Findings come at a time
when 7%-plus inflation in a poll year has brought food security on
political centre stage
Hunger pangs: The report says caste
and gender discriminatory practices are also major causes for worry,
and hurt nutrition programmes such as the mid-day meal programme.
New Delhi: At a time when India is seeking a permanent seat at the UN
Security Council, a report submitted to a panel of the global body says
four out of five Indians don’t get enough food to eat due to rampant
corruption and untimely allocation.
As the government strives to meet international guidelines in welfare
schemes to boost its image abroad, reality bites harder at home in an
election year—as highlighted in the report to the United Nations
Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
The report has said the country’s public distribution system (PDS) is
in a disarray due to untimely allocations, leakages and rampant
corruption, thereby depriving some 80% Indians of enough food.
The report has been prepared by the People’s Collective for Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights, coordinated by Programme on Women’s
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (PWESCR), a civil society
organization working among women, ahead of India’s scheduled review
before the committee on 7-8 May after two decades.
Titled Divided Destinies, Unequal Lives: Economic Social and Cultural
Rights and the Indian State, it has stressed the need for drafting
employment guarantee programmes for women and called for taking steps
to check human rights violations among tribals and other
underprivileged groups.
Highlighting the plight of vulnerable groups such as migrants,
refugees, urban poor and homeless, it said lack of citizenship prevents
them from accessing the PDS.
Caste and gender discriminatory practices are also major causes for
worry, and hurt nutrition programmes such as the Integrated Child
Development Scheme and the mid-day meal programme, the report pointed
out.
India ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights in 1979, under which a country is expected to come out
with a rights review every five years. India brought out only one in
the early years.
Priti Darooka, executive director of PWESCR, which coordinated the
report put together by about a hundred civil society organizations,
many of them working at the grass roots, said: “With India now keen on
a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, the government has now
found it important to abide by the guidelines of the global body,
especially those concerning human rights.”
She also said that the government’s record in this regard has hardly
been noteworthy. Even a comprehensive monitoring body for various
welfare schemes under the Planning Commission, recommended by the UN
Special Rapporteur on Right to Food in 2005, was announced by the
finance minister only recently—in the 2008-09 budget.
The report’s concern over the right to food comes at a time when raging
inflation of 7% and above in an election year has brought food security
on the political centre stage. The administration is struggling to
bring down inflation, with little success so far. Even the Rs5,000
crore National Food Security Mission to raise the production of
foodgrain launched in 2007, will start having a positive effect only
next year and the current supply shortages will continue, Planning
Commission member Abhijit Sen had said in a recent interview.
Meanwhile, Syeda Hameed, member, Planning Commission, who was presented
with a copy of the report, said, “This is a useful and detailed
document prepared by a huge number of NGOs, many of whom work closely
with the commission and highlights the areas where there is still a lot
of gap between policy and administration.”
The report expresses serious concern over severe violations and
non-compliance of the Indian state in fulfilling its obligations under
the UN covenant. “Many gaps exist between the promise and assurances
made by the state and their actual delivery,” it said.
Despite legal and constitutional safeguards, including the recent
Forest Rights Act of 2006, indigenous communities are being attacked
and intimidated, the report said. The government has introduced
legislations such as the Special Economic Zone Act of 2006 to allow
commercial activity and also cleared commercial mining operations even
in areas protected under Schedule V of the Constitution. In 2007-08,
these people received only 4.88% of the total Plan funds, as against an
ideal proportional allocation of 8%.
Despite high economic growth, the state has failed to put in place even
the most basic entitlements for tribals, women and Dalits, the report
says.
N. Paul Divakar, national convenor of the National Campaign of Dalit
Human Rights, a Dalit advocacy organization, said: “For 27 years, that
is since the inception of scheduled caste sub plan, earlier called
special component plan, in 1979-80, the Centre and the state
governments have made a mockery of the guidelines. About 45% of Dalits
are still poor, compared to 21% among the non-Dalits.”
Divakar also said that the ministry of social justice and empowerment
has cut down allocations for pre- and post-secondary scholarship to
Rs731 crore in 2008-09 compared with Rs811 crore in the last fiscal
year.
The report, quoting a recent Planning Commission study, said: “Women
remain largely untouched by gender-just and gender-sensitive budgets.”
Some 57% of girls are married off before they are 18. Women still earn
only 38% of the average male wage despite the Equal Remuneration Act
having been passed in 1976. “
“Women’s names must be put on kisan credit cards and other legal
documents and their entry into public work spheres and marketplace
infrastructure needs should be encouraged,” it suggested.
Since most women work in the unorganized sector, which is now providing
more jobs than the formal sector, the report called for immediate
legislation of the Unorganized Sector Workers Social Security Bill,
2007.
