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Bureau Chief/News Editor/Chief Reporter Press
Release on The Supreme Court yesterday issued notice to the Central Government and all the State Governments to file their response to a petition on the widespread corruption in, and the non implementation of , the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). The petition has been filed by the Delhi-based Centre for Environment and Food Security(CEFS) in the Supreme Court for issuing appropriate directions to the Centre and State governments to ensure effective implementation of the NREGA and the proper utilization of the funds allocated for the same .Shri Prashant Bhushan is counsel for the CEFS. A field study carried out by CEFS on the implementation of the NREGA in the state of Orissa had revealed last year that most of the funds allocated for the implementation of the NREGA, do not reach the intended beneficiaries and are instead siphoned off by corrupt officials and contractors, thereby denying crores of poor people their Fundamental right to livelihood, and other fundamental rights incidental thereto, for instance, the right to food and to education. The findings of the CEFS field survey conducted in 100 villages of Orissa's 6 districts had revealed that " out of Rs 733 crore spent under NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) in Orissa during 2006-7, more than 500 crore has been siphoned and misappropriated by the government officials of implementing agencies. In other words, less than 30 per cent of the NREGS funds have reached the targeted population and more than 70 per cent have been eaten up by sarkari babus . There are thousands of villages in Orissa where more than 80-90 percent of NREGS funds have been misappropriated by the executing officials." PRAYERS The Petitioner (CEFS) has prayed : That the Supreme Court be pleased to issue a Writ of Mandamus or a writ in the nature of mandamus or any other writ order or direction under Article 32 of the Constitution of India to ensure the proper and effective execution of the Act and the schemes envisaged under the Act, by the Respondents and specifically in terms of the following: That the Chief Secretary of a State and District Collector of a District be made responsible for the conduct of social audit of all the projects executed under the Act during the previous financial year by June 30 every year in accordance with the rules, norms and guidelines of the Act and that this Hon'ble Court direct that any lapse in this regard should result in disciplinary and other action against the Chief Secretary of the State and District Collector of the District. That the Chief Secretary of a State and District Collector of a District be made responsible for holding erring officials accountable and initiating disciplinary proceedings against them for any violation of the provisions of the Act and the Schemes thereunder, by them, and that this Hon'ble Court direct that any lapse in this regard should result in disciplinary and other action against the Chief Secretary of a State and District Collector of a District. That the Block Development Officers, Village Level Workers/ Panchayat Executive Officers and Sarpanches be made responsible for the payment of wages within the stipulated period of fifteen (15) days, and for posting the wage payment details on www.nrega.nic.in within one month of the payments made and that this Hon'ble Court direct that any lapse in this regard should result in disciplinary and other action against the Block Development Officers, Village Level Workers/ Panchayat Executive Officers and Sarpanches. That this Court direct the state governments to ban cash payment of wages to labourers for all the NREGA projects and the same must be done through bank accounts or accounts in post offices. That this Hon'ble Court to order a CBI probe or a thorough enquiry by a special commission of enquiry appointed by this Hon'ble Court into the lack of implementation of, and the corruption in, the NREGA in Orissa. That the Sarpanch, Panchayat Executive Officer and Panchayat Secretary be made jointly responsible for the availability of muster roll registers for public scrutiny during official hours on all working days in Gram Panchayat offices and that this Hon'ble Court direct that any lapse in this regard should result in disciplinary and other action against the Sarpanch, Panchayat Executive Officer and Panchayat Secretary. That this Hon'ble Court be pleased to pass any other such order that the Hon'ble Court deems fit in the circumstances of the present case and in the interests of justice, equity and good governance. To know more about CEFS, please visit our website. The full copy of the NREGA Writ Petition can be downloaded from CEFS website: www.cefsindia.org For any clarification or more information on the NREGA PIL , please contact : Parshuram Ray (Mobile-9810400214). Issued in New Delhi on 16th May 2008 Sincerely,
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3rd September 2007 Subject: Misappropriation Of Rs 500 Crore of NREGA Funds and Cholera Deaths in Orissa: The Interlinkages Dear Pradhanmantri ji, I am Parshuram Rai from Centre for Environment and Food Security (CEFS), a Delhi- based NGO engaged in research and advocacy on hunger, poverty, rural livelihoods, food security and ecological sustainability. I am writing this letter to you as my last attempt to bring to your notice that it is not the epidemic of cholera but cancer of corruption that is killing hundreds of Adivasis in Orissa's KBK (Kalahandi-Bolangir-Koraput) region. It may appear as a sweeping and cynical statement. However, I have come to this disturbing conclusion after spending 5 months of sleepless nights and restless days in uncovering the interlinkages between corruption and abject poverty in the KBK region of Orissa. Cholera is only a symptom and byproduct, the root cause is the cancer of corruption which has colonized and crippled all the vital organs of Orissa administration. Abject poverty and chronic hunger manufactured by corrupt bureaucracy are the main reasons behind these tragic deaths of Adivasis. Most of these Adivasis live a life of semi-starvation which cripples their immune system and their bodies become vulnerable to a host of diseases. In KBK region, for better part of the rainy season, majority of Adivasis have hardly any food to eat and they survive on mango kernel gruel, wild leaves and vegetables. This tragedy repeats every year. The historic anti-poverty programme NREGS (National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) was launched to stop precisely this kind of tragedy. Cancer of Corruption: Delhi- based CEFS has carried out a survey in 100 villages of Orissa and found that out of Rs 733 crore spent under NREGS during 2006-7, over Rs 500 crore has been siphoned off and misappropriated by the government officials of executing agencies. Moreover, as against the claims of Orissa Government that no needy household in 19 NREGA districts of the state was denied wage employment and each needy household was given an average 57 days of wage employment under NREGS, CEFS study has revealed that large number of needy households were denied not only jobs but even job cards, and not more than 5 days of average wage employment has been given to each needy family in these 19 NREGA districts. We have found that more than 75 per cent of the NREGA funds spent during last year have been siphoned off. However, we are absolutely certain that there are thousands of villages in Orissa where scale of misappropriation is 80-90 per cent. It is distressing to note that there has been open and participatory loot of NREGS funds in Orissa. We have reasons to believe that the entire state administration is party to this loot. Cholera Deaths and Misappropriation of Rs 500 Crore of NREGA Funds Is there any linkage between misappropriation of Rs 500 crore of NREGA funds and cholera deaths of 500 Adivasis in Orissa? On the surface, the link is tenuous. Scratch a little deeper and the linkage is direct. To put Rs 500 crore of siphoned NREGA fund in perspective, this amount of money would have given about 90 days of wage employment to about 10 lakh poor families of Orissa. In other words, each of these 10 lakh poorest families would have got Rs 5000 as wages. This amount of Rs 5000 in the context of these poor and hungry families would have given 4-6 months of two subsistence meals or one meal for the whole year. Therefore, it is not just another financial scam, predatory bureaucracy of Orissa has robbed 10 lakh hungry families' one meal for the whole year. Who is real killer of Orissa's Adivasis? Kindly read out the following lines from news reports: Claiming that around 500 people have died of cholera in three south-western districts of Orissa, the Congress on Thursday demanded immediate declaration of epidemic in the affected areas. "I can produce names of at least 350 people of Dasmantpur block in Koraput district and Kashipur in Rayagada district who died of cholera within a span of 30 days," Orissa Pradesh Congress Committee president Jaydev Jena told reporters. Party workers have collected information regarding death of 500 people due to cholera, he said. (The Hindu, August 31, 2007) "Health Secretary, Chinmay Basu, who is camping in the area since Friday, told PTI over phone that all deaths were not due to the outbreak of cholera. Some of these cases which have claimed lives had been due to cholera." (The Hindu, August 26, 2007) Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, J. B. Patnaik said that "hunger and contaminated water had caused the large number of deaths in the cholera-hit blocks."