People's Democracy
(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
No.
28
July 11, 2010
|
Vol. XXXIV
No.
28 July 11, 2010 |
CONVENTION’S
RESOLUTION
THIS National Convention for Food
Security expresses its deep concern
that the relentless increase in the prices of essential food
commodities
including wheat, rice, edible oil, sugar, pulses and vegetables has led
to an
intensification of deprivation among large sections of the population,
at a
time when global reports show that India continues to have the highest
numbers
of malnourished and undernourished citizens in the world, the largest
numbers
of underweight children, anaemic women and people who are victims of
hunger.
This
Convention strongly
condemns the unwarranted decision of the central government to hike the
prices
of petroleum products like petrol, diesel, cooking gas and even
kerosene which
will have a cascading impact on prices and which reflects the utter
arrogance
and callousness of the government to the acute distress caused by food
inflation.
This
Convention supports
the call for Bharat Bandh on July 5 against the price hikes in cooking
gas,
kerosene, petrol and diesel, and appeals to people cutting across
political
lines to support the bandh call to force the government to reverse this
anti-people decision.
This
Convention holds that
the policies of the central government are in the main responsible for
the price
rise and the attempts to blame the state governments is nothing but a
shield by
the central government to conceal its own utter failures to control
prices and
reverse its wrong policies.
These wrong
policies
include:
(1) the
deliberate
weakening of the public distribution
system (PDS) and the subsequent erosion of the important role of the
PDS to act
as a countervailing pressure against high market prices. This is a
policy designed
to make consumers dependant on the market, thus putting millions at the
mercy
of profiteers and blackmarketeers.
(2) the
government’s
refusal to restore allocations of food grains to the states which have
been
reduced on an average by 73 per cent in the last five years, with some
states
like Kerala suffering a cut of over 80 per cent. Even though the
central
government has a huge buffer stock of 60 million tonnes, in a most
inadequate
decision the government has now decided to release just three million
additional
tonnes of food grains to the states in the next six months but at
prices which
are still higher than the APL prices by 42.7 per cent for rice and
38.52 per
cent for wheat. The government prefers that the food grains should rot
in the
open or be eaten by rats rather than ensure that it be distributed at
affordable prices.
(3)
permitting future
trade in essential commodities including wheat, several varieties of
pulses,
edible oils, and even vegetables like potatoes. The huge increasing
volume of
trade in futures in commodity exchanges impacts on spot prices by
pushing up
these prices reflecting naked profiteering, yet the government has
refused to
ban future trade in essential food commodities
(4) the
administered hikes
in the prices of petrol and diesel which have had a cascading impact on
the
price of other commodities. The central government’s taxes on petroleum
products and diesel constitute a significant portion of the present
price
structure of these commodities, bringing substantial revenues to the
central
government, while the people suffer the impact in increasing prices.
The
present moves to further raise prices of petrol and diesel will be
disastrous
and this convention warns the government against taking any such
decision.
This
convention demands
price control measures of food items which are an integral part of any
policy
which seeks to ensure food security by
(1)
strengthening the
public distribution system and restoring allocations to State
Governments at
APL issue prices,
(2) ban on
future trade in
essential commodities,
(3) cut in
prices of
petrol and diesel (4) strong measures to curb blackmarketing and
profiteering
in essential commodities
This National
Convention
on Food Security strongly criticises the central government for the
delay in
bringing an effective legislation to ensure food security to our
citizens. On
the contrary, the draft being discussed by the Group of Ministers will
lead to
food insecurity, not food security, since it reduces the present
allocations,
cuts the numbers of those eligible and virtually scraps the present
Antodaya
system.
Worse, the
present draft,
by making the system of targeting and division of the population into
the above
poverty line (APL) and below poverty line (BPL) a part of the law,
actually
legalises the exclusion of vast sections of the poor on the basis of
highly
dubious definitions of poverty. In that sense this present draft and
the
conception of food security it represents will be a step backwards and
if
accepted it will do much more damage than if there was no law at all.
