World Food Day, which falls on October 16, 2012, marks the culmination of a series of Rozi Roti Adhikar Yatras which have been criss-crossing the country for the last two weeks, holding public meetings on food security and listening to people’s testimonies.
The Yatras were launched at the beginning of October by the Right to Food Campaign, separately in Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and West Bengal. Most of the Yatras will converge at Jamshedpur on October 16, for a concluding mass rally. Thousands of people from across the eastern region of India are expected to participate.
The Yatras are also an opportunity to reassert the campaign’s long-standing demand for a comprehensive National Food Security Act, including a universal public distribution system (PDS) providing not only foograins but also pulses and oil (see attached leaflet for further details).
The Rajasthan Yatra started on October 2 from Medhi Gram Panchayat of Kotra Block (Udaipur District), where starvation deaths were reported in 2001. These starvation deaths, at a time of overflowing food stocks, triggered the protests and public mobilisation that led to the right to food campaign. Ironically, the food stocks are even larger today (more than 80 million tonnes), and the people of Medhi are still living on the brink of starvation, despite some improvements – mid-day meals in primary schools, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), and a now functional PDS. In Medhi, as elsewhere, it was found that these and other food-related schemes left much to be desired, and fell far short of the norms set by Supreme Court orders in the right to food case.
From Medhi, the Rajasthan Yatra traversed 20 districts of Rajasthan over a period of two weeks, holding vibrant meetings and protests every day in villages and at street corners. As in Medhi, the Yatra revisited areas where starvation deaths and other extreme cases of food deprivation had been reported in recent years, for instance among the Sahariyas of Baran District. On October 12, a delegation from the Yatra held a long meeting with the chief secretary, C K Mathew, who promised to act on some of the Yatra’s demands and also to personally visit Baran District. The delegation also met Margaret Alva, governor, Rajasthan, who was also supportive of the Yatra’s main demands, and especially concerned with the nutrition situation in tribal areas of Rajasthan.
In West Bengal, the Yatra started on October 1 from Joynagar in Purulia District, with a collective resolve to continue the struggle until the Yatra’s demands are met. The next day, a padyatra was taken out by 2,000 agricultural workers and members of Paschim Banga Khet Majoor Samity, who were stopped three times by members of the ruling political party. Local people, for their part, welcomed the Yatra everywhere it went and even fed the participants from time to time. In West Bengal, as in Rajasthan, some major complaints came up again and again in public meetings:
● Many people are excluded from the PDS and other food security schemes, because they do not have a BPL card
● PDS rations are insufficient to guarantee food security
● Anganwadi services are very poor
● NREGA wages are not paid on time, and even work is often not provided
● Old-age pensions are very meagre, and also not paid on time
● The provisions of the Forest Rights Act are not being implemented
Similar grievances were heard in Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and Jharkhand. In Bihar, there were also many complaints of vulnerability to floods and other disasters, and of the government’s failure to ensure food security in disasters situations. In many places, people were also vocally opposed to PDS food rations being replaced with cash transfers.
There were also positive instances where people had mobilised and fought for their entitlements. On 14 October, the Jharkhand Yatra held a meeting in Geddu Amba Toli (Angada Block, Ranchi District), where people had protested for a long time, one year earlier, against the embezzlement of two months’ PDS rations by local dealers and contractors. After a series of protests including a dharna at the block development officer's (BDO) office and representations to the district collector, they were able to obtain an extra month’s PDS rations.
The biggest problem everywhere was the exclusion of many people from the PDS and other food-related schemes that are restricted to “BPL households”. The Yatra’s main slogan – BPL-APL khatam karo, sab ko ration-pension do (Abolish the BPL-APL division, give rations and pensions to everyone) – was hugely popular:
The Yatras have given new energy and created wider support for the right to food campaign. The struggle for a comprehensive National Food Security Act is expected to intensify in the next few months.
