NAC Opposed Cash Transfer Replacing PDS

The interview came in Counter Currents on 28th November 2011. 

Web Link: http://www.countercurrents.org/baisakh281111.htm

NAC Opposed Cash Transfer Replacing PDS

 By Pradeep Baisakh & Aruna Roy

28 November, 2011

Countercurrents.org

Magsaysay award winner Ms Aruna Roy has been the member of National Advisory Council (NAC) headed by the UPA Chairperson Ms Sonia Gandhi in both of its Avtars and has influenced several social policies of the country. Ms Roy, also the founder member of Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), a people's organisation in Rajasthan recently visited to the proposed POSCO area in Jagatsingpur district in Odisha to observe the protest of people against the land acquisition there. Speaking to Pradeep Baisakh , she shares her observation on POSCO issue, on Land Acquisition Bill, on National Food security Bill and on the performance of MGNREGA in Odisha.

You recently visited proposed POSCO area in Jagatsingpur district of Odisha. Please share with us your observation.

Aruna Roy: The villagers in Dhinkia are completely opposed to the project, and are unwilling to give up any of their personal, or community land. Attempts by the state government for land acquisition are being made in a legal vacuum, as the MoU of the government with POSCO has been lapsed. This makes this forcible land acquisition morally and legally unjustified.

People's democratic voices shouldn't be crushed. People's consent is a must for establishing any industrial project. This is even more important in the context of the proposed new Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation legislation.

Thousands of trees are being felled by the district administration when the project does not legally exist (MoU is yet to be renewed). How far is this defensible?

Aruna Roy: Exactly that we have to say that now there is no legal ground. Reportedly, several thousand trees approximately 40-50,000 trees have already been chopped by the administration. The government is planning to cut lakhs trees like Casurina casuarinas, Jackfruit, Cashew nut and Mangroves. This tree cutting activities will leave the area exposed to cyclones and other environmental disasters in an area with a very sensitive ecology. Felling of trees is completely unacceptable.

We also have observed that people there want to work but there is no Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in the area. MGNREGA has to function as this is the right of every individual. No matter what for the people of Dhinkia have protested, it's still a part of India and people of the Panchayat are citizen of this country.

The Panchayat premises occupied by the police should be vacated. We also have said that the Sarpanch of Dhinkia panchayat, who has been suspended by the state government, should be reinstated. He cannot be suspended for what law requires him to do i.e. for holding Palli Sabhas (General body of the village). This is not a constitutional violation of any sort and this is not corruption.

National Food Security bill does not say about universal PDS. Even the draft recommended by the NAC does not guarantee universal food security despite the people like you, Jean Dreze (Now is no more a member of NAC) and Harsh Mander being the members of NAC?

Aruna Roy: The NAC draft says about 90% coverage. Actually universal PDS is something we all demanded, but somehow in the process of negotiation with the GoI, it got whittled down. This was one of the most painful processes and it has been very difficult to convince government.

The government actually did not look it as the right to food and health issue of people but from the point of view of problems in storage and procurement and from financial point of views. The government bill is quite disappointing and has taken away some of the vital recommendations of NAC e.g. the grievance redressal mechanism. They are for putting in UID and cash transfer in it, two things that NAC totally opposed because they are very dangerous. Recently Jean Dreze and Reetika Khera did a survey and came out with the fact that PDS is doing very well in Odisha and shown signs of revival in other states too. This shows that the system as it is can function.

What's your position on introduction of fortified food? Does not it lead to corporatisation of PDS?

Aruna Roy: It is totally unacceptable. What may be the fortified food and its new definition; you have enough nutritious food in the villages which will cater to the needs of the malnourished children. What's necessary is cooking is done and hot meal is provided. And that is the most important thing.

How do you react to the Supreme Court observation that the current Land Acquisition Law should rather be thrown away?

Aruna Roy: A new land acquisition law is coming which will replace the existing law. We have suggested that the first test of the land acquisition bill and the discussion should take place in Dhinkia Panchayat, because people have been displaced from there. All that is suggesting should now be tested in action. We suggest that there should be public hearing in Dhinkia itself on the project.

You have favoured a direct negotiation by the private corporate with people and acquire land in the new land acquisition law. Do not you think there is risk of people being intimidated and cheated in the process?