(The Hindu, August 29, 2007) The Opposition Leader also urged the government to start food for work programmes in the cholera-hit districts of Rayagada, Koraput and Kalahandi to deal with the severe food insecurity situation that prevailed in the region. (Kalinga Times, August 29, 2007) The Chief Medical officer of Rayagada district P Sitaram attributed the outbreak to people drinking contaminated water from streams and ponds…. They are also eating foods like rotten meat and seasonal mushrooms, he noted. (Hindustan Times, August 26, 2007) In Taljhari, a village that the Chief Minister visited on Monday, NDTV found out that it was compulsion and not a poor sense of hygiene that made people drink unsafe water. There are altogether five tube wells in the village and of these four have been lying defunct for the past several months. (NDTV, August 29, 2007) Consumption of contaminated water and rotten food by the people is suspected to have led to the epidemic. (BBC News, August 27, 2007) Life will never be the same for Chintamani Nayak of Naugaon village (Kashipur block). His dream of becoming a father was shattered when his pregnant wife died of diaorrhea. "I lost my pregnant wife because of food scarcity. Now I am helpless", laments Chintamani. Chintamani is one of many villagers grappling with poverty, food scarcity and forced to drink contaminated water….With starvation deaths already on the rise and now this epidemic, the Orissa government has its task cut out. (CNN-IBN, August 30, 2007) Level of hunger and poverty in KBK region The CEFS survey report was formally released in New Delhi on August 17th 2007 and was posted on our website (www.cefsindia.org) same day. The following excerpts from this survey report will help you understand better as who is the real killer of 500 Adivasis. "The Current level of hunger, poverty and deprivation in Orissa's KBK region is as deep, demeaning and dehumanising as ever despite the so- called successful implementation of the NREGS with the highest per capita allocation of funds anywhere in the country. The Rural Employment Scheme has made virtually zero impact on the livelihood security of Orissa's rural poor.There is no let up in the level of distress migration of Adivasis and Dalits from Orissa's KBK reason in search of livelihood in other parts of the country. The current level of distress migration in the districts of Bolangir, Nuapada, Nabarangpur and Kalahandi is as high as ever. On Human Development Index, many of the Sub-Saharan villages would fare better than most of the KBK villages. Hunger and abject poverty are widespread in all the 100 villages of KBK region we visited. Large number of children in these villages are suffering from severe malnutrition. Hunger and abject poverty are apparent and writ large on the hollowed cheeks, sunken eyes and distended bellies of the children." (CEFS report "Rural Job Scam in Orissa") "We had also visited Panasguda (Kasipur Gram Panchayat), Gottigudda (Kasipur Gram Panchayat) and Bilamal (Tikari Gram Panchayat) in Kasipur block of Rayagada district. Many starvation deaths were reported from these three villages during 2001 and the Chief Minister had personally visited these village to offer relief. Most households in these villages are still living a life of semi-starvation and chronic hunger. For better part of the rainy season they still have to make a choice between starvation or eating mango kernel gruel. Panasgudda and Gottigudda villages have not received even job cards. Some households have been given job cards in Bilamal but even those households have got only 2-3 days of work under NREGS. The family in Bilamal which had lost 4 members to starvation in 2001 has not received job card as yet." Where has Orissa Government spent Rs 733 crore of NREGS funds? These hungry Adivasis of Orissa deserve at least an answer in the Platinum Jubille year of India's Independence. Will these poor Adivasis and Dalits ever get freedom from hunger? I firmly believe that it is impossible to achieve freedom from hunger without achieving freedom from corruption. The largest number of cholera deaths have been reported from Kashipur block. We had surveyed 30 villages of this block and found that there had been proverbial open loot of NREGS funds in all the villages where this job scheme was executed. We had found similar loot of NREGS funds in Laxmipur and Nandpur blocks of Koraput district and Thuamulrampur block of Kalahandi district. All these blocks are now witness to a naked dance of death scripted and choreographed by callous and corrupt bureaucracy of Orissa. Conspiracy of Silence The CEFS survey report was formally released on 17th August 2007 in New Delhi and all the News Papers of Orissa carried news stories about the shocking findings of this survey, most of them on their Front Pages. The full copy of the Survey Report was also posted on our website (www.cefsindia.org) on the same day. To the best of my knowledge, there has been no response or intervention from the Union Ministry of Rural Development or the Central Employment Guarantee Council (CEGC) till date. Why? The Government of Orissa has maintained studied silence on the damning findings of the CEFS survey. To neutralize the impact of bad publicity and to deflect public attention from the NREGS Scam, on 20th August 2007, the Chief Minister called a high level meeting and ordered survey of NREGS work in the state by Hyderabad-based NIRD( National Institute of Rural Development). I firmly believe that the objective of the NIRD survey is not to probe the irregularities or misappropriation of Rs 500 crore NREGS funds, but to cover up all this. It is a pure eye wash. More shocking is the silence of the main opposition party of Orissa - Congress. Except Congress, all other opposition parties have demanded a special session of Orissa Assembly to discuss Rs 500 crore NREGS scam unearthed by CEFS survey. Even the BJP, a partner in the ruling coalition of Orissa, has said on record that there have been serious irregularities and the NREGS in Orissa had miserably failed. It defies all logic as how the main Opposition Party of Orissa (Congress) did not bother to utter a single word about the NREGS scam. It is bizarre to read in the Newspapers that the same Party is now busy counting dead bodies of Orissa's Adivasis. Some one rightly said that we are a country of fire fighters. We begin digging well only after the fire has broken out. The silence about misappropriation of Rs 500 crore NREGS funds on the part of the oldest political Party of the largest democracy in the world is more shocking to me than Rs 500 crore NREGS scam as such. I am writing this letter to you with only one request and hope. I would request you to spare one day from your busy schedule and visit at least a couple of villages to have a first hand knowledge of the modus operadi of the NREGA scam in Orissa, apart from finding out the real killers of Adivasis in the state. I can show you both these national tragedies in just one day. With best wishes and warmest regards. Sincerely, (Parshuram
Rai) Copies
to: 1. Shri L K Adavani, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Press Release on Rural Job Scam in Orissa Rs 500 Crore of NREGA funds siphoned in Orissa The findings of a survey conducted in 100 villages of Orissa's 6 districts have revealed that out of Rs 733 crore spent under NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) in Orissa during 2006-7, more than 500 crore has been siphoned and misappropriated by the government officials of implementing agencies. In other words, less than 25 per cent of the NREGS funds have reached the targeted population and more than 75 per cent have been eaten up by sarkari babus. There are thousands of villages in Orissa where more than 80-90 percent of NREGS funds have been misappropriated by the executing officials. This survey was conducted during May-June 2007 by Delhi-based Centre for Environment and Food Security (CEFS) to assess and evaluate the performance of NREGA in the state of Orissa. The survey was carried out in 100 villages spread over six districts of KBK (Kalahandi-Bolangir-Koraput) region, namely; Bolangir, Nuapada, Kalahandi, Koraput, Nabarangpur and Rayagada. The findings of the survey were released today at a Press Conference at the Press Club of India in New Delhi. The full Survey Report has been posted on the website of CEFS-www.cefsindia.org. The findings of CEFS survey are shocking, scandalous and outrageous. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) in Orissa has been virtually hijacked by officials responsible for the implementation of this scheme. Our survey findings have revealed that there is participatory loot, plunder and pillage in Orissa's rural job scheme. There is open loot of taxpayers' money, there is plunder of poors' right to guaranteed wage employment for 100 days and there is pillage of every single norm of democratic governance and administrative accountability. It is shocking to note that we could not find a single case where entries in the job cards are correct and match with the actual number of workdays given to the workers in the villages. Out of the 100 sample villages covered for this survey, 18 villages have not received any job card, 37 villages have not received any job under NREGS even after 16 months of launch of the scheme, 11 villages have received neither job cards nor any job, Job cards of 23 villages were lying with VLWs (Village Level Worker) and JEs (Junior Engineer) for more than 6-8 months against the will of card holders. In 25 villages, only half, one third or partial wage payments were made. In 20 villages, we found scandalous difference in the number of workdays recorded in the job cards and the number of actual workdays physically verified with the workers in these villages. There are 3 villages where no payments have been made even after 4-8 months of the work done. We found 6 villages in Kashipur block of Rayagada district where NREGS work was being done without any job cards being issued to the villagers. The Government of Orissa claims that it provided 7.99 crore persondays of employment to 13,94,169 households spread over 19 districts of the state during 2006-7.Our back of the envelop calculations suggest that less than 2 crore persondays of employment has been provided on the ground and more than 6 crore persondays of employment has been provided only in the pages of false job cards and fabricated muster rolls. We could not find a single family in the 100 sample villages who had actually got 100 days of wage employment. We found very few families who had got 40- 60 days of wage employment. The rest of the families, if at all they have got any employment, it is mostly between 5 to 21 days. However, online job cards of most of these households have false and fabricated job and wage entries for 111 days, 108 days,104 days,102 days,100 days,96 days,90 days,84 days,72 days,65 days,60 days, 52 days and so on. This is the way Orissa Government has "successfully" spent Rs.733/ crore and provided about 8 crore persondays of employment. According to the Government of Orissa, each of the needy households in 19 districts of the state was given on an average 57 days of wage employment under NREGA during 2006-7. Our calculations suggest that only about 5 days of average employment has been given to the needy families in the 19 districts of Orissa where NREGA was implemented during 2006-7. How have we arrived at the figure of 5 days of average employment? It is very simple. First, as per the Government data, about 26 lakh households were issued job cards and only about half of them demanded jobs. It is a white lie. Our survey in 100 villages of Orissa revealed that more than one third needy households have not received job cards and over 90 per cent families in rural areas of Orissa are desperate for wage employment. To put it differently, there were about 39 lakh needy households in these 19 districts and all of them were in desperate need of wage employment. Therefore, if the total of 799 lakh persondays of employment is divided among 39 lakh needy households, the average days of employment per household comes to 20 days. Second, out of the total of 799 lakh persondays of employment given in the official records, only about 25 per cent has actually been given to the people, the remaining 75 per cent persondays of employment has been given only on fake muster roll registers, false job cards and forged official documents. Therefore, the actual average employment per needy household in 19 districts of Orissa comes not to 57 days or 20 days, but only 5 days. To put this in perspective, the NREGA promises 100 days of wage employment to every needy household, the Government of Orissa (with highest per capita allocation of NREGS funds in the country) has delivered on an average only 5 days of employment to every needy family. A terrific accomplishment in the 60th year of India's Independence! It is impossible to believe that this kind of open loot can be organized