NFSA and
Beyond
Right to
Food, Democracy and Social Justice
We the members of the Right to Food campaign, who are
gathered here from 15 states across the country for the fifth national
convention, express our solidarity with all peoples’ movements and struggles
for basic rights, Democracy and Social Justice. We deeply mourn the death of
all our comrades who have lost their lives in the various battles for people’s
causes including the right to information, against land alienation and
anti-poor policies of the state. We are deeply aggrieved by the needless deaths
of men, women, transgender people and children because of persisting hunger,
malnutrition and lack of health care, of women because of lack of maternal
nutrition and care. We also express our sorrow for the death of the thousands
of toiling farmers, labouring people who have committed suicide, each year
losing their struggle for survival and lives lost as a result of communal and
caste violence.
We condemn the fact that 67 years after Independence,
a large section of our people are denied their basic rights to food, nutrition,
health, education, livelihood and social security, justice and peace.
We condemn the continued discrimination against
dalits, minorities, tribals, women, transgender community and disabled. We are
deeply concerned with the shrinking democratic spaces for people’s movements
and pro-poor policy making. Even as
non-violent, peaceful agitations are being crushed brutally by an increasingly
repressive state, we resolve to continue our struggles for the right to food,
democracy and social justice. We stand in solidarity with all movements against
patriarchy and violence against women and pro-people democratic political
forces. We condemn the interference in our sovereign food systems by the WTO
mechanisms, FTAs and other international trade agreements and the decision to
allow field trials of GM crops in India.
The continued onslaught of neo liberal capitalism,
corrupt governance, assault on democratic values, the brazen loot of natural resources and shrinking space for
civil society and democratic struggles which has characterized successive
governments has left the rural economy in shambles and betrayed the faith of people in Government
and the political class as never before in post independent India. We condemn
the alienation of peoples’ livelihood resources to fuel the consumption of the
rich; the alienation of public assets for private profits in the guise of
public private partnerships and the transfer of the nation’s wealth of natural
resources to the corporate sector for a pittance.
Further, we reject the so-called new model of
development that is sought to be thrust upon the people of India, in the name
of ‘Gujarat Model’ which has further increased inequality, neglected persistent
hunger and malnutrition, reduced social sector expenditure, strengthened the
patriarchal forces of neo-liberal capitalism, attempted to crush all dissent by
the poor and marginalized and threatened the secular and democratic fabric of
society. We stand in solidarity with the continuing struggles of movements in
Gujarat against these forces, along with those struggling for justice against
the 2002 State Sponsored genocide of one community of people in the State.
We re-affirm our power as women farmers, producers and
builders as labourers, adivasi, dalit, pastorlists, agro-pastoralists, small
and marginal farmers, fisherfolk, rural artisans etc. who anchor all
production, to preserve peasant food farming systems to produce diverse and
wholesome food to feed our communities, and assert that food security can only
be met through food sovereignty. We
resolve to struggle to protect and further, legally enforceable rights of all
labouring classes relating to living wages, strict implementation of labour
laws, job security, safe and non exploitative conditions of work and social
security including medical care, pensions and maternity benefits.
We re-affirm the rights of all children, adolescents,
specially vulnerable people: all women, men and transgender people to adequate,
diverse, good quality nutritious food. We demand that food and livelihood
entitlements of persons affected by natural calamities, communal and caste
violence and displacement must be ensured. We acknowledge that in several
states the campaign’s persistent struggles and mobilisation efforts have led to
significant progress in the realization of basic entitlements such as
employment guarantee, a universal PDS, school mid-day meals, universal ICDS,
maternity entitlements and social security pensions.
We resolve to continue to struggle together for the
right to food and related entitlements and also steer the campaign towards
looking at issues of food sovereignty and protection of resources such as
forests water and land, protection of farmers and agriculture, protection of
marginalized.
We remember with regret the lives lost due to conflict
in different parts of South Asia including Central, North-Eastern and the
Kashmir valley regions in India, Northern Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
We acknowledge that there is deep food and nutritional insecurity in these conflict-affected
areas which needs to be recognised and addressed. We reaffirm our understanding
that Peace and Justice is an essential component of return to normalcy which
includes people's freedom to access adequate and nutritious food. This cannot
achieved without the protection of civil liberties, creation of adequate spaces
for democratic expression, the implementation of the rule of law and demilitarisation of these areas.
We resolve to work towards a South Asian movement for
the Right to Food and would like to express solidarity with the Global
Movements for the Right to Food.