This
Convention condemns
the present low level politics going on in the name of poverty
estimates and
definitions and the bargaining going on as to how many families may be
included
or excluded as if it is not the lives and futures of millions of people
at
stake but the price of a commodity in the market place. The issue is
not at all
whether “at least some more people should be included in the BPL” to
keep this
or that leader happy but the entirely unscientific basis of the present
exercise. This is further shown in the widely differing estimates of
poverty by
three officially constituted committees which range from 77 per cent to
50 per
cent to 37.5 per cent (for rural
In a country
where the
vast majority of people are in the unorganized sector with no fixed
income and
no protection against price rise, when it is estimated by the
government’s own commission
on the unorganised sector that 77 per cent of the population have an
expenditure level of less than twenty rupees a day, the requirement of
a
universal system of public distribution to guarantee food grains and
other
essentials at fixed affordable prices is self-evident.
This
Convention reiterates
that only a universal public distribution system can guarantee at least
minimum
food security which means scrapping the present targeted system and
divisions
of APL and BPL on issues like food, health, education.
It demands
that the
government bring a revised food security bill in the coming session of
parliament
with the following minimum features:
1) It should
be a
universal right;
2) It should
guarantee at
least 35 kg of food grains per nuclear family;
3) The price
of food grains
must be fixed at two rupees a kilo. The choice should include millets
(coarse
grains) which are a staple food in many parts of
4) It must
have provisions
to ensure food security to pre-school and school going children through
a legal
guarantee for mid-day meals and allocations for the ICDS
5) It must
ensure the
inclusion of a range of other essential commodities, at controlled
prices as is
being done by several state governments.
This
Convention recognises
the crucial role played by farmers in ensuring food security. It
stresses that
land reforms and distribution of surplus land to the landless
accompanied by
requisite allocations for development of that land will give a big
boost to
food security apart from helping millions of landless to increase their
means
of livelihood and in this context it condemns the total absence of land
reform
on the agenda of the central government.
The low
growth rate in
agriculture reflects the lack of priority given to the development of
agriculture and the rights and welfare of the farming community by the
government.
This Convention demands a substantial increase in expenditure to build
the
rural infrastructure, for provision of electricity, irrigation
facilities and extension
services for the farmers.
The
government’s
indifferent approach to self-sufficiency in food grain production is
reflected
in its policies to encourage cash crops for export purposes. The
recommendations of the Farmers Commission headed by M S Swaminathan had
made
extremely valuable and farmer friendly recommendations to meet the
conditions
of acute distress facing Indian farmers reflected in the large numbers
of
farmer suicides, while making recommendations to also ensure food
self-sufficiency. However the government has not implemented those
recommendations.
The
callousness of the government
is reflected in its cut in fertiliser subsidy by over 3000 crore
rupees. The
present crisis in seed availability, the huge increase in the price of
seeds,
the monopolies being established by big seed corporations and the
increasing
costs of inputs for food grain production are making agriculture
non-viable for
substantial sections of farmers in our country, 70 per cent of whom are
small
or marginal farmers. These are dangerous portents of what lies in the
future if
This
Convention demands a
pro-farmer set of policies which will ensure inputs at controlled
prices, a
fair price for produce, a stronger network of procurement centres,
encouragement
for production of food grains and pulses. It demands a special package
for
adivasi farmers, most of them working on most unproductive plots of
land, to
encourage through fair prices and procurement the production of millets
and
coarse grains suited to dry and non-irrigated land.
This
Convention resolves
to intensify the struggle to reverse the policies of the central
government
which have led to increasing misery of the people, price rise and food
insecurity and for an effective food security legislation based on a
universal
system of public distribution as described above.
This
convention calls for
the mobilisation of all sections of people to make the Bharat bandh on
July 5 a
success.
This
Convention calls for
a month long campaign and struggle throughout the month of August,
starting
from the village and block level and in town and city mohullas
to take the message to the people. These campaigns may
include dharnas, padyatras, jeep jathas,
processions, prabhat pheris, demonstrations and gheraos and may be decided at the local and state levels.
The call of
this
Convention is to reach out to the mass of people to assert their rights
to food
security and control of price rise.
Change the
government policies!
Withdraw the
hike in the prices
of petrol, diesel, cooking gas and kerosene!
Stop the loot
of the poor
through price rise!
Scrap
targeting! Stop
excluding the poor in the name of APL! Establish a universal public
distribution system!
Bring the
stocks out of
the godowns and feed the people, not rats!
