www.hinduonnet.com/2003/01/18/stories/2003011800101000.htm>
- Right to food<http://www.hinduonnet.com/2003/01/18/stories/2003011800081000.htm>
- The seven sisters of South
Asia<http://www.hinduonnet.com/2003/01/18/stories/2003011800091000.htm>
- The sunny side of the
'Raj'<http://www.hinduonnet.com/2003/01/18/stories/2003011802391200.htm>
- Pant and Mayawati<http://www.hinduonnet.com/2003/01/18/stories/2003011800071000.htm>
- Leadership
change<http://www.hinduonnet.com/2003/01/18/stories/2003011800071001.htm>
- Dual citizenship<http://www.hinduonnet.com/2003/01/18/stories/2003011800071002.htm>
- Recasting policy<http://www.hinduonnet.com/2003/01/18/stories/2003011800071003.htm>
Archives
Yesterday's Issue <http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2003/01/17/>
Datewise <http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/archives.htm>
Features:
Life <http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/lf/index.htm>
Magazine <http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mag/index.htm>
Literary Review <http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/lr/index.htm>
Metro Plus <http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mp/index.htm>
Open Page <http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/op/index.htm>
Education <http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/edu/index.htm>
Book Review <http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/br/index.htm>
Business <http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/biz/index.htm>
SciTech <http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/seta/index.htm>
Entertainment <http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/fr/index.htm>
Young World <http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/yw/index.htm>
Quest <http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/quest/index.htm>
Folio <http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/folio/index.htm>
------------------------------
The Hindu Group: Home <http://www.hinduonline.com/> | About
Us<http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/hindu.htm>|
Copyright <http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/cpryt.htm> |
Archives<http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/archives.htm>|
Contacts <http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/contact.htm> |
Subscription<http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/subsrate.htm>
Group Sites: The Hindu <http://www.hinduonnet.com/> | Business
Line<http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/>| The
Sportstar <http://www.sportstaronnet.com/> |
Frontline<http://www.frontlineonnet.com/>|
Home <http://www.hinduonline.com/> |
Copyright © 2003, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the
contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent
of The Hindu
------------------------------
More information about the reader-list
mailing list