without active connivance of the entire state machinery. The NREGS has various inbuilt vigilance and monitoring mechanisms and it is not possible to perpetrate such an open loot of NREGS funds unless it is participatory and organized. CEFS has also prepared a list of about 5000 villages from 19 NREGA districts of Orissa and we are absolutely certain that there has been open loot and massive financial bungling in more than 95 per cent of these villages. Along with this Survey Report, we have also released names of 2461 villages from 5 NREGA districts of Orissa, namely- Koraput, Kalahandi, Nuapada, Mayurbhanj and Gajapati.The names of villages from remaining 14 NREGA districts will be released within one month. On every alternate day, CEFS will release names of villages from one NREGA district of Orissa till all the 19 NREGA districts are completed. This list of villages has been prepared by using Corruption Detection Tool (CDT) devised by CEFS. We have devised this research tool of CDT based on our first hand experience in 100 villages of Orissa and secondary reports/inputs on the implementation of NREGS in 19 districts of Orissa. We also carried out Field Trial of CDT in many villages of Orissa. However, we do not claim that CDT has detected every village where financial bungling has been committed. Financial bungling has been committed in almost every village of Orissa where NREGA has been implemented. Our only claim is that there has been open loot and massive financial bungling of NREGA funds in more than 95 per cent of the villages selected by CDT. The names of villages selected by CDT can be downloaded from our website: www.cefsindia.org. The full survey report is also posted on our website. Issued at a Press Conference in New Delhi on 17th August 2007 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Press Release about Participatory Loot in Orissa's Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme New Delhi - based Centre for Environment and Food Security (CEFS) has just completed a rapid survey to evaluate and assess the performance of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) in the state of Orissa. The rapid survey was conducted in 100 villages spread over six districts of KBK (Kalahandi-Koraput-Balangir) region of Orissa. The Survey conducted during May-June 2007 covered six districts, namely; Balangir, Nuapada, Kalahandi, Koraput, Nabarangpur and Rayagada districts. The preliminary findings of this rapid survey are shocking, scandalous and outrageous. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, which is projected as the biggest anti-poverty programme in the history of Independent India, has been hijacked by officials responsible for implementing this scheme. Our survey findings have revealed that there is participatory loot, plunder and pillage in Orissa's Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (OREGS). There is open loot of taxpayers' money, there is plunder of poor's right to guaranteed employment and there is pillage of every single norm of democratic governance and administrative accountability. It is shocking to note that we could not find a single case where entries in the job cards are correct and match with the actual number of workdays physically verified with the villagers. Most of the job cards are kept in the homes of VLWs against the will of the job card holders, in many cases job cards are with VLWs for over 8-12 months. We found many villages where even after the completion of the OREGS work and payment of the work made long ago, there is no entry in the job cards whatsoever. We found many villages where OREGS work is going on without any villager having received Job Card. Most of the villages where employment has been given, only half or one third of the wage payment was made and that too after 4-6 months of the work being done. There are many villages where actual wage has been given at the rate of Rs 40, Rs 30 or even Rs 22 per day. We also found some villages where no wage payment has been made even after 6-8 months of the work. Out of 100 sample villages covered for this survey, 18 villages have not received any job card, 37 villages have not received any job under OREGS even after 16 months of launch of the scheme, 11 villages have received neither job cards nor any job, Job cards of 21 villages are lying with VLWs and Job cards of 2 villages are lying with JEs, in 25 villages only half, one third or partial payments have been made .In 13 villages, we found scandalous difference in the number of workdays recorded in the job cards and the number of actual workdays physically verified with the workers/labourers in these villages. There are 3 villages where no payments have been made even after 4-8 months of the work done. We found 6 villages in Kashipur block of Rayagada district where OREGS work is being done without any job cards being issued to the villagers. The preliminary analysis of our field survey has revealed that more than 80-90% of the money spent in Orissa Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (OREGS) has been directly pocketed by officials responsible for executing this scheme. Only leakages and crumbs have reached the rural poor of Orissa. This scheme has become less of Employment Guarantee Scheme for the hungry and poor villagers and more of a money spinning machine and Income Guarantee Scheme for Orissa's officials. If Orissa Government conducts Social Audit as per the rules and norms laid down in the NREGS in all the Panchayats where this scheme has been implemented, more than 95% of the officials and bureaucrats involved in the implementation of this Scheme will loose their jobs and will go behind the bars immediately. The NREGS promised 100 days guaranteed employment to every needy family of rural India. We did not find a single case of a family having been given 100 day's employment in any of the 100 villages of KBK region. The actual rural jobs and wages provided on the ground are less than 2 percent of the promised jobs and wages under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS). The Current level of hunger, poverty and deprivation in Orissa's KBK areas is as deep, demeaning and dehumanising as ever despite the so- called successful implementation of NREGS with the highest allocation of funds anywhere in the country. Rural Employment Scheme has made virtually Zero impact on the livelihood security of Orissa's rural poor. There is no let up in the level of distress migration of Adivasis and Dalits from Orissa's KBK reason in search of livelihood in other parts of the country. There is no tangible positive impact of this scheme on the level of distress migration from Orissa. Social Audit looks like a fraud on the rural poor of Orissa. There has been no Social Audit whatsoever in any of the 100 villages visited by us. Out of hundred villages, only one village had dared ask to sign only on filled up muster rolls and refused to sign on the blank muster rolls. Villagers had three rounds of fight with VLW to seek this right. In none of the villages we surveyed, any senior official has ever done any inspection of the OREGS work in these villages. There is ZERO accountability and total absence of transparency in the administration of OREGS. Lockout on Orissa's Grassroots Democracy: Out of 100 villages visited, we could not find a single Panchayat office open. There was lockout on all the Panchayat Bhawan's we did visit. The villagers told us that these offices open only once or twice in a month. In most of the Panchayats people do not know as to who is keeping the keys of Panchayat Bhavan. The way Orissa Government is implementing OREGS, this scheme seems to be a cruel joke on hungry and poor Adivasis and Dalits. It is an affront to the basic dignity that poor citizens of the largest democracy of the world deserve. Brazenness and callousness of Orissa's officials involved in the implementation of this scheme is outrageous and unparallel anywhere in India. Subvertion of Grassroots Democracy: It is distressing to note that in the implementation of Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, we found complete subvertion of the grassroots democracy. Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) have been completely sidelined and marginalised in the implementation of OREGS. Sarpanches are asked by VLWs to sign on blank cheques and VLWs decide everything. In most of the Panchayats, VLWs do not share a single information about the OREGS work in the Panchayat with any of the elected representatives of Gram Panchayat. It is a mockery of grassroots democracy. Muster Rolls are invariably kept either in the homes of VLWS or JEs. In 21 sample villages, job cards have been kept in the homes of VLWs against the will of card holders. Most of the VLWs are inaccessible to villagers because they stay in towns located 50-60 kms away from Panchayats. They come once or twice a month in the Panchayat office. A poor Adivasi has to walk on foot and cover this long distance just to meet VLW. Even after walking this long distance, poor Adivasi is not sure whether he would be able to meet VLW. Muster Rolls are more secret a document in Orissa than the Nuclear secrets of the country. We could not meet a single person in these 100 villages who has ever seen muster rolls of the OREGS work in his village. Muster Rolls are always kept in the house of VLWs and villagers who work in OREGS projects are made to sign on blank muster rolls. Indian citizens and NGOs do need BDO's permission to see muster rolls and they do need District Collector's permission to go to Block office or meet BDO. BDO of Nandpur Block (Koraput district) has instructed all the VLWs of the block not to show muster rolls to anyone(especially NGOs) without his permission. VLW of Raisingh Gram Panchayat (Nandpur block-Koraput) Shri Nagesh Choudhary gave us in writing that he needs BDO's permission to show muster rolls to anybody. When we approached BDO of Nandpur the next day, he bluntly refused to show any muster rolls to us unless we do get permission for the same from District Collector or some higher authority of Govt of India. When we contacted secretary, Panchayati Raj, Orissa Govt and requested his intervention in the matter, he told us that he would immediately ask the concerned BDO to show muster rolls to us. To our utter shock and disbelief, within half hour we received a call from Personal Secretary of Panchayati Raj Secretary asking us whether we do have permission of the District Collector or any higher authority for meeting the concerned BDO. When we asked as to why do we need District Collector's permission, he told us as how dare we go to BDO's office without District Collector's permission. He asked us in stern voice to return back from the Block office and not to visit any village in the Block. We also got three telephone calls from APD (DRDA-Koraput) asking us not to visit any village of Nandpur block. He instead offered to show us some villages in some other block. We had also sought intervention from the offices of District Collector (Koraput), Chief Secretary and Chief Minister of Orissa. Despite all these efforts, we did not succeed in seeing the muster rolls. This whole experience in Nandapur block was highly demeaning and disgusting and we wonder whether there is a big scam that was sought to be covered up. If this could happen