Aruna Roy: Now there are so much of private investments coming, if government acquires land for them, then it will go into that business. By effect something like Singur and Nadigram will be repeated. It should limit itself acquiring land for projects which serve public purpose e.g. for government offices, schools, hospitals.

If the government acquires land for the privates, then there will be creation of land bank like in Tamil Nadu and in Karnataka. And when the land bank is traded off, the person who is dispossessed of the land gets very little money than what profits are made there after. So it becomes a business. At one level it's much more difficult for people to oppose the government than to the private industries. The government should rather play the role of a regulator in such cases. It should regulate that no land is acquired below some market price, that anyone displaced in this process should get all rights covered by the Resettlement & Rehabilitation policies or laws.

You must be aware that CBI inquiry is going on in six districts of Odisha on the allegations of corruption in MGNREGA. So much of money is flushed under MGNREA to the state which is siphoned off and distressed migration in the KBK region and beyond is actually on the rise. Is it not wastage of public money when the state government is apathetic toward its implementation?

Aruna Roy: You cannot extrapolate the Odisha experience to the whole country. I think it's the administrative failure that people are not applying for work, people are not getting jobs in time. And if you do not receive application in time and you do not give wages in time, then people will go out looking for work. I really do think that there is a conspiracy in the government in general against NREGA because you cannot siphon off money as easily as you can do in other welfare works. If you look at other rural development work those have come to us, you cannot know where and how crores of money is being siphoned off. MGNREGA is the first programme that tells that the money is siphoned off. It is because NRGEA has made mandatory that the transparency and accountability is put into system.

Especially in the areas where there are Maoist influences or suspected Maoist influences it is more than necessary that this programme functions properly to bring in basic needs to the people and ensure that there is peace. Right to food and right to 100 days employment are guarantees against starvation and deaths.

What suggestion do you have for the Odisha government to improve the performance of MGNREGA?

Aruna Roy: I met the Chief Minister about three years ago. I made a presentation on the operation of NREGA in Rajsthan. I said if you paint the basic information of NREGA on walls, like how many job cards issued, and how many people have been given how much money –so translating the MIS to what we call it as JIS-Janata Information System. So you put it on wall, people will take care of it.

Secondly, work must be given in fifteen days time and give unemployment allowance in case of default. For making this work you need political will from the Chief Minister and bureaucratic will from the Chief Secretary and the Secretary from Principal Secretary, Rural Development. Unless you have a trigger of a dated acknowledgement receipt, followed by work and payment, things will not happen. It also means improving your MIS system, whether it means improving the system of payment, it must be done.

And I think any government that neglects NREGA that does with its own risk. So much money that comes in and this money it will provide even political benefit. But to neglect it, in my opinion, is not only a tragedy for the people but also it is dangerous for both administrative and political system.

Do you basically tell that political and administrative will in the state is lacking on issues relating to implementation of MGNREGA?

Aruna Roy: Well, It seems so.

You are the member of NAC in both of its avtars . Do you think that Ms Gandhi and the central government are using NAC as a ‘safety valve' to manage the rising discontent of people owing to the kind of public (economic) policies being pursued which has widened the gap between the haves and the have-nots?

Aruna Roy: I do not believe in horoscopes. So I cannot predict nor can I read. As an activist we ask and demand for many things. If in the first NAC there had been no common minimum programme which made the commitment to the people of India and for the first time after 25 years poor and issues of poor surfaced in the political discourse. Now, whatever may be the reason for their putting on this, for people like us its important to grab whatever space we have, catch them on their commitment and make them implement it. The NREGA, the RTI, the forest rights bill and the domestic violence bill all came out of it.

There is some polarity on what the government wants and what social policies demands. It which case, it should be boosted by our public demand. Ultimately if we believe violent revolution, then it's different matter. But if people want peaceful change, then we are also limited in the arenas in which we can get it. We have to make wider push as much as we can in whatever space we get. So those of us who have worked in this space that is provided have tried to push the system.

Pradeep Baisakh is a Freelance Journalist based in Bhubaneswar . He has extensively written on transparency law, right to work and food, environment issues, industrialisation and development, women, tribal rights etc. He can be contacted through e mail: 2006pradeep@gmail.com .

