People's
Democracy
(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of
India (Marxist) No. 51
December 29,2002
(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of
India (Marxist) |
Vol.
XXVI No. 51 December 29,2002 |
Brinda
Karat
About
10,000
women
marched
through
the
streets
of
Bankura
in
West
Bengal
and
held
a
sit-in
at
the
office
of
district
magistrate.
Another
5,000
demonstrated
in
Kolkata
and
gave
a
memorandum
to
the
governor.
Demonstrations
and
dharnas
were
held
in
16
other
districts
of
the
state.
In
Bhopal,
Madhya
Pradesh,
women
broke
into
the
FCI
godown
demanding
distribution
of
the
foodgrains
rotting
in
the
godown.
Women
demonstrated
at
FCI
godowns
in
all
the
13
districts
in
Kerala.
Demonstrations
and
rasta
rokos
were
held
in
at
least
ten
districts
in
Maharashtra,
including
a
morcha
of
3000
women
in
Nasik
and
a rasta
roko
with
1000
women,
most
of
them
Adivasi
women,
blocking
the
national
highway
in
Thalaseri
in
Thane
district.
In
Jaipur,
Rajasthan,
women
clashed
with
the
police
who
blocked
them
from
reaching
the
Vidhan
Sabha.
In
Bhubaneswar
(Orissa)
and
Lucknow
(Uttar
Pradesh),
large
rallies
were
held
outside
the
Vidhan
Sabha.
Other
states
like
Tamilnadu,
Haryana,
Bihar
also
saw
demonstrations
and
mass
mobilisation
on
similar
demands.
The
observance
of
Human
Rights
Day
as
a
day
to
demand
the
basic
right
to
a
life
free
from
hunger
is
part
of
the
AIDWA’s
ongoing
struggles
and
campaigns
for
the
last
several
months
on
the
issue.
The
big
response
from
women
all
over
the
country
to
the
campaign
is
because
while
all
sections
of
the
poor
have
been
affected,
women
have
been
hardest
hit
by
government
policies
that
have
converted
“drought
affected”
into
hunger
affected.
The
states
demanded
about
Rs
35,000
crore
as
drought
relief,
but
the
central
government
has
sanctioned
less
than
Rs
2,500
crore.
The
virtual
destruction
of
the
public
distribution
system,
combined
with
the
lack
of
government
intervention
to
provide
work
to
make
for
loss
of
workdays
due
to
shrinkage
in
agricultural
operations
has
created
mass
destitution.
Increased
male
migration,
as
also
migration
of
whole
families
in
some
areas,
in
search
of
work
has
led
to
more
uncertainty
and
insecurity
in
day
to
day
living.
The
women’s
voices
in
numerous
AIDWA
meetings
held
in
villages
in
Andhra
Pradesh,
Karnataka,
Rajasthan,
Uttar
Pradesh,
Kerala,
Maharashtra
and
Orissa
indicate
that
food
deprivation
has
a
cascading
impact,
leading
to
a
devaluation
of
women’s
status,
expressed
in
at
least
four
areas.
There
is
a
willingness
to
work
at
lower
wages
just
to
ensure
some
food
in
the
home,
further
depressing
their
economic
status,
leading
to
further
debt.
In
a
male
dominated
society
like
India,
a
disproportionate
share
of
the
burden
of
poverty
is
in
any
case
borne
by
women
and
girl
children.
The
present
situation
of
decreased
access
to
affordable
food
as
well
as
the
decline
in
both
the
quality
and
quantity
of
food
consumed
has
a
terrible
impact
on
women’s
health.
Hunger
is
accompanied
by
an
increase
in
social
vulnerability,
leading
to
more
cases
of
humiliation,
abuse
and
sexual
exploitation;
in
some
areas
there
is
a
disturbing
growth
in
the
number
of
women
going
into
prostitution
as
a
cruel
strategy
to
ensure
survival
of
families.
