Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad   

Activists call for specific food security law

Hyderabad: Grassroot-level workers from across the State resolved to help shape the proposed National Food Security Bill in ways that serve the specific interests of oppressed and marginal groups, citing lopsided implementation of current schemes.

At a meeting organised by National Dalit Forum, FIAN-AP and Centre for Rural Studies and Development at Sundaraiah Vignana Kendram here on Friday, they said the government’s welfare schemes in areas ranging from child nutrition (ICDS) to rural employment (NREGS) were not serving the needs and aspirations of Dalit and Adivasi groups. They said that liberalisation, globalisation and privatisation framework has led to concentration of wealth among privileged groups and further alienated the historically-disadvantaged sections. Slow progress in poverty-reduction and mass empowerment in the country, despite having a large number of welfare schemes, was due to lack of commitment in implementing the programmes, they said. This meant that only a rights-based approach to welfare would work.

Ravi Kumar of National Dalit Forum, said that local bigwigs decide the works to be done under NREGS and narrated an instance of how brick kiln and tractor owners largely drive the tank-desilting programme in a village.

An Adivasi leader from Khammam said, tribals did not get compensation for government-acquired land just because their holding was less than five acres.

He said tribals traditionally cultivated land only to meet their own needs and so tended to have smaller holdings. The government’s rehabilitation policies did not consider such a situation, he said. Other participants recounted irregularities in PDS such as incorrect weights and supplying less than entitled quantities of grain.

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