Sustainable agriculture reduces distress migration in Orissa

This piece was carried in Infochange India on 17th November 2011. 


Web Link: http://infochangeindia.org/agriculture/features/sustainable-agriculture-reduces-distress-migration-in-orissa.html

Sustainable agriculture reduces distress migration in Orissa

Pradeep Baisakh

Thanks to intervention from MASS, migration from Orissa’s Bargarh district has reduced considerably as villagers have been encouraged to start their own kitchen gardens, keep goats and chickens, and set up seed and grain banks, thereby adding to their income from agriculture and reducing their dependence on unscrupulous moneylenders

Photo: Family of Tularam Amari 

Tularam Amari and his wife Padma Amari, who live in a remote village in Orissa, want their youngest daughter Meena to become a teacher. Meena is currently studying in Class XIII. “We want to make her a teacher,” the couple say confidently.

Just two years ago, when husband and wife used to migrate to Hyderabad and other places to make bricks and eke out a livelihood, they had decided to put an end to educating their two girl-children, Dileswari and Meena.

Tularam and Padma believed they were destined for a life without dreams, until, one day, they decided firmly to change things. It was at this critical juncture that volunteers from the NGO, MASS (Manav Adhikar Seva Samiti) persuaded them to take up vegetable farming. Today, the couple earns about Rs 1 lakh per annum from agro-based farming and poultry. They live in Temriamal village, Jharbandh gram panchayat, Paikmal block, Bargarh district, Orissa.

Migration woes

The experience of working in the brick kilns of Hyderabad is still alive in the couple’s memory. Padma says: “When we had to come back from Hyderabad after finishing work, towards the end of the season, neither the owner nor the sardar (middleman) squared our payment. And they did not arrange our return tickets. With no money in hand, we started for home. I was not sure how I would manage my two children en route. It took nine days to get to our village in Orissa. We travelled by train some of the way; the rest by foot. I had some broken rice with me to feed ourselves on the journey. My younger daughter kept asking for better food; the elder one would tell her that as their parents had not got their wages there was no money in hand to buy good food.” Padma wiped her tears away as she recalled those dark days.

People from Adibasi Padia, a hamlet in Kechodadar gram panchayat in the same block, also used to migrate to Ayodhya, Hyderabad and Kali Nagar (Andhra Pradesh) to make bricks. There are some pockets in Paikmal block where people have always migrated out of the state to meet their livelihood needs. Mostly, they migrate to the brick kilns of Hyderabad, Chennai and other such places.

This kind of migration is called debt migration, where labourers are given an advance to commit labour for seven to eight months in the brick kilns. Generally, the unit of labour in brick-making constitutes one male, one female, and a child. This unit is called ‘pathuria’. Advance money to the tune of Rs 15,000-Rs 25,000 is given to a pathuria. Because of the advance money, labourers work in semi-bonded conditions in the workplace. They face a lot of exploitation due to weak inter-state labour laws and their vulnerability in the destination states. Indeed, physical and mental harassment in all possible forms is characteristic of such migration. Despite this, people are forced to migrate due to lack of sustainable employment opportunities in their home district.

Revival of agriculture

MASS volunteers showed Tularam Amari how to cultivate the two acres of land they own to make it a viable unit. With a little support from the village self-help group, the couple dug a well on their land for water. They built a new house which is a little away from the village. Because they lived on the land they were able to pay full attention to cultivation. From a mere half-acre of vegetable cultivation, the family made a sustainable earning. Now, they harvest ladies fingers, cauliflower and cucumber and make a good living selling them.

“In fact, we have taken a holistic approach towards reviving various sources of livelihood for people, using local resources,” says Adikand Biswal of MASS. In the beginning, women were asked to form self-help groups (SHGs) at the village level. They were persuaded to save some of their income on a monthly basis. A collective saving by members supplemented by external support from the NGO created a small pool of money to meet people’s immediate cash requirements. People borrowed money at a low rate of interest from the SHG and bought paddy seed for farming. They also invested in goat-keeping, chicken farming and other forms of animal husbandry.

