TAMIL NADU

On Right To Food, Water, Employment And Public Distribution                                  

R Chandra

 I told my son: ‘There is no water for cultivation, so there is no employment. I am unable to feed you. If you go to school, you will at least get a mid-day meal.’ And I sent him to school. As I was loading sand on to the lorry, the terrible news came of his death like a bolt from the blue. --- Chandrasekharan, father of Prakash, a young boy of Tiruvarur, the rice bowl of Tamil Nadu, who died of starvation

The fields went dry. There was no way to make a living, no way to feed a family of seven. My grandson now tells me: ‘ Grandma, let us all take poison and die like grandpa did.’ We are unable to cope and feel we are on death row. ---Chinnaponnu, wife of Veeraiyan, a peasant who committed suicide, unable to cope with crop failure and resulting crisis.

 My husband could not bear the sight of the cracked and parched earth. He died of shock at the sight. --- Arogya Mary, wife of Joseph, a peasant victim of crop failure and agrarian distress

THE districts of Thanjavur, Tiruvarur and Nagapattinam, comprising the famous Thanjavur delta, known as the rice bowl of Tamil Nadu, have seen more than 25 deaths in just the past few months, resulting from agrarian distress. Starvation deaths have been unknown in this part of Tamil Nadu. Also, the severity of the agrarian crisis, under the impact of the LPG policies of more than a decade now, and compounded by the unresolved Cauveri river water-sharing dispute, is something unprecedented. It is driving farmers to suicide and to death from shock and distress. Very poor returns from agriculture, mounting debt, lack of rural employment and lack of alternative means of livelihood have resulted in a crisis of major proportions. Food, water and employment have become scare, and the public distribution has been greatly weakened by LPG policies. The state government has been supremely indifferent to the plight of peasants and rural labourers, and has callously used the bureaucracy to deny the reality of deaths from policy-induced starvation and agrarian distress. The major opposition party in the state, being a member of the NDA government and hence party to the disastrous LPG policies, is unable therefore to take up these issues effectively. Only the Left parties and mass organisations led by them, along with several NGOs in the state, have been raising these issues and seeking to mobilise people to obtain some relief, even while continuing the fight against the policies responsible for the agrarian and rural distress.

It was in this context that an important conference on the right of people to food, water, employment and a strong and effective public distribution system (PDS) for essential commodities with universal access provisions, was held at Thanjavur on May 10, by the All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), together with the Federation of Consumer Organisations of Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry (FEDCOT), SNEHA (an NGO devoted to social service, education and awareness among women), and the Law Trust (another NGO).

GOVERNMENT’S TREACHERY

Inaugurating the conference, Dr N Markandan, former vice chancellor of Gandhigram Rural University, took the central and state governments to task for the plight of peasants and agricultural labourers in the heartland of Tamil Nadu’s agriculture. Charging that government policies were favouring big business and corporates at the expense of the poor, Markandan decried the state govenment’s scheme of wasteland development as nothing but a ruse to hand over land to corporates. It was treachery on the part of the government to sell water to the private sector without the consent of the panchayats. Making the point that starvation deaths could have been averted if all the foodgrains now rotting in the FCI and government godowns had been transferred to community grain banks under the control of panchayats, Markandan asserted that it was the duty of the government to ensure that every citizen had access to adequate food.

Following the inaugural session, survivors of some of the victims of the policy-induced agrarian crisis shared their bitter experience. Those who spoke included:  Chandrasekhar, father of Prakash, a young boy of Adhichanallur village in Tiruvarur district, who died of starvation; Chinnaponnu, wife of Veeraiyan, a peasant who committed suicide unable to face the crisis of debt and crop failure; and Arogya Mary, wife of Joseph, a peasant who died of shock at the sight of his parched lands. Their moving real-life tragedies evoked the spontaneous anger of the conference delegates towards the state government, which had not only failed to prevent these deaths, but was adding insult to injury by denying that these were the results of agrarian distress caused by the policies of the state and central governments and claiming that they were routine deaths due to normal causes.

Mythili Sivaraman, all-India vice president of the AIDWA, summed up the proceedings of this session. Drawing attention to the depths of hopelessness and frustration into which people had been pushed, and which made them accept these socially caused deaths passively, she emphasised the need to struggle for the right to livelihood.

