Report on the Flood and the Drought Affected Areas of Bihar

Photo:India Today

Report on the Flood Affected Areas

A team from the office of the Advisor to Supreme Court Commissioners (in Food Security case, 2001) visited the flood affected areas of Maner Block of Patna District on 16th August, 2013. The team found that the basic requirements such as medicines, food-grains, monetary support, means of transportation are not reaching the afflicted people of the villages namely, Hathi Tola, Munji Tola, Bhawani Tola of Kitachauhattar Madhya Panchayat, villages:- Chhihantar, Mahavir Tola, Dudhaila Tola of Kitachahuhattar Purvi Panchayat, villages:- Haldi Chhapra, Badar Tola, Nayaka Tola, Saat Ana of Kitachauhattar Pashchami Panchayat, villages:- Rampur, Prem Tola, Hulasi Tola of Rampur Diara Taufir Panchayat and other villages:- Islamganj, Suarmarwa, Magarpal and Ratna Tola.

Right to Food Campaign activists staged a protest outside Parliament.Many detained,released later..

Press Release

More than 20 people from the Right to Food Campaign got into Vijay Chowk outside Parliament, broke Section 144, CrPC and demanded that the entitlement for the destitute and community kitchens for the urban poor. Most of the participants were the old from Rajasthan who sat on the foot path at Vijay Chowk and ate the food distributed by activists, led by sh.Harsh Mander, Biraj Patnaik, Dipa Sinha, Ashish, Aditya Srivastava, Dheeraj, Arundhati dhuru, Richa, Kavita Srivastava and others.

Myths and Realities of Child Nutrition

footprintsworld.com 

EPW:Stuart Gillespie 

In his article Arvind Panagariya argues that (a) the prevailing narrative of child malnutrition being worse in India “than nearly all Sub-Saharan African countries with lower per capita incomes” is false, (b) that this notion is an “artefact of a faulty methodology”, and (c) that the nutrition situation and recent trends in India are not so bad anyway.

The apparent motivation for the paper was the author’s perception that malnutrition statistics were becoming increasingly wielded as a political weapon by critics of India’s economic policy reforms. He suggests that India’s “otherwise measured” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was misguided in stating that “the problem of malnutrition is a matter of national shame” in early 2011.

But there are several major flaws in his argument, which I describe here.

रोजी रोटी अधिकार अभियान ने खाद्य सुरछा अध्यादेश में संशोधन की मांग की.

राष्ट्रीय खाद्य सुरछा अध्यादेश में संशोधन की मांग  को लेकर अलग  अलग  सगठनों से जुड़े और अनेक राज्यों से आये लगभग 800 लोगों ने जंतर मंतर,दिल्ली  पर एक बड़े धरना प्रदर्शन में हिस्सा लिया। देश के विभिन्न राज्यों मध्य प्रदेश,राजस्थान,बिहार ,गुजरात,आसाम, जम्मू ,ओड़िशा ,महाराष्ट्र,पश्चिम बंगाल और दिल्ली  से आये किसान,बाल अधिकार से जुड़े सामजिक कार्यकर्ता,नरेगा मजदूर,महिला,दलित और आदिवासी संगठनों  के प्रतिनिधियों ने यह महसूस किया कि पिछले चार साल से  एक व्यापक खाद्य सुरछा कानून के लिए किया जा रहा संघर्ष एक कानून का रूप ले रहा है.वे इस बात से उत्साहित थे कि खाद्य सुरछा अध्यादेश  को आज लोक सभा में रख दिया गया.एक मजबूत खाद्य सुरछा  कानून के लिए चर्चा और बहस का यह पहला कदम है

Right to Food Campaign Dharna Demands Amendments in the Food Security Ordinance. Several MPs Come in Solidarity

Press Note

More than eight hundred persons from several organisations affiliated to the Right to Food Campaign came to Jantar Mantar in Delhi to stage a dharna pressing for amendments in the National Food Security Ordinance, 2013. The activists who came from Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Assam, Gujarat, Jammu, Maharashtra and Delhi were farmers, children’s rights activist, NREGA workers, Women, Dalit, tribal organisations representatives, felt that the four year struggle of bringing in a comprehensive food security law was culminating into a law a finally. They were heartened that the National Food Security Ordinance was tabled as a bill today in the Lok Sabha, this being the first step towards debating the law, in order to bring in suitable amendments for a strong food law.

Resolution of Jana Manch,Odisha,on National Food Security Ordinance

The State Jana Mancha on National Food security Ordinance-2013 was held in Bhubaneswar from 1st to 2^nd August 2013. It was attended by 356 participants from 25 districts across Odisha, representing four networks and alliances working in the state. The Jana Mancha organised after five rounds of regional consultations during the month of July, 2013. The Jana Mancha had two plenary sessions and 4 parallel workshops, where the issues relating to right to food in Odisha in the wake of recent National Food Security Ordinance were discussed.