Investment in agriculture gave good returns, while returns from animal husbandry added to people’s incomes, enhancing their sustainability. With MASS’s help, people began to explore various government schemes for agriculture. With seed support from the government, they started kitchen gardens and experimented with vegetable farming. This served to enrich their daily diet. There was a time, recalls an old lady in Adivasi Padia hamlet, “when male members of the family would go out of the village to do daily labour, and the wives waited with the children for them to return with rice so they could prepare food for the day. On most occasions, the women of the family would starve to feed their children and male members”.

Premsila Bhoi was the first to experiment with the kitchen garden model. Today, it yields her a rich harvest and is financially remunerative. Last year, in 2010, she sold vegetables worth Rs 7,000 (with an almost negligible investment) grown on a small patch of land alongside the house. Many people in the area have since developed kitchen gardens.

Goat-keeping too has proved remunerative. Kain Bhoi has six goats, each of which she sold for Rs 6,000. Similarly, Prabha Bariha sold six goats within the last two to three years and made Rs 36,000. Most of the money was spent on food and on other consumption requirements.

Apart from a revival in agriculture, the villagers have also set up grain and seed banks to reduce their dependence on moneylenders, locally called sahukars.

Grain and seed banks

Some villages in the area have started grain banks with the purpose of storing foodgrain to use in the lean season. Earlier, during the monsoon, people would have no foodgrain stocks resulting in dependence on moneylenders who would charge a monthly interest rate of 10%. This dependence on borrowing led to a vicious cycle, as, after the harvest, almost all the villagers’ income would go to the moneylender to repay debts. Effectively, therefore, people were unable to enjoy their own harvest and were forced to seek work nearby or migrate out of the state. After the introduction of grain banks, where people contributed a portion of their harvest to the community-managed bank, stocks were available during the three rainy months of June, July and August. On one occasion, says a villager, the rain continued for eight long days forcing people to remain in the village. The sahukar(moneylenders) came to the village with rice, available at a high rate of interest. But the village had accumulated enough grain to sustain itself. No one took rice from the sahukar.

Likewise, seed banks were set up where a portion of the harvest was kept as seed for the next farming season. Earlier, it was the sahukar who would provide seeds; now people take it from the seed bank. The concept of grain and seed banks has helped restore people’s dignity and self-respect by dispensing with the need to borrow from unscrupulous moneylenders.

Reduced migration

Interventions like these have improved the distress migration scenario in the block, although migration has not been wiped out entirely. According to the available figures from two panchayats -- Jharbandh and Bartunda -- the quantum of distress migration has dropped. Of the total of 1,877 families in these two panchayats, 277 families migrated out of the district to work in 2009-10. In 2010-11, the number came down to 220 families. These are based on data collected by the NGO from the migration registers maintained in villages in these two panchayats.  

Children’s education

Inter-state migration takes a heavy toll on children’s education. Tularam says: “Continuity of children’s education was almost impossible owing to a seven to eight month stay out of the state when we were migrating. We decided to discontinue the children’s education. But now things have improved. Our older daughter appeared for the Class X exam, but did not pass. She is planning to appear again. And our younger daughter is in Class VIII.”

The additional income has not only helped further the education of migrant children, it has also impacted on the education of children from non-migrant families. Now almost all the children of Adibasi Padia hamlet attend school. “The improved self-sufficiency has particularly impinged on the education of the girl-child, which was neglected earlier,” says Lata Sahu, a grassroots activist from MASS. In fact, this comprehensive model of development has brought about a visible change in people’s economic and, consequently, socio-cultural lives.

(Pradeep Baisakh is a freelance journalist based in Bhubaneswar, Orissa)

Dreams die in furnace of deceit and threat

This piece came in Tehelka on 12th November 2011.

Web Link: http://www.tehelka.com/story_main50.asp?filename=Ws121111POSCO_PLANT.asp

Dreams die in furnace of deceit and threat

The proposed POSCO plant in Odisha has dealt a severe blow to farmers whose land was acquired in exchange for one-time compensation. With fake promises of jobs and ex gratia payment by the state government, the farmers have lost their sources of livelihood. Attacked by goons and ignored by the administration, anti-POSCO protesters have nowhere to go, says Pradeep Baisakh

Swapan Dhada is one of the several farmers deceived by the POSCO mirage of a better living and a bagging job with the South Korean iron and steel giant. Dhada voluntarily gave his agricultural land to the district administration for the POSCO (Pohang Iron and Steel Company) project after being promised a regular ex gratia, monthly payment of Rs 2,500 until he was employed by the company.