to a research team coming from Delhi, one shudders to imagine what could happen to a poor and illiterate Adivasi or Dalit of Orissa.The sense of fear of bureaucracy among Orissa's Adivasis and Dalits is not only frightening and sickening but also reminiscient of the British Raj era's reign of terror unleashed by Imperial Bureaucracy. Sub-Sahara within India: Widespread hunger, abject poverty and dehumanising deprivation in KBK villages is worse than Sub-Saharan Africa. On Human Development Index, Ruwanda and Ethiopia would fare better than most of KBK villages. Hunger and abject poverty is wide spread in all the 100 villages of KBK region we visited. Our interactions and interviews with villagers suggest that about 99% of the Adivasis and Dalits living in KBK villages are suffering from chronic hunger and malnutrition. Large number of children in these villages are suffering from severe malnutrition. Hunger and abject poverty is so apparent and writ large on the hollowed cheeks, sunken eyes, distended bellies of children, skeleton figures, listlessness and despair in their looks. Starvation victim families of Kashipur (Rayagada) are still waiting for the Rural Employment Scheme to arrive in their villages and they are drying and collecting Mango Kernels to avoid starvation in the coming rainy season as they do every year. Panasguda and Gottiguda villages of Kashipur Panchayat (Kashipur block, Rayagada district) where many starvation deaths took place in 2001, where Chief Minister flew down by helicopter and troops of media kept descending for months after the tragedy, hungry and poor Adivasis of these villages have been forgotten by every one-Nation, State Government, Media, NGOs and even Rural Employment Scheme has bypassed these villages despite facing soul- killing poverty and crippling hunger. These villages have not received even job cards. Contempt of Parliament: Orissa's Officials and agencies executing National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) passed by Indian Parliament are guilty of contempt of Parliament. Every single rule and norm governing this scheme is being observed only in violation in the state of Orissa. The Orissa government will have to take full responsibility for the contempt of Indian Parliament. Released on 6th June 2007 in Bhubaneshwar - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Press Releasea about Survey Report on Hunger in Adivasi areas of Rajasthan and Jharkhand New Delhi- based Centre for Environment and Food Security (CEFS) has carried out a survey research on "Hunger in Adivasi Areas of Rajasthan and Jharkhand". The Survey Report was formally released by Prof. Ashis Nandy at India International Centre, New Delhi on 14th October 2005.This survey has revealed that a shocking 99 per cent of Adivasi households surveyed in Rajasthan and Jharkhand were facing chronic hunger. The data gathered during this survey suggests that 25.2 percent of surveyed Adivasi households had faced semi-starvation during the previous week of the survey, 24.1 percent had lived in semi-starvation condition throughout the previous month and about 99 per cent of the Adivasi households had lived with one or another level of endemic hunger and food insecurity during the whole previous year. Among total 1000 Adivasi households asked as to whether they had eaten two square meals on the previous day of the survey, only four respondents (0.4 per cent), two each from Rajasthan & Jharkhand said that they had eaten two square meals. 47.9 per cent of households had eaten two poor/partial meals, 34.7 per cent got one poor/partial meal plus one distress meal, 11.3 per cent could get just one poor/partial meal, 0.2 per cent had eaten only one distress meal and 5 per cent of the surveyed Adivasis could eat only jungle food on the previous day of the survey. Our survey suggests that at least 16.5 percent of the surveyed Adivasi households had eaten either just one poor/partial meal or one distress meal or only jungle food on the previous day of the survey. In other words, at least 16.5 per cent of sample Adivasi households had faced semi-starvation on the previous day of the survey. While only nine families (1.8 per cent) in Rajasthan had survived on Jungle food, 41 Adivasi households (8.2 per cent) in Jharkhand had to make do with only jungle food on the previous day. 76.6 per cent Adivasi households said that they could not eat any pulse or animal product on the previous day of the survey. The weekly data on hunger has confirmed that about 99 per cent of Adivasi households in Rajasthan and Jharkhand were facing chronic hunger. The survey data also suggests that 28.3 per cent of sample Adivasi households had survived for the whole or significant part of the previous week by eating just one distress meal-a-day or one poor/ partial meal- a- day. In other words, 28.3 per cent of sample households had lived in semi-starvation condition during the previous week of survey. 99.8 per cent of surveyed Adivasis said that they could not secure two square meals even for a single day of the previous month. The data on monthly hunger suggests that 99.7 percent of Adivasi households were facing chronic hunger during the previous month of the survey. 30.3 per cent of Adivasi households had experienced semi-starvation during the previous month of survey. A staggering 99.8 per cent of Adivasi households said that they could not get two square meals even for one month of the previous year. Therefore, it is clear that over 99 per cent of surveyed households were facing one or another level of hunger and food insecurity throughout the previous year. Moreover, out of 500 sample Adivasi households surveyed in Rajasthan, not a single had secured two square meals for the whole previous year. Our survey report has revealed that 10 per cent of sample Adivasi households had to survive only on distress food for 3-11 months of the previous year and 22.6 per cent of samples had survived for 4-12 months only on one poor/ partial meal . In other words, 32.6 per cent of sample Adivasi households had lived in semi- starvation condition throughout the previous year of survey. An overwhelming 90.6 percent of sample Adivasis households in Rajasthan and Jharkhand said that their food security has weakened during last 25 years. 54.9 per cent of the respondents identified decline in availability of minor forest produce (MFP) due to deforestation and degradation of forests as the biggest reason for weakening of their food security. The field survey for this survey research was carried out during March-June 2004 in forty Adivasi villages of four Adivasi-dominant districts, two each from Rajasthan (Udaipur & Dungarpur) and Jharkhand (West Singhbhum &Gumla) . From every sample district 10 sample Adivasi villages and from every sample village 25 Adivasi households were purposively selected for the household survey. The total sample size of Adivasi households was 1000, 500 samples each from Rajasthan and Jharkhand . Released on 15th October 2005 in New Delhi - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Press Release about Fifth Debate on Economic Growth Vs Ecological Security New Delhi-based Centre for Environment and Food Security(CEFS) in collaboration with India Habitat Centre hosted a Public debate on "Economic Growth Vs. Ecological Security' on 5th September. The lead debators included Mr Gurcharan Das (Distinguished author and Columnist), Mr Ramaswamy R. Iyer (Water expert and former Union Secretary, Water Resources)Prof Smitu Kothari (noted environmental activist and visiting Professor, Princeton University) and Dr Suman Sahai (President, Gene Campaign). Initiating the discussion on the issue - 'can economic growth and ecological security go together,' director of the Centre for Environment and Food Security (CEFS) Parshuram Rai said, "Mainstream economics measures the wealth of a country by Gross National Product (GNP). However, the measurement system of GNP does not take into account unpaid work and 'natural capital'. For an example, forest is regarded as having no value until it is logged. The costs incurred on prisons and pollution mitigation also add on to GNP. The clean up costs of ecological disasters like an oil spill also add on to a country's GNP. However, self-sufficiency is seen as being uneconomical because it does not add to a country's value of goods and services. Unlike the economy, the planet does not grow, and neither do our limited supply of resources. There is therefore a limit to economic growth. Scientists believe we have already crossed this limit, and to continue exploiting natural resources could lead to a collapse of biological systems, leading to vast human misery and the irretrievable mutilation of our planet." Emphasizing the need for ecological security, Mr Rai argued "it is nobody's case that there should not be any economic growth so that we can enjoy air and water of Himalayan standards. However, we must know as to how much of economic growth is too much for ecological security. We must draw a Lakshman Rekha (threshold line) for economic growth. We have to strike a balance between economic growth and ecological security. We must ask ourselves as to whether prevalent economic growth models are prepared and geared to factor-in environmental sustainability .The need and challenge of the hour is to mainstream ecological security in economic growth. Our economic systems and pricing practices must learn to pay for the ecological services of the nature. So far ecological destruction has been calculated as economic growth in many cases. There are innumerable examples of this insanity globally and locally. The World Bank estimates that air and water pollution alone cost China US$ 54 billion per year, or about eight percent of its GDP. Coming nearer home. according to a study carried out by TERI, India is loosing 7-8 % of its GDP on account of ecological destruction." Presenting a strong case for economic growth, Mr Gurcharan Das said, "I believe that economic growth is the best medicine for poverty alleviation. In last 25 years, about 250 million Indias have been brought above poverty line and with the current rate of economic growth, the remaining 21% of Indias will also be able to cross above the one-dollar-a-day- poverty line by 2025.However, I believe that when it comes to a trade-off between man and nature or economic growth and ecological security, the former gets a priority and rightly so. Because, giving primacy to nature over humans is immoral". Mr Das blamed Indian environmentalists for obstructing development and held them responsible for current power crisis in the country. He said, "our environmentalists have put all our power-plants in courts. So is the case with big dams. In India, where we get all the rain in only three months, we have to conserve water for the remaining 9 months. So, we do need big dams." Mr Das further argued , "India is now in the need of Second Green Revolution based on science of Genetic Engineering. It was criminal that we took 6 years for approval of BT cotton. Environmentalists have created a lot of problems for the spread and popularity of BT cotton. But talk to the cotton farmers, they are happy with it. To me the saddest thing is that the entire GM industry is going to die in our country .The companies who were investing in research are going to walk away because