KEYNOTE PAPERS & GROUP DISCUSSIONS

At the conference, keynote papers were presented on the topics of food, water, employment and the PDS. Presenting the keynote paper on food security, Tamil Nadu AIDWA joint secretary R Chandra pointed out that the issues of women’s autonomy and empowerment were linked to their access to basic human rights as citizens. She noted that people were seeking only a life of dignity, and not one of luxury, but even this was being denied by ruling class policies. Providing data from various sources, she brought out the fact that the thrust on export-oriented agriculture and corporatisation of agriculture was destroying food security, degrading the soil and promoting conversion of agricultural land into commercial real estate.

Professor Chandra also presented the keynote paper on water. She cited the water privatisation attempts made in Delhi as an example of urban water supply mismanagement. Noting that the issue of water should be analysed taking into account national, regional, class and gender considerations, she narrated the experiences of Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Chhattisgarh to highlight the perils of water privatisation. She called upon all organisations to forge a united struggle for the right to food and water, and against the multinational corporations that functioned as water mafias.

Professor Duraisingham of the FEDCOT presented the paper on employment. Stating that privatisation would not create employment, he noted that even the UK, which pioneered privatisation, was now faced with popular movements demanding the re-nationalisation of its railways that were privatised some years ago. He laid the blame for the current all-round crisis on the culture of consumerism.

Kalaichelvi of Law Trust presented the paper on public distribution. She noted that the official criteria for identification of poor households were absurd and anti-poor. Using statistical material, she demonstrated the hostile attitude of the government of India when it came to funding anti-poverty programmes. Drawing attention to the harm caused by malnutrition, she brought out the fact that the number of poor benefiting from PDS had been declining and that the lives of the poor were being wrecked by policies of globalisation. She criticised the government of Tamil Nadu for its failure to strengthen the PDS.

In the post-lunch sessions, delegates divided themselves into four discussion groups, each taking up one of the four themes of water, food, employment and PDS. The report of the group on water, presented to the plenary by Tamil Nadu AIDWA joint secretary Valentina highlighted the issues of urban water supply schemes, the reckless mining of sand from riverbeds and the contamination of ground water. Sakuntala Srinivasan (FEDCOT) presented the report of the group on employment, which stressed the need for thoroughgoing land reforms to expand employment. Mathivoli (SNEHA) presented the report of the group on PDS, while Tiruvarur AIDWA district secretary Chandra presented the report of the group on food.

GLOBALISATION INCREASES HUNGER

Tamil Nadu AIDWA general secretary Vasuki delivered the concluding address of the conference. Contesting the prime minister’s claim that he can make India hunger-free by 2007 if everybody cooperated, Vasuki pointed out that the people were willing to cooperate, but the problem lay with government policies. People desperately sought employment, but the government failed to generate jobs in the economy. Hunger and unemployment had increased under the regime of globalisation. Famines had occurred in the past even though food was available, simply because the poor could not afford to buy food. Now, too, any absolute shortage of food was not the cause of starvation. With available food stocks, a massive food-for-work can be carried out. It would generate employment, create rural assets and revive industry by expanding purchasing power. Programmes like Anna Yojana and Antyodaya remained by and large on paper. Vasuki also put forward the demand that at least 30 per cent of those employed in food-for-work and other public employment programmes must be women.

A presidium consisting of Malathy (AIDWA), Nizamuddin (FEDCOT) and Rajendran (SNEHA) conducted the proceedings. Tamil Nadu AIDWA joint secretary Ambika Natarajan welcomed the gathering. Krishnabhai of Madurai (AIDWA), Damayanthi of Sivaganga (AIDWA), Nizamuddin (FEDCOT), Rajendran (SNEHA) and Malathy (AIDWA) also spoke. Geetha (AIDWA, Thanjavur) delivered the vote of thanks.

Mythili Sivraman presided over the public meeting held in the evening after the conference while she herself, Vasuki, Chandra (all from AIDWA), state Kisan Sabha general secretary K Balakrishnan, state Agricultural Workers Union general secretary Thirunavukkarasu, and Nizamuddin (FEDCOT) addressed The meeting. The meeting concluded with slogans pledging to carry on the fight for water, food, employment and PDS as the people’s basic rights.