The Right to Food and Work Campaign West Bengal met in its state convention in Badu, Barasat on 6th and 7th April 2017.

The Convention discussed the present state of affairs in the state and the country with regards to people’s right to food and work and concludes as follows

So far, the Campaign has focused mainly on legal entitlements such as those under the PDS, MDMS, maternity benefit, ICDS etc., and especially on the passage and implementation of acts such as the NFSA and MGNREGA. We understand that the Right to Food and Work has to go beyond these to look at people’s control over natural resources, including land; the systems of agriculture that are being used; low wages ; unemployment etc. We are especially concerned by the grabbing of natural resources, especially fertile agricultural land, in the name of so-called development.

It is also a fact that in our country thousands of farmers have committed suicide due to huge loss in the agriculture and this is happening only because of reluctance of the government to establish any support system for the farmers as well as for agriculture. In this background the convention condemns suicide of farmers due to lack of adequate support and security from the government. Without a robust and flourishing agricultural community, the right to food will be only empty rhetoric.

An atmosphere of hate is also being created in the country between people of different religions, different castes and ethnic groups. Through this, instead of talking about basic needs of all human beings, politics based on differences in social identity have assumed more importance. A politics of hate between communities is being propagated. The delegates condemn dividing people in the name of religion, caste and ethnicity by vested interests.

We also condemn the attack on our right to choose the food we ea. In the name of gau raksha and vegetarianism, not only are diets being dictated, but people are even being killed..

We condemn the attack on democratic rights and freedom of people that is increasingly affecting our rights to food and work. These attacks are on people and organisations that are trying to establish their rights. All such people and organisations are being entangled in of false criminal cases by the police and administration; they are being subjected to physical and verbal violence; and, they are faced threat to withdraw Government facilities, if they protest in any manner.

An assault on our privacy is being done through making Aadhar cards and digital transactions compulsory for a number of things. The linking of Aadhar to different welfare schemes like ICDS, MGNREGA, MDM, PDS, etc., even though the infrastructure for the same is not existent in many places has meant an exclusion of many needy people from their entitlements and has become a fresh form of deprivation.

We also note with concern that the State and Central Government, to reduce their budgets for welfare schemes, have created various classes among the beneficiaries. Without equal and universal coverage, schemes are becoming means of excluding many deserving people and a tool for the party in power to discriminate between their supporters and others. Similarly we also note with concern the cut in money to schemes such as MGNREGS and the resulting delay in wage payments and the almost complete non implementation of other entitlements under the MGNREG Act.

We also note with concern that the State Government has recently come out with an incomplete set of Food Security Rules that fail to provide a robust grievance redressal system and that make the public monitoring of the entitlements under the Act very difficult.

 This Convention therefore concludes with the following demands

• the Campaign demands that the production of food must be given first priority in the use of land; and that the Government must give full and unstinted support to farmers and agriculture;
• the Campaign demands that a decent wage, guaranteed work and the right to organise be ensured for all working people;
• the Campaign opposes mandatory Aadhar linkage in all social sector schemes that are for the benefit of the public;
• the Campaign demands universal coverage for all people in schemes providing food, work and social security benefits; it also demands the immediate implementation of the provision for maternity benefit under NFSA; and adequate resources and proper implementation of all other provisions of the NFSA and MGNREGA; and ,
• the Campaign demands that ,wherever the Campaign is working, monitoring and vigilance committees set up by the Government under the National Food Security Act 2013 must have representatives from the Campaign.

The convention also declares the following plan of action

• the members of the Campaign shall strengthen their grass root work and deepen it in order to counter the attack on democracy;
• the members of the Campaign shall form action groups in every village, para and ward that will monitor government schemes and ensure that people receive their entitlements;
• members resolve to organise a convention within the next one year of village level/local level action groups
• members resolve to discuss issues around ownership of land and land reforms in the next one year, in order to formulate clear cut demands for the Campaign

members resolve to organise a demonstration at the Khadya Bhawan on 27^th April 2017 to highlight their problems with the implementation of NFSA.