Photo: Villagers protesting the establishment of POSCO project have been attacked by goons

One-and-a-half years later, Dhada feels cheated. The family of six meets its daily expenses from the compensation of Rs 2 lakh it received after selling his betel vine. “In six months, the remaining compensation amount will be exhausted. I don’t have any source of livelihood. With no state government help, as promised, I am not sure how will I survive,” he says. The land had sustained the family for more than twenty years with the annual income from one patch of betel vine totalling up to Rs 1 lakh-1.5 lakh, which included 50 per cent profit.

In May 2005, POSCO signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Odisha government for establishing the steel-cum-captive power plant with an investment of $12 billion--supposed to be the single largest foreign direct investment in India. Nearly, one-and-a-half years after the expiry of the MoU (it was supposed to be renewed on 22 June, 2010) the fate of the project is in limbo due to the delay in renewal of the MoU and stiff public opposition.

A visit to the proposed PSOCO area, which includes three gram panchayats (GPs) Dhinkia, Nuagaon, and Gadakunanga under Kujang Tahsil in Jagatsingpur district of Odisha, shows how a vibrant agrarian economy is being crushed for industrialisation.

While most of Dhinkia is dead against land acquisition, many villagers from Nuagaon and Gadakujanga have already given their land to the district administration, which has handed them over to Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO). Most of the area is forest land where people’s main sources of livelihood are betel vine, fish and paddy. Besides, mango and cashew are other sources of income. Out of the total 4,004 acre required for the project, 2,900 acre is forest land and the rest private. POSCO recently scaled down its requirement to 3,700 acre. In addition to this, land for railways, road expansion and mine development has to be provided. “The project will displace 814 families,” informs district Land Acquisition Officer of the district Nrushinga Swain.

6 lakh trees felled: In last six to seven months, the district administration and IDCO have acquired land on a massive scale after the project got clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forest on 2 May, 2011. So far, approximately 1,900 acre has been acquired, of which only 25 acre is private land and the rest forest. Private land acquisition has now been halted due to an interim stay order by the High following a PIL. Land has been acquired from Polang, Nolia Sahi, Bhuyan Pal and Bayamal Kanda in Gadakujanga and from Nuagaon village in Nuagaon. A total amount of Rs 11.5 crore has been paid to families as compensation due to loss in livelihood from the sale of land containing 643 betel vines, trees and prawn ponds.

The acquisition of land has been followed by merciless tree felling by IDCO despite the resistance of the very people who had supported the project. According to Swain, 1.2 lakh non-fruit bearing trees and 4,500 fruit-bearing trees have been felled. However, a labour contractor involved in tree-cutting exercise says on condition of anonymity that 40 labourers are employed in cutting down 5,000 trees daily since the last four months—a total of 6 lakh trees of casuarina, cashew, coconut, mango etc. have been felled.

A writ petition filed in the High Court quotes some government source saying that 5 lakh trees would be cut down for establishing the plant. But locals put the number at more than 10 lakh trees. An angry Litu Mohapatra, of Polang village, says, “As the MoU has not been renewed, what’s the reason for cutting our trees, which we have been protecting for generations? Ours is a cyclone-prone area. We survived the 1999 super cyclone due to the thick forest.”

Destruction of livelihood sources: In Polang village, only about 20 families have been compensated for the sale of their betel vines. Around two years ago, approximately 400 out of total 500 hundred families had betel vines, according to locals. According to villagers, about two years ago, 230 youths, one from each affected family in the three Panchayats, were paid by the state government a monthly amount of Rs 6,000 for spreading awareness on the benefits of the POSCO project. With money coming in easily, people started ignoring their original sources of livelihood--betel vines, paddy cultivation and prawn farms. Eventually, when the government started compensating families against the sale of betel vines after the survey, barely 13 families were compensated. Early 2010, only six more families were compensated. The rest of the betel vines had been abandoned by their owners, who were promised jobs with the POSCO plant.