At
the
same
time,
labour
laws
like
minimum
wages,
equal
wages,
crèche
facilities,
etc,
get
automatically
suspended
because
of
the
huge
influx
of
workers
willing
to
work
under
any
conditions,
particularly
on
construction
sites.
This
affects
the
status
of
those
not
necessarily
directly
affected
by
drought.
Among
poor
women,
it
is
widows
and
single
women
who
are
the
worst
affected
and
among
the
most
destitute.
A
vast
majority
of
the
women
belong
to
socially
oppressed
sections
---
Dalits,
Adivasis
and
the
most
backward
among
the
OBCs.
It
hardly
needs
to
be
stated
that
when
drought
affects
agricultural
operations,
the
amount
of
work
available
for
rural
workers
gets
drastically
cut.
There
are
at
least
12
crore
workers
dependent
for
the
most
part
on
the
money
they
earn
during
the
agricultural
season.
The
government
admits
that
two
thirds
of
the
country
has
been
badly
affected
by
low
or
no
rainfall;
yet
there
is
no
concern
for
the
situation
of
agricultural
workers
and
the
rural
poor
that
are
at
least
20
crore.
The
government’s
Antyodaya
scheme
provides
only
one
crore
people
a
monthly
ration
of
just
10
kg
of
foodgrains
at
Rs
3
and
wheat
at
Rs
2.
With
six
crore
tones
of
foodgrains
stacked
in
government
godowns,
the
most
rational
course
of
action
would
be
obviously
a
huge
expansion
of
the
Antyodaya
scheme
both
in
terms
of
foodgrain
quotas
as
well
as
numbers
to
be
covered.
At
the
same
time,
the
foodgrains
could
be
used
in
a
massive
food
for
work
programme.
Yet
the
central
government’s
food
for
work
schemes
are
not
only
completely
inadequate
but
also,
cruelly,
another
instrument
for
exploitation.
The
payment
is
partly
in
foodgrains
and
partly
in
cash
but
the
proportions
differ
from
state
to
state.
The
food
component
consists
of
terrible
quality
foodgrains,
literally
unfit
for
animals,
leave
alone
humans.
Four
animals
in
Mathanjeri
village
in
Cochi
district
of
Kerala
died
after
being
fed
the
foodgrains
given
from
a
ration
shop,
leading
to
big
protest
demonstrations
in
the
area.
Shockingly
inedible
foodgrain,
when
given
as
a
wage
component,
is
calculated
at
APL
prices,
that
is
Rs
8
for
a
kg
of
wheat
and
Rs
9
or
more
for
rice.
So
if
the
wage
is,
say,
Rs
40
and
if
the
food
component
is
worth
Rs
24,
than
a
worker
would
be
paid
less
than
3
kg
of
rice
because
the
APL
price
is
being
used
for
the
calculation.
Women
outnumber
men
in
many
of
these
schemes.
This
is
not
because
of
gender
sensitivity
on
part
of
the
administration
or
the
contractors,
but
because
men
prefer
to
search
for
other
work
while
women
have
no
alternative
but
to
accept
it.
Women
were
demanding
full
cash
payment
instead
of
the
exchange
for
food.
Clearly,
where
the
foodgrains
are
not
calculated
at
Antyodaya
prices
and
where
they
are
not
of
a
better
quality,
the
schemes
claimed
to
be
meant
for
drought
relief
are
actually
a
cruel
mockery.
The
retreat
of
the
central
and
most
state
governments
from
their
minimum
responsibilities
for
provision
of
work
has
led
to
drastically
negative
changes
in
people’s
lives.
Male
migration
has
increased
and
so
has
family
migration
in
many
areas
where
it
was
not
so
earlier.
For
example,
in
many
districts
of
Andhra
Pradesh
like
Krishna,
Guntur,
Vizag
and
Khammam,
a
regular
army
of
men
and
women
is
going
out
looking
for
work.
In
one
area
around
Nandigama,
a
small
town
in
Krishna
district,
activists
campaigning
house
to
house,
calculated
that
around
30,000
men
and
women
had
left
their
villages.