our regulatory framework is hostile to them. So, we might have to say good-bye to GM revolution…. Environmentalism has become like a religion, environmentalists have become fundamentalists and they are engaging in eco-terrorism." Presenting a very powerful case for ecological security, Prof Smitu Kothari argued, "For Gurcharan Das and the country's reigning economists, the environment is a source of commodities that can be extracted and exploited to generate economic growth or it is a pristine sanctuary to take a vacation in. Their primary concern is how much is produced from nature's resources and there is little acknowledgement of what the social and ecological costs of that exploitation are. And that is their gravest and greatest failing." Prof. Kothari further said, "Economic theory, economic indicators and economic triumphalism cannot explain how the dominant strategies of achieving economic growth are disrupting and destroying our natural foundations. These theories and pursuits cannot explain why the Arctic Sea ice or the Himalayan glaciers are melting at an unprecedented rate causing increasing flooding on the world's coastlines or why over one million hectares of productive agricultural land in India is rapidly losing its fertility or why over half of our rivers are chronically polluted. To sustain present levels of consumption in India, we have to continue to colonise and pollute vast areas of our lands, forests and water resources displacing and destroying the livelihoods of millions of people. Since Independence, planned development has displaced and dispossessed over 150 million people. Most of these development or environment refugees have barely even received cash compensation." Prof. Kothari said that Mr. Das called environmentalists who raise these issues as "terrorists" and "eco-fundamentalists." If presenting hard scientific evidence of how we are undermining our own survival is terrorism and fundamentalism, so be it. In fact, it is modern economics that is largely blind to its social and ecological consequences and that propagates fundamentalisms based on highly selective evidence. Prof. Smitu Kothari argued that one of the major goals of those propagating the present patterns of economic development is to achieve per capita levels of the United States of America. Mr. Das stated that if we sustain present levels of economic growth, we will "surpass American per capita incomes by 2066." This is precisely the kind of untruth that is perpetuated to justify the present pursuit of economic development. With 7% of the world's population, America consumes over 40% of its resources. Even with efficiency increases in resource use and some substitution, we will reach the earth's limits when 25% achieve American standards of living. A majority of the planet will have to suffer chronic shortages and destitution if we pursue present trends of consumption. Giving a systematic critic of the present economic growth model , Prof. Kothari said further, "another serious fallacy of those pursuing the growth-centric model is that they assume that a benevolent and welfarist state will redistribute the gains of growth so that greater equity and justice will prevail. In fact, quite the reverse is happening - the state is increasingly absenting itself from critical social sectors like health and education and allowing these sectors to be rapidly privatized. The experience so far clearly suggests that without massive efforts to create assets and without actively pursuing greater equity, privatization ends up excluding the poor and most vulnerable among our population. We have reached that juncture in our collective history when it is important to acknowledge that economic security can only come on the foundation of ecological security. We need to urgently transit into more benign technologies, alternative energy options ranging from biofuels to hydrogen fuel cells (thus reducing our dependence on fossil fuels), undertake massive regeneration and redistribution of natural resource systems that are going out of production. Responsible ecological planning is good economics. A holistic environmentalism is an invitation to humility, to responsibility and to the recognition of interdependence of all life." Participating in this public debate, Mr Ramaswamy R Iyer said that Consumption is at the heart of the prevailing notions of development. There is an implicit assumption that the higher the level of consumption the greater the degree of development, or in other words, that a civilization which consumes more is more advanced than a civilization which consumes less. Consumption requires production; and so we genuflect before the twin gods of consumption and production. Given the demonstration effect of Western ways of living on the rest of the world, and given the reluctance of the West and in particular America to accept any significant changes in their lifestyles, it seems improbable that there is going to be a general adoption of more modest ways of living. ….What we call `development' is irreconcilable with what the title of this meeting refers to as `ecological security'. Expressing a strong disagreement with those who think that economic growth and ecological security can go together, Mr. Ramasqwamy R. Iyer argued, "All countries aspire to reach the condition of America (I am using America as a symbol), the combined effect of their `higher standards of living' will cast an impossible burden on Planet Earth. It is simply not true that `development' as now understood can be reconciled with `environment' (using that as a shorthand term). Sustainable development, as proposed at Rio and reiterated at Johannesburg, is a limited and imperfect formulation, but even that seems to be a non-starter." Mr Iyer further argued, "it is clear that after the Industrial Revolution there was a dramatic change in the magnitude, scale and complexity of technology, and a Technological Revolution began. Soon the pace of technological change began to accelerate. It is my thesis that that pace has now become autonomous and uncontrollable. Technology is no longer humanity's servant but its master.... Humanity is now under the tyranny of technological change." Dr Suman Sahai said that it is possible to marry economic growth with ecological security . But it is only possible when economic growth models factor-in the issues of equity, justice and sustainability. She said that now there are innumerable examples of this sustainable development model all over the world. Released on 7th September 2005 in New Delhi - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Press Release about Fourth Debate on Economic Growth Vs Ecological Security New Delhi-based Centre for Environment and Food Security (CEFS) hosted a public debate on economic growth Vs ecological security at India Habitat Centre on 20th July. The lead debators included Prof. B B Bhattacharya, VC, JNU, Dr. R. K. Pachauri, DG, TERI, Prof. C Douglas Lummis, Political Scientist& writer, Okinawa International University , Japan and Dr Shekhar Singh, noted environmentalist. Initiating the debate Prof. B B Bhattacharya said, "There is no such thing as environment Vs economy. Both are complementary to each other. After all, economic development is possible only when you protect the environment.We may have short-term benefit by over-exploiting natural resources like water, forests and land , but to sustain the economic growth in long term, we must have ecological security. However, conflicts could arise essentially in the short-term. For a country like India, environment is not tomorrow Vs today but it is often about survival today. For example, if you deprive the tribals surviving on the forests off these resources without providing an alternative source of livelihood, for them today's survival itself becomes critical for tomorrow's survival. So, it is essentially a question of choice between faster growth vs slower growth, and not between basic survival vs economic growth." Championing the cause of ecological security, Dr. R. K. Pachauri argued, "It is an extremely important debate. There ought not necessarily be a conflict between economic growth and ecological security. What has happened in the past is that we had divergence of approaches followed by various disciplines. Economists by and large have not looked at the ecological services provided by the natural resources of a particular society or a particular area. And typically what happens is that ecologists often ignore the economic dimensions of the available options for ecological security. What we really need to do is to ensure that this debate leads to some form of convergence which ensures that we attach right kind of value to the environment and ecology on this planet. In some cases, we have to necessarily attach a value of infinity to the ecological security of a particular location." Bringing the issue of equity in this debate, Dr. Pachauri said that "the poor people in India derive roughly one-third of their income from the services that are provided by ecological resources. The issue of equity- who is benefiting from economic growth and who is loosing on account of ecological destruction- is very important in this whole debate. Because, we are dealing with human beings and not abstract statistics." Dr Pachauri said that India is loosing over 10 percent of GDP on account of ecological destruction and damage to its natural resources. 11-26 percent of agricultural output is being lost on account of soil degradation alone. Speaking about the problem of global warming, Dr. Pachauri who is Chairperson of IPCC (Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change) said that the "Arctic region is warming up four times faster than the rest of globe. Climate Change is going to have a major impact on the agricultural output. Since largest number of our farmers essentially depend on rainfed agriculture, with the changes in precipitation that are likely to take place, we will see some very serious adverse impacts on the farming communities. All our Climate models now clearly indicate that there will be an increase not only in the frequencies of droughts and floods but also an increase in the severity of impact on the people. All of this is very bad news for agriculture." Prof. C Douglas Lummis who is an eminent Political Scientist and writer based in Japan brought very sharp political economy perspectives to this debate. He gave a brilliant critique of the notion of economic development itself. Prof Lummis emphatically argued that, "even though there ought not necessarily be conflict between economic growth and ecological security, given the past history of economic development, there has been very serious conflict between the two and therefore they can not go together. We are in the midst of a genuine catastrophe. The slow moving catastrophe of ecological destruction has been directly caused by economic development." Prof. Lummis argued further, "There are some illusions about the notion what economic development is. It is assumed that economic development is a process which converts poor people into wealthy people, and eliminates poverty. It assumes that poor people can catch up with rich people and every one can become rich. It is one of the greatest illusions that needs to be punctured and get rid off. In the last 50 years, since this