Paddy cultivation suffered as well due to the hollow promises. Around four months ago, the government promised paddy cultivators regular employment with a construction company called BMC, which was awarded the contract for setting up a rehabilitation colony for the displaced. Consequently, the farmers preferred a regular job to paddy cultivation. But after working for a month, they were paid only Rs 3,000. The employees protested, and the project was shelved.

With the vanishing forest, the betel vines, which border the project area, will also not survive. Villager Nityananda Behera fears the moment when betel vine cultivation will come to end. “Betel grows in a comparatively moderate temperature which the forest ensures. People also depend on the forest for materials required for the vines. With decreasing forest cover, temperature of the area has risen as well. In coming years, betel vine cultivation is likely to end.”

Fish harvest has also been badly affected due to release of toxic waste by Paradip Phosphate Ltd and IFFCO into Jatadhari river.

The loss of livelihood has forced massive exodus of youth from the village. The Sarpanch of Gadakujanga, Nakulananda Sahu, says, “About 200 youths are migrating daily to the nearest town, Paradip, for manual labour earning a meagre Rs 100 per day. The rate of migration has spiked.”

Villagers from Polang village like Kanhu Nayak and Nrusinga Panda allege that leaders of the defunct United Action Committee (UAC), the pro-POSCO outfit that convinced people to support the PSOCO project, have immensely benefited from the company and ditched their supporters. UAC leader Anadi Rout, however, said, “I have not benefited at all from the administration or the company; rather, I have spent on garnering support for the project. But now the administration is ignoring us”.

Common people, who have lost livelihood sources, have formed an outfit called Kunja Bihari Gramya Surakshya Manch demanding ex gratia payments and job. But the administration refuses to acknowledge its existence. Jagatsingpur District Collector Narayan Chandra Jena says “There is no such legal union of people in that area. With whom shall we negotiate? We have sent a list of labourers whose land was acquired to the respective Palli Sabhas for finalisation. We will provide them jobs. In any case, jobs under NREGA [National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme] are available for them.” Jena was non-committal on ex gratia payment though he agreed that the promised monthly amount should ideally be paid till employment was provided.

Few months ago, pro-POSCO people who had turned against the project were beaten up by the police when they obstructed the entry of administration officials to the area. On 31 October, Deputy General Manager of POSCO India S N Singh and some officials of IDCO were roughed up by pro-POSCO people when they entered Nuagaon.

Goons attack anti-POSCO protestors: Attempts are being made to breach the anti-POSCO bastion of Dhinkia. On 26 September, about 400 goons allegedly hired by Paradip Parivahan, the agency that has been assigned to build a road to connect Dhinkia with the seaside, attacked Govindpur village with iron rods, sticks and crude bombs. Thirty protesters, including six women, were injured with two people in critical condition. The leader of POSCO Pratorodha Sangram Samiti, Abhaya Sahoo, was also attacked. Television channels showed the villagers being chased by the goons. After the attack, when villager Anupama Sharma went to the Kujang Police Staion to file a complaint, Inspector-in-charge Gopteswar Bhoi allegedly misbehaved with her. Jena said that the allegation of misbehaviour was being probed.

To suppress the anti-POSCO voice, the administration has registered 184 cases against 1,100 people, informs Sahoo. As many as 52 cases have been registered against him alone!

The government planned to construct the road because the entry to the panchayat from the regular road has been blocked by the villagers for more than six months. The road on the sea coast from Paradip to the boarder area of Dhinkia is called IOCL road. The proposed road, which is being termed as ‘POSCO Road’, is an extension of the IOCL road. This will provide strategic advantage to the police to enter the village.

NHRC visit: National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) special rapporteur Damodar Sarangi visited the area to enquire about the compensation given to Sabita Mandal, wife of Dula Mandal--an anti-POSCO activist who was killed during a clash between and pro and anti-project people last year. But Sarangi wanted concrete proof on the existence of tribals and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers in the area and whether they had been illegally evicted. Besides, Sarangi told the villagers that the NHRC would not go into any policy issue of desirability of starting the project in the area.

(With inputs from Sandeep Patnaik, who is a research scholar)

Pradeep Baisakh is a freelance journalist based in Odisha

2006pradeep@gmail.com