Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers

Campaigns : Rights to Food and Livelihood

Regional Workshop on Monitoring of Supreme Court Guidelines for PDS shops

In Chhattisgarh, a state level planning meeting of Pairvi partners was organized on 26th February 2009 at Raipur. Around 32 participants from the state participated in the meeting. It was decided in the meeting that a baseline survey and documentation of implementation of Supreme Court Guidelines on Public Distribution System will be done in 10 districts of the state. After the completion of the survey, a process of awareness and sensitization will be done. Around 50 village panchayats have been selected for the above work. It was also decided that an interaction meeting will be held in the state with the representatives of various political parties in respect to the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The main objective of the above meeting will be to present facts reflecting the status of Right to Food and Livelihood in the state and what can be possible action taken by the political parties in regard to betterment of the above issues.

State Consultation on New Industrial Policy in Chhattisgarh

The State Consultation was organized on 22nd November 2009 at Raipur to review the Industrial Policy announced by the Chhattisgarh government. The Industrial policy is highly weighed in the favour of big industries and has very little to offer for small and medium scale enterprises or for people in the state. The consultation was organized in view of large scale indignation over the policy in the civil society. Many prominent persons including Mr. Shailesh Nitin Trivedi, Political Secretary of Ex- CM of Chhattisgarh, Mr. Ramesh Varlyani, Economist, Mr. Veerendra Pandey, Ex. Chairman, State Finance Commission, Mr.Bhupesh Baghel, Ex. Revenue Minister, Chhattisgarh, and Mr. Shashank Sharma, Editor, People’s Watch, Media Group participated and spoke on their analysis of the New Industrial Policy. The Consultation decided to present the government with a more reasonable and balanced Industrial policy.

State Consultation on Challenges in Agriculture and Food Security

A state level consultation with multiple stakeholders was organized on 23rd October 2009 at Patna in collaboration with Bihar Council for Scientific and Technical Education and was attended by more than 200 representatives from NGOs, academicians, civil servants, media and policy makers. Mr. Vyas, Principal Secretary, Disaster Management, Government of Bihar addressed the consultation and drew the attention of the participants towards ill impacts of climate change. Mr. C. P. Sinha, ex-member, Water Commission, shared his research on decrease in rainfall and increase in temperature in Darbhanga district in Bihar. Other speakers included Dr. Diwakar (Senior Scientist, India Rice Research Institute), Dr. Ajay Kumar (Prof. Rajendra Agricultural University, Pusa), Dr. B. K. Dutta (Director, Council for Scientific and Technical Education), Mr. Vijay Pratap Singh (Bihar Statistical Institute).

Regional Consultation on Dalit Women and NREGA in Rajasthan

A regional consultation was organized in Chittorgarh District on 24th September 2009 on Dalit Women’s Participation in NREGA scheme. The main objective of the consultation was to monitor the effective working of NREGS in the region and to highlight the issues related to the discrimination that is being done towards Dalit women under this scheme. The consultation involved 35 Dalit women who have worked under the NREGA scheme in Chittorgarh District. Some of the major issues that came out during the consultation were low wages, discrimination to dalit women in providing access to food, drinking water and other facilities. Issues related to bank accounts, job cards and delayed payment of wages, lack of free space and crèches were also major areas of concern. Participants complained that separate dishes are used to serve them food and water. Some women also complained that they get work at least 5 kilometers away from their native village. They also complained that none of dalit women were made “meth” even when they met the set criteria. A statement of concerns from dalit women was handed over to the District Magistrate of the Chittorgarh after the meeting who assured to take appropriate measures.

Multi Stakeholder Workshop on Agriculture and Food Security

The workshop organised on 16th September 2009 in Jaipur, involved a number of stakeholders including media and UN agencies – UNICEF and UNFPA, experts, peasants and policy makers. The workshop brought out the grave situation of agriculture in the state in the face of droughts year after year and emphasized that non-farming opportunities should be made available to people and peasants to enhance their resilience top the food crisis. Rural Development Minister of State, Mr. Bharat Singh addressed the workshop and apprised participants of the recent efforts that government has made to encourage agriculture and rural development in state, and assured that state government will competently handle the situation with valuable inputs from workshop in particular and civil society in general.

Regional Workshop on Drought and Food Security in Santhal Pargana

A regional workshop was organized on 11th September 2009 at Dumka, Jharkhand with regional partners and State Legal Aid Services Authority in which organizations, administrative officials, activist, and academicians belonging to Santhal Pargana region actively participated. It was discussed that though Santhal Pargana has always remained prone to drought and witnessed severe famines in the past, current spell of drought has increased the vulnerability of farmers and people.
Attributed mainly to climate change, the workshop emphasized that farming communities are encouraged to grow high water stress crops or cash crops, which makes agriculture in the state highly dependent on monsoons. The earlier practice of growing coarse grains has ensured that food security was not threatened even in case of acute shortage of precipitation. The workshop also discussed the inadequacy of government measures. Many adaptation techniques prevalent in the area were also discussed, listed and shared among the participants. The workshop concluded that it would be highly relevant to compile traditional knowledge of people in the region on adaptation mechanism, which would be highly beneficial for the farmers in the state.

National Consultation on State of Hunger and Hunger Deaths

A National Consultation on the status of hunger and hunger deaths in the poorest of poor states was held at ISI, New Delhi on 3rd and 4th August. Participants from the 6 states namely Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh participated in the consultation. The Consultation deliberated over grim situation in various states with regard to right to food and also attested to unabated hunger deaths in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar. Participants from the respective states also shared the inability of the govt. to provide help to combat hunger, on the reverse all state governments have categorically denied any hunger death taking place in their respective states. The participants felt that it is highly imperative to conduct an all India study, which might also feed the upcoming National Food Security Act.

Workshop on Monitoring of Hunger Deaths among Tribal Children in Madhya Pradesh

The workshop was organized on 4th May 2009 at Gwalior to build the capacity of local organizations working with tribal and dalit groups on monitoring hunger and malnutrition deaths in the 4 hunger death prone districts of Madhya Pradesh namely Stana, Sidhi, Sheopur and Shivpuri. Pairvi had organized a fact finding on malnutrition and hunger death in these districts in 2008 and ensured action on the issue with the help of Human Rights Commission. The workshop equipped the participants with necessary skill to monitor, document and report malnutrition in these districts. Around 18 organizations from these districts, who had been partner in fact finding participated in the workshop.

State Consultation with Political Parties in Chhattisgarh

A one day meeting was organized by Pairvi with the major political parties in Raipur, Chhattisgarh on 2nd April 2009. The meeting was organized to bring real issues before the political parties and candidates in the fray and to take their commitments towards resolution of those issues. A number of concerns regarding RTI, NREGA, PDS and water insecurity were discussed with the political leaders. All the parties assured improved focus on these issues in future governance. The ruling party, BJP exhorted people to bring these issues to them, so their expedited resolution is possible. It committed to extend all support on these issues and lauded the role of the NGOs in bringing concerns of people in light.

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