project called "development" was launched at global scale essentially at the behest of US, the gap between rich and poor has increased and not decreased… Essentially economic development is a process of transforming all cultures, all societies and all economies into the Capitalist Industrial economy integrating all of them together. Its latest avatar is being called globalization. It does not eliminate poverty. It has not so far. What it does with regard to process is to modernize and rationalize poverty. Most forms of poverty like subsistence economies or modest ways of living were very inconvenient from the standpoint of capitalist industry. Because they did not yield profit. They were rationally inefficient from the stand-point of industry. The process of economic development does essentially transform an inefficient form of poverty into an efficient form of poverty. Poverty that does yield profit. Poverty which induces people to work in plantations, factories and other ways that yield profit to the industrial system." Prof. Lummis said that economic development is essentially anti- democracy because while the collective decision making should be in the sphere of politics, in this economic process that role of people is hijacked by free market… Therefore, rich people get richer and poor become poorer. This becomes automatic as a result of free- market. Therefore, Prof. Lummis argued that economic growth as it has unfolded so far has not produced anything like economic justice, economic equality or ecological sustainability. It has only destroyed all of these. Released on 21st July 2005 in New Delhi - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Press Release about Third Freedom from Hunger Lecture Abolishing Hunger: Not by Food Supply Alone "To abolish hunger, we need more than just food. Hunger has persisted amidst abundance not only in India but all over the world. Main cause of hunger is really poverty. The poor are poor because they have too little assets. To overcome poverty we must increase their assets like land, livestock, capital and enlarge their share in the common property resources. We also need to create demand for their assets. If we create an economic environment where demand for their assets like labour goes up, poor get higher wages and better income. We also need to increase productivity of their assets like land or common property resource. We can transfer resources to them too. Also, poor have too little access to public goods and environment. This is the real cause of hunger in India", said Planning Commission Member Dr Kirit S Parikh delivering Third Freedom from Hunger Lecture yesterday at India International Centre in New Delhi. Speaking on "Abolishing Hunger: Not by Food Supply Alone" Dr Parikh further said, "many solutions have been suggested to deal with hunger and poverty. But they do not seem to work. Because many of the solutions rely on the market but poor are outside the market and non-market solutions also have not worked well because of failure of governance at various levels. The world food system is resilient system for the rich but stubborn to the starving. No matter what you do, the burden of shocks to the world food system is always transferred to the poor and they always bear the shock". Outlining the solutions to overcome poverty and hunger in a sustainable manner, Dr Parikh said, "Skills, assets and opportunities for remunerative jobs and livelihoods can really abolish poverty and hunger in a more sustainable way. But the most important thing is to create alternative job opportunities where you have more income available and which are sustainable. So, a well thought-out plan to eradicate poverty and thereby to abolish hunger is the one that can push economic growth in a way and direction where lots of productive and not artificial jobs are created. Because the jobs created by the anti-poverty programmes are palliatives for short term. But in the long run, we must provide remunerative jobs, and for that we must develop skills and abilities of the poor people and create an economic environment where these abilities could be used effectively." During his lecture Dr Kirit Parikh revealed that according to the latest Planning Commission assessments, the TDPS (Targetted Public Distribution System) has worked no better than earlier versions of PDS (Public distribution system).The level of leakages is very high even in TDPS. Dr Parikh also revealed that recent evaluations of Planning Commission and NSS (National Sample Survey) data have corroborated late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's intuitive observation that out of every one rupee spent on anti-poverty programmes by government, only 15 paise reaches to the poor. Elaborating on the comparative cost- inefficiency of reaching various anti-poverty schemes, Dr Parikh said that to reach out worth 1 Rs of PDS, govt spends Rs 5.37 as its delivery cost, for every 1 Rs worth of rice given under Andhra Rice Scheme delivery cost was Rs 6.377, for every single rupee given under JRY (Jawahar Rojgar Yojana) delivery cost was Rs 2.28 , for EGS(Employment Guarantee Scheme) in Maharashtra delivery cost is Rs 1.85 and that for ICDS is Rs 1.8. The Freedom from Hunger Lecture Series is being organised by Centre for Environment and Food Security (CEFS) as part of its Freedom From Hunger Campaign. The first Freedom from Hunger Leture was delivered by Ms Aruna Roy on 10th Feb 2005 and Second by Prof Utsa Patnaik on 12th April. CEFS firmly believes that endemic hunger and chronic poverty is the most serious challenge facing India. Large number of Indians still go to bed without food every night. Chronic hunger is the deepest and darkest scar on the conscience of Mother India. Political freedom for hungry is a mere myth .Will the Conscience of Mother India allow us to celebrate our platinum jubilee of Independence in 2007 while millions of her children face chronic starvation even after 58 years of Independence. At least that was not the kind of India Mahatma Gandhi had imagined. Gandhi believed that poverty is the worst form of violence and to those who are hungry bread is God .To banish the scourge of hunger and poverty, we need to bring this issue in mainstream intellectual discourse and at the centre of public policy. Therefore, Centre for Environment and Food Security (CEFS) has launched this Freedom from Hunger Campaign. Released on 11th June 2005. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Welcome
& Introduction to Campaign & Lecture Series Namaskar
and Good Evening to everybody. On behalf of Centre for Environment and Food Security and India International Centre, I extend a warm and hearty welcome to all of you at the First Freedom from Hunger Lecture by Smt. Aruna Roy to mark the launch of Freedom from Hunger Campaign of Centre for Environment and Food Security. I do not intend to stand between the distinguished speakers and no less distinguished audience. However, to give some perspective to Freedom from Hunger Campaign and Freedom from Hunger Lecture Series, I would like to take a couple of minutes of your precious time. World
hunger The financial costs to end hunger are relatively small. The UNDP has estimated that the basic health and nutrition needs of the world's poorest people can be met for an additional 13 billion $ a year. Did you know that animal lovers in US and Europe spend more than that amount on pet food each year? Hunger does not exist because the world does not produce enough food. The problem is not production of food and wealth, but more equitable distribution. It would take a modest effort to end hunger and malnutrition worldwide. According to the Food First, there is enough wheat, rice and other grains available in the world which can provide every human being with 3500 calories a day from the foodgrains alone. Enough food is available to provide at least 4.3 pounds of food per person a day worldwide. Then why do we need GMO? GMO technology is purely driven by "MNCs untamed fire of profit at the cost of peoples' health and ecological security. Friends, shall we remain mute spectators to the biggest intellectual and scientific fraud in human history?, I am referring to the fraud of GMO which is sought to be pushed in the name of feeding hungry. Coming nearer home, more than 340 million of Indians still go to bed without food every night and over 10,000 die of hunger every day. Every third hungry person in the world is an Indian and every third Indian goes to bed without food. I have been asking a question to many a distinguished economist and social scientist of this country for 15 years now and I am yet to get a straight answer to my question. The question I have been asking is whether I should be counted as poor or rich if I can not afford two meals a day. Every hungry person in India is asking this question and the largest democracy in the world even after 58 years of her Independece is evading this question. This simple but vital question must be answered. Each and every Indian owes an explanation to every hungry compatriot. The number of hungry people in India is always more than the number of people below official poverty line. While around 37 % of rural households were below the poverty line in 1993-94, 80 % of households suffered undernutrition. Evidence on the consumption of food, on calorie-intake and on nutritional outcomes clearly prove that chronic hunger persists on a mass scale in India. In India the spindoctors of Third Green Revolution are holding the magic wand of ICT in left hand and lethal lollipop of GMO in right hand as panacea against hunger. This prescription seems to me more deadly than the disease of hunger itself. The Freedom from Hunger Lecture Series is a humble initiative to create awareness and understanding, and to kickoff a national debate on the political economy of hunger. Debate not for the sake of debate, lecture not for the sake of lecture, but to facilitate enabling legislation and public action to banish the scourge of hunger from our motherland. This lecture series is a tiny effort to bring back the issue of hunger and poverty in mainstream intellectual discourse, at the centre of public policy and on the conscience radar of the nation. Finally, in my opinion, hunger is a political condition, therefore, the key to banish hunger is to change the politics of hunger. And to change the politics of hunger, we need to bring the issue of hunger in mainstream electoral politics. Friends, let us politicize hunger. Yes, Freedom from Hunger Campaign and lecture series is a very modest attempt to politicize hunger. Thank you very much for your kind attention. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Press Release about Second Freedom from Hunger Lecture Delivering the Second Freedom from Hunger Lecture yesterday (12th April) at India International Centre, Prof Utsa Patnaik, distinguished economist from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has said that "the majority of academics and the Government of India as well as the Planning Commission today make two claims which I believe to be factually incorrect, claims which are underpinned by a wholly fallacious theoretical understanding of the current situation. They claim first, that there is 'over supply' of food grains relative to demand , (which they assume to be growing normally) and so food grains production should be cut back in favour of 'diversification'; second, that poverty has been declining in India in the era of reforms, specifically in the decade of the 1990s. My contention as regards both propositions is that they are incorrect, and that the correct position on theoretical and factual grounds is precisely the opposite. First, there is not over supply of food grains, but a drastic decline of effective demand for food grains especially in rural India owing to an abnormally fast loss of purchasing power during the last six years: so, far from cutting back food grains output, the correct policy is to raise purchasing power and restore effective demand as well as restore access to affordable food grains through a combination of a universal, and not targeted, employment guarantee scheme and through reverting to a universal, not targeted public distribution system." Delivering her lecture titled "Theorizing Food Security and Poverty in the Era of Economic Reforms, Prof Patnaik further said, "far from the percentage of population in poverty declining as claimed, the factually correct position on the basis of current data is that poverty is very high, affecting at least three-quarters of rural and over two-fifths of the urban population. Moreover the data show that the depth of poverty has increased considerably during the fifteen years of reforms, with more people being pushed down into a poorer nutritional status than before in most of the Indian states and at the All-India level. The reason that many academics and the Planning Commission reach the conclusion that poverty is declining, is that they use an estimation procedure which has no basis in logic and is indefensible on academic grounds." The Freedom from Hunger Lecture Series is organized by New Delhi-based Centre for Environment and Food Security(CEFS) in collaboration with India International Centre. The first lecture of this series was delivered by Smt. Aruna Roy, Magsaysay awardee social activist and member, National Advisory Council on 10th February 2005 at IIC Auditorium and was chaired by Ms. Susan George, author of landmark book on hunger How the Other Half Dies .This Lecture Series is an initiative to create awareness and understanding, and to kickoff a national debate on the political economy of hunger in order to facilitate enabling legislation and public action to banish the scourge of hunger from our motherland. It is an effort to bring back the issue of hunger and poverty in mainstream intellectual discourse, at the centre of public policy and on the conscience radar of the nation. CEFS believes that hunger is a political condition, therefore, the key to banish hunger is to change the politics of hunger. And to change the politics of hunger, we need to bring the issue of hunger in mainstream electoral politics. Giving a comprehensive critique of the prevalent analysis and prescriptions regarding food security and poverty, Prof Utsa Patnaik said that agrarian crisis is serious and widespread, and has been created by public policies which have been deflationary, combined with trade liberalization when world primary prices have been declining. It is manifesting itself in slowing output growth, rising unemployment, unprecedented income deflation for the majority of cultivators and labourers, enmeshing of cultivators in unrepayable debt, and loss of assets including land, to creditors. Kidney sales and thousands of farmer suicides are only the tip of the iceberg of increasing deprivation, a crucial index of which is an unprecedented fall in foodgrains absorption to levels prevalent 50 years ago, and decline in average calorie intake in rural India. She further said, the prevalent analysis by policy makers, the Planning Commission and the government can be summed up as an obdurate refusal to face the facts, and an attempt to construct a counter-factual story which is illogical and in patent contradiction with the trends in the economy. The government's theorization interprets severe loss of purchasing power and enforced decline in effective demand for food grains, as its very opposite, as 'over-production' in relation to an allegedly voluntary reduction of foodgrains intake by all segments of the population, and reaches the dangerous inference that foodgrains output should be cut back. It refuses to recognize that, while in developed societies, consumers can be separated from a minority who are agricultural producers, in a poor country like India the majority of consumers are themselves rural and directly involved in production as cultivators and labourers, so deflationary policies hit them hard in both these roles of producers and consumers. Price deflation does not benefit even landless labourers since it is part of a process of income deflation which raises unemployment faster than prices fall. Concluding her lecture, Prof. Utsa Patnaik said, "The official refusal to recognize the seriousness of the crisis at the theoretical level, the consequent refusal to restore lost purchasing power through a universal employment guarantee, and the refusal to extend price support to food producers, bode ill for the agrarian crisis, which is not being addressed. The entire false analysis which re-invents increasing hunger as voluntary choice, is today sought to be re-inforced by bogus poverty estimates and invalid claims of decline in poverty. In such a situation it is the duty of all academics and activists who have not lost their sanity, to critique the official analysis and prescriptions, which if carried through will worsen immeasurably the already pitiable condition of the majority of the rural population of India." Released on 13th April 2005. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Press Release about Second Public debate on Economic Growth Vs. Ecological Security New Delhi - based Centre for Environment and Food Security (CEFS) recently (4th March) hosted Second Public debate on "Can Economic Growth and Ecological Security go together"? Eminent environmentalist Dr. Ashok Khosla and distinguished economists Dr. Surjit S. Bhalla and Prof. Amitabh Kundu participated in this bi-monthly debate as lead debators. Initiating this debate, Parshuram Ray, Director, Centre for Environment and Food Security (CEFS) said, "it is nobody's case that there should not be any economic growth so that we can enjoy air and water of Himalayan standards. However, we must know as to how much of economic growth is too much for ecological security. We must draw a Lakshman Rekha (threshold line) for economic growth. We have to strike a balance between economic growth and ecological security. We must ask as to whether prevalent economic growth models are prepared and geared to factor-in environmental sustainability. The need and challenge of the hour is to mainstream ecological security in economic growth. Our economic systems and pricing practices must learn to pay for the ecological services of the nature. So far ecological destruction has been calculated as economic growth in many cases. There are innumerable examples of this insanity globally and locally. We also need to ask as to whether economic growth and free markets by themselves are capable of ensuring planetary balance?" Participating in this debate Prof. Amitabh Kundu (JNU) said, "Ground water has become a commodity over time. Now we know that we've serious problems of agrarian inequality. And that agrarian inequality is linked basically with the land distribution. Our land distribution was highly unequal and we tried in the 50s to bring down the inequality in the land distribution. We did not succeed. Now if we allow ground water to be also utilized as the commodity, we are multiplying the agrarian inequalities. Because the ground water then would be really dependent on affordability, a farmer or large farmer can pump out the water at the cost of the neighbouring small and marginal farmers. There is market for ground water. The urban users around Chennai are taking water from rural areas, and there is serious crisis. The urban water market is causing serious environmental problems in the surrounding areas. And basically water inequality is going to be much more serious in terms of ecological disorder. I'd like to therefore link the agrarian inequality with the ecological insecurity. They are very much inter-twined, because the capacity of people of different income levels to go down and tap the aqua for different levels are different. It is basically your affordability, which allows you to tap aqua for different levels. I'd therefore think there is strong need for ground water legislation." Dr. Surjit S. Bhalla said, "the government is spending thousands of crores of rupees for alleviating poverty. Our country is spending about 15,000 crore as subsidies on fertilizers. Around 95% of this fertilizer subsidy goes to the firms which produce the fertilizers but not to the farmers as is purported to be. So Rs. 15,000 crore is there and there is another Rs.11000 crore through budget allocation is now earmarked for 'Food for Work Program'. And then there is another Rs. 20,000 crore allocated to the FCI's functions. And an additional of Rs.40-50, 000 crore we are spending today to alleviate poverty and to provide ecological security and to provide growth. Now deeply ponder over how much money will really be spent for Food for Work program and how much for poverty alleviation. Think about it? Whether poverty can be completely removed or not? This is million-dollar question. We have institutionalized corruption practice in the name of policies and in the name of pro-poor policies that we had for the last 40-50 years. It is very normal for everybody to feel morally righteous to be corrupt and why? The bureaucrats say why should we give our money because I know it is going to go down the drain. And that is the cost that we are paying heavily for our misguided policy we had. We are now less dependent on agriculture than before and the agricultural policies have led us down the path. And very bad respect for Ecology .It is precisely in the name of pro-poor policies which are not meant to benefit the poor have led us to the sad state of affair as far as the nature and environment is concerned. And thirdly our system has been such that it has allowed most if not all people to participate approximately or evenly in this process." Dr. Ashok Khosla said, "My reasoning is that you cannot have development of the country without Ecological security. And it's causal relationship is in that direction. It's not that you get Ecological security by getting development and you cannot have the development without looking after your country's natural resources. And it's not 600 million people who depend upon Ecology. 