There
were
few
government
run
work
schemes
in
the
area.
Migration
to
towns
and
cities
is
also
visible
in
Vijayawada.
Here
a
survey
found
that
hundreds
of
village
women
found
work
in
a
nearby
town,
of
cleaning
bottles
for
sale
in
the
trade
for
which
they
were
paid
Rs
8
to
10
a
day,
half
of
what
is
usually
paid
for
the
same
work.
In
North
Karnataka
and
in
villages
around
Bangalore,
similar
experiences
were
related.
Groups
of
women
stopped
the
AIDWA
activists
campaigning
in
the
city
for
December
10
demonstration
near
a
crowded
bus
stop,
and
related
their
experiences.
They
were
all
new
migrants
looking
for
work
---
sleeping
on
the
pavements
or
at
the
mercy
of
construction
contractors.
Two
of
the
group
of
about
15
had
found
work
for
two
days
at
Rs
10
to
12.
In
Bijapur
town,
rural
women
workers
found
work
in
small
hotels
making
rotis,
working
from
6
a
m
to
around
11
p
m
for
about
Rs
100
a
month.
When
asked
about
acceptance
of
such
low
wages,
they
said
at
least
they
were
given
a
few
rotis
that
they
shared
with
the
children
they
had
brought
with
them
to
the
town.
In
a
village
in
Mandya
district,
women
who
weave
baskets
and
sell
to
peasants
for
use
in
agricultural
operations
find
no
market
for
their
products
this
year.
So
hundreds
of
them
have
migrated
to
Bangalore.
Given
this
situation
for
migrants,
and
men
hardly
fare
better,
it
is
obvious
that
there
is
little
money
available
to
send
home.
Women
staying
on
in
the
villages
bear
the
major
burden
to
ensure
family
survival.
This
is
the
crux
of
their
vulnerability
and
their
helplessness
in
wage
negotiations.
As
mentioned,
the
government
schemes
are
extremely
inadequate.
At
worksites
in
Rajasthan
and
Karnataka,
our
activists
found
crowds
of
women
waiting
for
work
at
these
schemes.
In
a
small
food-for-work
scheme
in
Bhimalli
village
in
Gulbarga,
AIDWA
activists
met
at
least
80
women
at
the
worksite
whereas
the
scheme
was
for
only
20
women.
When
the
women,
all
of
whom
equally
poor,
were
arbitrarily
denied
work,
they
gheraod
a
government
official
present
there
and
were
finally
given
work
but
at
lower
than
stipulated
wages.
In
sum,
not
at
a
single
site
were
women
getting
the
stipulated
wage,
the
only
difference
being
the
gap
between
the
wage
received
and
the
legal
wage.
In
some
instances,
AIDWA
was
able
to
intervene
to
get
a
higher
wage
for
women.
But
in
most
instances,
women
were
not
prepared
to
risk
their
jobs
by
making
demands
on
the
contractors.
Most
of
these
schemes
are
being
run
by
panchayats
and
the
contractors
appointed
by
the
sarpanch.
In
principle
this
is
a
sound
policy
since
the
accountability
of
those
elected
is
more
direct.
However,
in
practice,
with
the
control
of
the
panchayats
often
in
the
hands
of
corrupt
coteries
across
many
states,
there
is
discrimination
and
patronage,
apart
from
corruption
involved
in
the
schemes’
implementation.
Economic
circumstances
created
by
government
policies
force
women
into
exploitative
situations
on
a
daily
basis.
There
is
hardly
any
difference
in
the
situation
in
different
states,
with
perhaps
the
exception
of
West
Bengal.
The
situation
of
poor
landless
women
and
agricultural
workers
in
the
model
neo-liberalised
state
of
Andhra
Pradesh
or
Karnataka
is
not
much
better
than
in
the
so-called
BIMARU
states.
Here
are
some
striking
examples
these
states.
AIDWA
has
a
substantial
membership
in
parts
of
rural
Khammam.
During
their
campaigns,
activists
in
Khanne
and
Motamarri
villages
found
groups
of
women
leaving
the
village
at
around
8
a
m.
Finding
no
work
in
and
around
their
village,
they
walk
3-4
km
to
the
station
to
get
a
train
to
the
neighbouring
district
where
after
an
equally
long
trek
they
are
employed
in
coolie
work
at
Rs
30
a
day.
They
pay
to
the
ticket
conductor
a
bribe
of
Rs
5
each
way,
which
is
cheaper
than
buying
a
ticket.
They
get
home
by
10
or
10.30
at
night.
Thus
a
14-hour
day,
excluding
domestic
work,
with
a
trek
of
at
least
12
to
15
km
a
day,
apart
from
the
hard
train
ride
is
what
the
current
drought
situation
has
meant
for
them.
In
a
situation
of
mass
proletarianisation
of
poor
rural
women,
the
impact
on
wages
is
obvious.
Whether
it
is
UP
or
Andhra
Pradesh,
Maharashtra
or
Karnataka,
women
are
working
more
for
lower
wages,
far
less
than
not
only
the
minimum
wages
but
even
what
they
were
earning
a
year
or
two
ago.
In
Warrangal
district,
the
payment
for
harvesting
an
acre
of
paddy
land
is
usually
about
Rs
250
with
10
to
12
women
working.
Unbelievably
in
villages
like
Chitur,
60
women
went
to
harvest
half
an
acre,
getting
just
a
little
over
Rs.
2
each.
In
Guntur,
the
payment
for
an
acre
of
harvesting
paddy
is
about
Rs
300,
done
by
10
women,
but
sometimes
6
women
do
the
same
work
on
contract.
But
this
year
the
number
of
women
working
per
acre
is
as
high
as
30
to
40.
In
many
of
these
areas,
the
Agricultural
Workers
Union
is
strong
and
employers
are
not
able
to
reduce
the
payment
for
the
work.
But
women
workers,
experiencing
the
same
burden
of
poverty,
share
the
work
and
the
money
between
themselves,
bearing
a
big
loss
in
earnings.
In
areas
where
the
union
is
not
strong,
like
in
Karnataka,
the
same
situation
is
reflected
in
fierce
competition
between
women,
leading
to
halving
of
the
wages
from
about
Rs
20
last
year
to
Rs
10
to
12
this
year.
Although
the
poorest
sections
of
women
were
always
forced
into
hard
poorly
paid
work,
this
year
more
women
are
doing
this
sort
of
work.
This
includes:
collection
of
manure
from
landlords’
homes
and
fields,
drying
them
into
fuel
cakes
that
sell
at
Rs
10
for
20
cakes;
collection
of
firewood,
transporting
it
to
towns
to
sell
it,
earning
about
Rs
10
to
20
a
day;
collection
of
leaves
for
making
plates,
drying
the
leaves
and
then
selling
them,
making
about
Rs
20
to
30
once
every
three
or
four
days
after
backbreaking
work
and
walking
miles;
odd
jobs
in
the
homes
of
the
more
well-off
in
return
for
a
few
rotis
or
a
few
cups
of
rice;
coolie
work
for
Rs
8
to
10;
construction
work
that
is
slightly
better
paid
---
at
Rs
15
or
20,
and
so
on.
In
almost
all
meetings,
women
reported
an
increase
in
incidences
of
abuse
and
in
some
cases
sexual
abuse.
The
most
revealing
example
is
from
the
temple
town
of
Tirupati
where,
at
a
meeting
of
women
migrant
workers
who
were
living
on
the
streets
near
a
city
bus
stop,
90
women
of
the
100
present
reported
some
form
and
degree
of
sexual
harassment.
The
incidence
of
sexual
harassment
reported
in
the
campaigns
was
highest
among
migrant
workers
and
also
among
women
who
leave
even
for
nearby
villages
for
work.
But
along
with
these
cases,
another
aspect
is
the
more
invisible
dimension
of
abuse
of
human
dignity.