1.1 billion people live in our country and every single one of them is dependent on nature either very directly in the case of farmers or of tribals or of variety of people in the countryside or indirectly like you and me. Eco Systems are key to the sustainable development. And they play key role is equity and efficiency. We have to make sure the benefits of nature that Nature provides reach everyone. And they are efficiently used so that we don't waste them. And that is where you get the empowerment. And the reward on the other side of the door through which you put this key in to the keyholes is sustainable livelihood jobs of various types. This is genuine source of empowerment. And Eco System services are Nature's subsidies to society and to our economy. Caring for the environment does not attack on development. It is in fact source of it and it is probably the best investment you can have to accelerate it." Dr. Khosla further said, "Ultimately we will need very deep changes and got to dematerialize past, we need to introduce full cost accounting. In other words we have to learn to value what we are rather than what we have. Actually the kind of material progress that we've borrowed from West is very destructive of Nature and of ourselves. And we have to find other ways in which to redesign what we can call real progress." Released on 5th March 2005 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Press Release : Freedom from Hunger Campaign Launch New Delhi-based Centre for Environment and Food Security (CEFS) has launched a Freedom from Hunger Campaign to make India a 'Hunger-Free country'. This Campaign was launched on 10th February 2005 at India International Centre, New Delhi in the presence of over 200 activists, scientists, intellectuals, government officials, policy makers, farmers' leaders, members of diplomatic missions and various international and UN agencies. The Campaign was jointly launched by Magsaysay Awardee Social activist Aruna Roy and Susan George (author of landmark book on hunger "How the Other Half Dies"). Parshuram Ray, director of CEFS said in his introductory speech, "more than 24,000 people die of hunger every day, nearly 78 % of them women and children. More than 1.4 billion people in the world face chronic hunger and over 13 million die of hunger every year. They die of hunger not because world does not have enough food for the entire population of the world, but because of an insensitive and callous world where profit of market seems to be the final arbiter of human destiny. The number of people who fell prey to Hitler's insanity was 6 million and the "silent holoucast of hunger" is killing over 13 million people every year. Every year more than two genocides of Nazi proportions. But unlike the victims of Nazi gas chambers, the victims of hunger die unnoticed, unmourned and in the backyards of vibrant democracies. If we believe in Gandhian dictum that poverty is the worst form of violence, then we are still inflicting this crime on over 1.4 billion poorest people of the world. While the U S can spend over $ 80 billion per year in Iraq alone, the entire wealth and generosity of the world can not generate just13 billion dollors which is the only amount required to prevent the "hidden genocide of hunger". Speaking about the level of hunger in India, Ray further said, "more than 340 million of Indians still go to bed without food every night and over 10,000 die of hunger every day. Every third hungry person in the world is an Indian and every third Indian goes to bed without food. The number of hungry people in India is always more than the number of people below official poverty line. While around 37% of rural households were below the poverty line in 1993-94, 80% of households suffered undernutrition. Evidence on the consumption of food, on calorie-intake and on nutritional outcomes clearly prove that chronic hunger persists on a mass scale in India." Explaining the main aims and objectives of Freedom from Hunger Campaign, Parshuram Ray said that "The Freedom from Hunger Campaign is a humble initiative to create awareness and understanding, and to kickoff a national debate on the political economy of hunger. Debate not for the sake of debate but to facilitate enabling legislation and public action to banish the scourge of hunger from our motherland. This Campaign is a tiny effort to bring back the issue of hunger and poverty in mainstream intellectual discourse, at the centre of public policy and on the conscience radar of the nation. Since hunger is essentially a political condition, the key to banish hunger is to change the politics of hunger. And to change the politics of hunger, we need to bring the issue of hunger in mainstream electoral politics. Freedom from Hunger Campaign is a very modest attempt to politicize hunger in India". As part of this campaign, CEFS will hold lectures, workshops, seminars, conferences and public hearings all over India. Apart from doing research and advocacy for a hunger-free India, this NGO also plans to bring out a series of "Citizens' Reports" especially from the "hunger hot-spots" of the country. The First Phase of Campaign will conclude on 15th August 2007 to coincide with the platinum jubilee celebrations of our Independence. Delivering the First Freedom from Hunger Lecture to mark the launch of Freedom from Hunger Campaign, Aruna Roy said, "to realize the dream of a hunger-free India, we must bring the issue of hunger at the centre of electoral politics of the country. And to bring this issue on the agenda of electoral politics, already a massive mobilization of poor and hungry people has begun in rural areas of the country". Expressing her dismay over the weakened provisions of the current Employment Guarantee bill, she said, "most of the vital provisions of the original bill have been diluted and every thing has been turned inside out in the name of financial constraint." Presiding over the Freedom from Hunger Campaign Launch, Dr Susan George said that "the entire effort to bring GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms)in agriculture is driven by TNC's (Transnational Corporations) ever increasing hunger for profit and not the desire to feed hungry of the world. Throwing out of window all the precautionary principles of scientific invention and technological innovation, GMO technology is being imposed in the name of eradicating hunger. The problems of GMO are not limited only to its debilitating impact on human health and natural biodiversity, but dynamics of GMO will displace millions of small and marginal farmers from their lands and a few multinationals would control the entire food security and agriculture of the world. Agri-business multinationals want a farming system without any farmers." Released on 11th February 2005 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Press Release : First Public Debate on Economic Growth & Ecological Security Realizing the importance of interface and interlinkages between economic growth and ecological security, New Delhi-based Centre for Environment and Food Security (CEFS) in collaboration with India Habitat Centre (IHC) has initiated a public debate on -"Can Economic growth and Ecological Security go together?" As part of this larger debate series, the first bimonthly public debate on the same topic was held at India Habitat Centre on 10th January 2005 .The panel of lead debators included distinguished environmentalist Dr Vandana Shiva and noted economists Dr Ashok Desai, Dr Prem Shankar Jha and Prof Shubhashis Gangopadhyay. This inaugural debate was moderated by eminent social scientist Prof Ashis Nandy. In his introduction to this debate series, CEFS director Parshuram Ray said, "More than 65% of India's population still depends on natural resources for their livelihood .Any economic process that undermines the health of natural resources is bound to undermine the livelihoods of over 65% of our population. Unlike western societies where "Environment" is limited to trees and tigers, wildlife sanctuaries and eco-tourism, environment for a developing country like India is a by-name for lives and livelihoods. Environment is lifeline and therefore economic growth at the cost of destruction of ecological wealth would be only suicidal. No wonder that large number of farmers in India are committing suicide. For a healthy and sustainable economic growth, the protection of natural resources must be in-built. Unfortunately, the prevalent economic growth models are skewed and often ecologically disruptive." Elaborating on the limitations of present economic growth model, Parshuram Ray further said, "mainstream economics measures the wealth of a country by Gross National Product (GNP). GNP is the total value of all goods and services produced by a country. However, the measurement system of GNP does not take into account unpaid work and 'natural capital'. For an example, forest is regarded as having no value until it is logged. The costs incurred on prisons and pollution mitigation also add on to GNP. The clean up costs of ecological disasters like an oil spill also add on to a country's GNP. However, self-sufficiency is seen as being uneconomical because it does not add to a country's value of goods and services. Unlike the economy, the planet does not grow, and neither do our limited supply of resources. There is therefore a limit to economic growth. Scientists believe we have reached this limit, and to continue exploiting natural resources could lead to a collapse of biological systems, leading to vast human misery and the irretrievable mutilation of our planet." Initiating the debate Dr Vandana Shiva said Tsunami disaster is a wake-up call for policy makers and economic planners of India. "It is strange to hear from top policy planners of the country in the aftermath of Tsunami disaster that we should not have allowed human habitations in the vulnerable coastal zones. The same policy planners viewed Supreme Court's order prohibiting human settlements and dismantling aquafarms as anti- growth . But all of a sudden, seeing the cataclysmic proportions of destruction, they have become champions of environment." Dr Ashok Desai said that the issue of farmers' suicide is blown out of proportion by activists and media. "There is nothing unusual about farmers' suicides. If farmers have a propensity to kill themselves, it is a psychiatric problem and not caused by poverty, indebtedness or free market economic policies". Dr Ashis Nandy who is a trained clinical psychologist rebutted Dr Desai's argument and said that "farmers as an occupation all over the world are least prone to psychological stress and hence if they commit suicide, it indicates that something is deeply wrong with the socio-economic system." Dr Prem Shankar Jha said that Dr Desai's analysis of farmers' suicides is factually incorrect and analytically wrong. Dr Jha asked "if the farmers' suicide is just an average of their population size, why is it that only a few states have recorded unusual numbers of farmers' suicides? Farmers are not committing suicide because of any psychological stress but because of economic hardships caused by indebtedness, drought, crop failure and poverty." Prof Shubhashis Gangopadhyay said that as long as population keeps rising, we can not stop economic growth. "To meet the rising needs of an ever-growing population, economic growth is must. Many problems faced by farmers are caused by wrong policies of government and lack of marketing opportunities and shortage of storage and processing infrastructure in rural areas." More than 125 academics, environmentalists, economists, scientists, social activists, journalists, experts, students, members of diplomatic missions and government departments participated in this bimonthly debate. The next debate in this series will be held in March 2005. Released on 11th January 2005. For further details, please contact Parshuram Ray on his mobile no -9810400214. |