This
is
reflected
in
the
language
used
against
women
looking
for
work,
and
the
social
contempt
they
confront
from
the
more
well-off
sections.
It
is
difficult
to
quantify
this
type
of
humiliation,
but
women
spoke
about
it
bitterly.
Our
hunger
robs
us
of
our
izzat
in
the
eyes
of
those
with
full
stomachs
---
one
of
them
told
us
in
a
meeting
in
UP.
It
was
these
words
our
activists
matched
with
the
experiences
of
poor
women
across
many
meetings
in
different
states.
Increased
hunger
has
also
led
to
increase
in
prostitution.
In
Orissa,
surveys
conducted
among
rural
families
show
an
increase
in
the
sale
of
women
and
girl
children.
Although
this
has
been
the
reality
in
many
of
the
worst
famine
affected
areas
like
Kalahandi
or
Bolangir
for
at
least
a
decade,
it
has
spread
further
in
the
last
few
years.
There
were
similar
reports
from
other
states.
One
indication
is
also
the
increasing
number
of
women
arrested
for
soliciting
in
small
towns
in
the
states
mentioned.
In
one
village
in
Chitoor,
young
tribal
women
who
had
been
taken
to
Pune
and
Mumbai
by
brothel
owners,
wrote
a
letter
to
a
local
reporter
who
had
probably
visited
them,
describing
their
plight
and
why
they
had
sold
their
bodies.
We
had
nothing
else
they
said,
we
had
no
means
to
live
and
there
was
no
work
for
us
in
the
village.
APL,
BPL,
ANTYODAYA
In
meeting
after
meeting
women
described
what
they
were
eating:
“A
few
years
ago,
along
with
our
rice
or
rotis
we
are
some
vegetable;
today
we
eat
less
rotis
and
rice
but
eat
chutney
made
of
red
chillies
because
it
burns
our
hunger.”
Such
chilling
statements
made
in
a
meeting
in
Karnataka’s
Gulbarga
district
are
representative
of
the
kind
of
statements
women
made
in
meetings
in
different
states.
In
Adivasi
areas
in
particular,
whether
in
Maharashtra
or
Rajasthan,
there
were
more
women
who
said
that
they
were
eating
only
one
meal
a
day.
In
20
of
the
meetings
held
in
Uttar
Pradesh,
with
an
average
attendance
of
a
hundred
women
per
meeting,
at
least
12
to
15
women
would
say
that
they
had
not
eaten
that
day.
The
effect
on
women’s
health
is
obvious.
Already
the
percentage
of
women
with
anemia
is
unacceptably
high
in
rural
India
---
around
80
per
cent.
The
impact
of
this
spread
of
hunger
will
be
disastrous.
And
while
hunger
increases,
the
government
spends
at
least
Rs
6,000
crore
a
year
to
stock
foodgrains
in
its
godowns.
It
has
been
calculated
that
at
Rs
1,000
per
tonne
per
year
expenditure
to
stock
foodgrains,
it
makes
more
economic
sense,
leave
alone
ethical
sense,
to
distribute
the
stocked
grains
even
at
lower
prices.
The
public
distribution
system
has
virtually
collapsed,
as
it
was
meant
to,
firstly
because
of
the
targeting
system
and
secondly
because
of
the
hikes
in
the
prices
of
ration
foodgrains
to
levels
out
of
the
reach
of
the
poor.
The
destruction
of
the
model
PDS
in
Kerala
is
symbolic
of
the
current
policies.
Kerala
had
a
record
96
per
cent
coverage
through
its
ration
shops
and
also
through
the
Maveli
stores
that
provided
cheap
essential
commodities,
ranging
from
exercise
books
to
candles,
to
anyone
who
required
them.
Under
the
present
state
government
that
follows
the
policies
of
the
central
government,
the
subsidy
provided
by
the
LDF
government
of
Re
1
per
kg
of
rice
has
been
removed.
Combined
with
the
central
government’s
administered
hikes
in
the
price
of
ration
foodgrains,
this
has
raised
the
price
of
rice
to
almost
open
market
levels.
The
poor
quality
of
foodgrains
is
another
reason
for
the
drastic
fall
in
the
offtake
from
approximately
35
to
40
quintals
of
rice
a
month
per
ration
shop
to
less
than
10
quintals.
It
is
reported
that
5056
ration
shops,
that
is
more
than
one
third
of
ration
shops
in
the
state,
have
closed
down
in
the
last
few
months.
The
targeting
system,
ostensibly
meant
to
properly
“target
the
poor
as
beneficiaries,”
has
in
practice
actually
meant
the
exclusion
of
vast
sections
of
the
poor.
Ration
cardholders
are
divided
into
three
categories
---
Above
Poverty
Line
(APL),
Below
Poverty
Line
(BPL)
and
Antyodaya
(poorest
of
the
poor).
The
APL
cards
are
useless
except
as
identity
cards
since
APL
card
holders
are
no
longer
eligible
for
sugar
or
kerosene
and
the
price
of
APL
grains
is
almost
equal
to
the
open
market.
Thus
in
practice
it
is
only
the
BPL
that
is
included.
The
definition
of
BPL
is
arbitrary
as
are
the
numbers.
Calculated
on
Planning
Commission
estimates
made
several
years
ago,
state
governments
are
asked
to
identify
the
different
categories
whose
numbers
are
already
fixed.
Fresh
surveys
are
also
expected
to
remain
within
these
numbers.
In
a
situation
of
drought,
for
example,
it
is
common
sense
that
a
very
large
number
of
families
would
be
pushed
below
the
poverty
line,
but
there
is
no
provision
for
this.
Even
where
drought
relief
is
available,
only
those
who
already
have
BPL
cards
are
considered
eligible.
To
take
one
example:
In
one
of
the
worst
hit
tehsils
in
Chandauli
district
(UP)
where
there
have
been
starvation
deaths,
the
district
magistrate
told
us
that
of
a
total
of
36,480
families
with
ration
cards,
only
3,322
families
have
BPL
cards.
He
said
that
at
least
half
of
the
ration
cardholders
should
have
the
BPL
cards
but
he
was
helpless
as
the
quotas
only
permitted
a
small
percentage.
The
situation
in
urban
slums
is
equally
bad.
As
pointed
out
in
an
AIDWA
memorandum
to
the
food
secretary
of
Maharashtra,
“The
majority
of
even
poor
women,
widows,
old
and
destitute
have
not
been
included
in
the
BPL
list
as
highlighted
by
us
in
the
case
of
women
in
Dharavi
and
Bhandup.
The
ridiculously
low
BPL
income
line
of
Rs
15,000
per
year
means
that
the
government
of
Maharashtra
has
withdrawn
the
guarantee
of
cheap
food
to
the
poor,
needy
and
malnourished
people
in
Mumbai.
Along
with
that,
the
surveys
carried
out
by
your
office
have
only
aimed
at
excluding
people
from
the
BPL
category.
The
best
example
of
this
is
that
among
7.4
lakh
cardholders
in
Dharavi,
authorities
could
only
identify
153
families
as
BPL.
For
85
per
cent
of
families
who
hold
APL
cards,
the
price
of
ration
wheat
and
rice
is
higher
than
the
open
market.
They
do
not
have
a
right
to
cheap
grains
any
more
and
their
ration
cards
only
serve
the
purpose
of
identity
cards.”
There
have
been
continuous
struggles
of
women
organised
by
AIDWA
to
get
BPL
cards
and
also
ration
cards.
In
different
areas
of
Maharashtra,
notably
Thane,
Pune
and
Sholapur,
women’s
struggles
forced
the
authorities
to
issue
over
5000
cards,
including
BPL
cards.
Similar
struggles
have
been
waged
in
many
states,
with
some
success.
These
include
a
seven-day
sit-in
in
Ambedkar
Nagar,
UP.
The
real
problem
is
not
just
the
stray
cases
of
mistaken
categorisation
of
a
family’s
economic
status,
which
can
be
rectified.
The
problem
lies
in
the
system
of
targeting
itself.
Targeting
in
a
predominantly
poor
country
like
India
means
demarcating
not
between
the
rich
and
the
poor,
but
between
different
categories
of
the
poor,
to
"target"
some
of
them
for
benefits
regarding
access
to
cheap
food
that
actually
all
of
them
require.
It
is
based
on
the
creation,
not
the
elimination,
of
mistaken
identities,
aimed
at
statistically
reducing
the
numbers
of
the
poor,
even
though
in
real
terms
an
increasing
number
of
people
are
getting
more
and
more
poor.
It
is
a
system
based
not
on
need
but
on
arbitrarily
decided
quotas
that
do
not
recognise,
leave
alone
address,
the
ongoing
process
of
pauperisation
of
vast
sections
of
the
rural
population.
The
Antyodaya
system
is
decided
in
the
same
way.
That
is
why
the
demand
for
a
universal
public
distribution
system
has
great
relevance.
In
this
context,
the
important
recommendation
of
the
Abhijit
Sen
committee,
set
up
by
the
food
ministry,
to
universalise
the
PDS
is
significant
and
has
been
quoted
in
our
campaigns.
Food
minister
Sharad
Yadav,
when
asked
about
this
recommendation,
said
that
it
was
“being
considered.”
THE
SUPREME
COURT
GUIDELINES
On
a
public
interest
litigation
petition
moved
in
the
Supreme
Court
by
the
Right
to
Food
Campaign,
the
apex
court
last
November
issued
a
set
of
guidelines
in
its
interim
orders.
There
are
many
positive
aspects
of
the
orders
---
like
directives
to
state
governments
to
ensure
work
to
all
people
in
famine
or
drought
affected
areas,
direction
to
governments
to
ensure
work
during
the
agricultural
off-season
to
at
least
two
adults
per
family,
to
give
Rs
75
per
month
to
all
destitute
persons
over
the
age
of
65,
to
give
every
pregnant
BPL
woman
Rs
500
(for
the
first
two
births)
8
to
10
weeks
before
delivery,
etc.
However,
to
implement
these
orders,
the
state
governments
(most
of
them
in
a
deep
financial
crisis)
will
require
a
reversal
of
the
present
cuts
being
made
by
the
central
government
in
funds
for
the
states
and
also
of
the
erosion
of
the
states’
financial
powers
by
the
central
government.
Implementing
the
Supreme
Court
order
requires
a
serious
consideration
of
the
necessity
for
financial
arrangements.
At
the
same
time,
the
court
has
accepted
the
present
system
of
targeting
as
a
given
whereas,
as
rightly
pointed
out
by
the
Sen
committee,
it
is
the
targeting
system
that
has
to
be
given
up
to
guarantee
the
universal
right
to
food
for
all.
CONCLUSION
The
campaign
also
threw
up
another
reality.
The
hopelessness
and
helplessness
among
India’s
poor
is
reflected
in
the
fact
that
even
though
a
much
larger
mass
of
people
are
living
on
the
edge,
we
do
not
see
the
kind
of
struggles
for
food
that
marked
the
earlier
decades.
The
lack
of
an
alternative
to
the
bourgeois-landlord
governments
ruling
many
of
these
states
is
perhaps
one
reason.
It
is
here
that
mass
organisations
can
intervene
in
militant
united
mass
actions
to
bring
immediate
relief
to
the
people,
gain
their
confidence
and
build
the
struggles
required
on
a
much
larger
scale
to
force
a
change
in
policy.
Women
have
been
the
worst
affected
because
hunger
has
led
to
a
devaluation
in
many
spheres.
Thus
a
wider
mobilisation
of
women’s
organisations
is
also
necessary
to
pressurise
the
government
to
change
its
criminal
policies
that
have
created
hunger
and
destitution
on
a
large
scale.
