Food from the Courts: The Indian Experience

It has been conventionally believed that whereas socioeconomic rights are critical for human survival with dignity, these fall within the domain of the executive and not of courts and the law. The recent experience in India's Supreme Court has demonstrated that these rights – and in particular the right to food – can be both mandated and enforced by courts. In a landmark petition demanding a legally enforceable right to food, the court has converted food and social protection programmes into legal rights, expanded and universalised these rights, and created an independent mechanism for the enforcement of these rights

Internal migration in India: distress and opportunities, a study of internal migrants to vulnerable occupations in Delhi

"Centre for Equity Studies undertook a study to investigate the lived experiences of internal migrants to vulnerable occupations to Delhi, one of the most powerful magnets for such migration in the country. The study enquires who these people are, what factors propel them to the metropolis, how do they organise their movement to the city, and for what periods do they stay in the city? What is the nature and frequency of their interactions with their families in the village they have left behind? What are their experiences of living and work in the city? What are their conditions of work: wages, work hours, security, safety and dignity? What is the extent they are able to access legal protections, and food, social security and livelihood schemes to which they are entitled as citizens? The study aims also to identify distress, if any, which motivates such internal migration for villages to vulnerable occupations in cities...The occupations we chose for inclusion in the study are waste picking, rickshaw pulling, domestic work, construction labour and other casual labour.

Darkness under lamps: urban slums and food entitlements in India

"The Indian government implements some of the largest food schemes in the world. However, the reach and quality of implementation of these programmes is often most feeble and insufficient in areas that are physically the most proximate to centres of public policy formulation, namely cities and towns. This study seeks to empirically observe and assess the implementation of all existing food, livelihood and social security schemes in various indigent and deprived urban contexts, and based on the findings of coverage and gaps, suggest directions for initial strategies for effective implementation.

National report on the status of shelters for urban homeless

"This report...outlines the progress of construction of shelters, and provisioning of amenities and allied services to meet the needs of homeless persons in different states of the country...Based on field visit reports to several cities as well as other data from state governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), this report attempts to present issues for future actions by state and central governments and by civil society organizations involved in developing the programme of shelters for urban homeless

Accountability for mass violence : examining the state's record

This detailed study aims to map, understand and evaluate how effectively the State in free India has secured justice for victims of mass violence. It focuses on the access of victims to protection, justice and reparation after communal violence. By excavating the State’s own records on documented events of mass violence, the report confirms that the State has largely failed to prosecute perpetrators, to account for its own failures, to compensate victims, and to inform citizens. While immediate relief and monetary compensation is not sufficient, it is necessary, and measures in this regard demand close scrutiny

Living rough: surviving city streets, a study of homeless populations in Delhi, Chennai, Patna, and Madurai

"It is remarkable that so little is known about the lived experience of homelessness in town and cities in India: of how urban homeless men, women and children survive and cope; how they sleep, bathe and eat; why do they live on the streets and the work they do; their denials and access to public services and food schemes; and how they organise and plan their personal and social lives and their relationships. This neglect is not just of official studies, but even by economists, sociologists, anthropologists, nutritionists and development students. This paper records the findings of a small investigation into a fragment of this lived experience, and into the social, economic, nutritional situation of urban homeless men, women, boys and girls in four cities: the metropolises of Delhi and Chennai, and the cities of Madurai and Patna. The study finds that the lived experience of urban poverty, and even more so of urban homelessness, differs in many significant ways from that of rural poverty: it may ensure better prospects of livelihoods and earnings (although our study indicates that for urban homeless people work still tends to remain casual, exploited and without dignity and security). Life on the streets usually involves surviving in a physically brutalised and challenging environment, with denial of even elementary public services and assured healthy food; and illegalisation and even criminalisation by a hostile State of all self help efforts for shelter and livelihoods by urban poor residents. There are both grave ruptures - but also continuities - of bonds with their families and communities. These together pose important and mostly unmet challenges for public policy and academic research, in measuring and estimating urban poverty, and in acknowledging and realizing a vast range of social, economic and cultural rights of urban poor residents.

Stolen citizenship, stolen freedoms

With the rise of capitalism in post-colonial India, initially as a subsidiary part of a mixed economy with the state occupying its ‘commanding heights’, and later, especially after 1991, in the context of a new hegemony of globalised neoliberal capital, it was widely assumed that unfree labour, especially feudal forms of slavery in debt bondage, would vanish into history. This, however, has not happened. Inter-generational bondage to a single household has indeed become rarer. But the spread of capitalism has not created conditions of ‘free’ labour in India; instead pre-capitalist relations of labour unfreedoms continue to persist in abundance in the modified form of neo-bondage. This paper looks closely at one category of Indian workers – namely circular labour migrants – who are particularly susceptible to these forms of neo-slavery.Avec le développement du capitalisme dans l’Inde post-coloniale, considéré à l’origine comme une partie subsidiaire d’une économie mixte dont l’État était censé occuper les « hauts commandements », et plus tard – spécialement après 1991–, dans le contexte de l’hégémonie nouvelle d’un capital néo-libéral globalisé, il était largement admis que le travail non-libre, en particulier les formes féodales de l’esclavage pour dettes appartiendraient à l’histoire. Ce n’est cependant pas arrivé. La dépendance intergénérationelle à une seule famille s’est sensiblement raréfiée. Mais la diffusion du capitalisme n’a pas créé les conditions du travail « libre » en Inde ; au contraire, les relations précapitalistes du travail non-libre ont changé et persistent aujourd’hui sous forme de néo-esclavage ou de néo-dépendance. Cet article examine avec précision une catégorie de travailleurs que l’on nomme les migrants circulaires en Inde, et qui sont particulièrement exposés à ces formes de néo-esclavage.Con el desarrollo del capitalismo en India post-colonial, considerado inicialmente como parte subsidiaria de una economía mixta de la que el Estado tomaría las riendas, y luego –especialmente desde 1991–, en el contexto de la nueva hegemonía de un capital neoliberal globalizado, se consideraba que el trabajo no-libre, en especial las formas feudales de la esclavitud por deudas pasarían a la historia. No fue así. Si bien la dependencia intergeneracional dentro de una misma familia es cada vez menos frecuente, la difusión del capitalismo no ha creado las condiciones del trabajo “libre” en India. Por el contrario, las relaciones pre-capitalistas del trabajo no-libre han dado paso a nuevas formas, sumamente persistentes, de neo-esclavitud y de neo-dependencia. Este artículo examina con precisión una categoría de trabajadores designados, en India, como migrantes circulares, particularmente expuestos a estas formas de neo-esclavitud.Com o desenvolvimento do capitalismo na Índia pós-colonial, primeiro como parte subsidiária de uma economia mista onde o Estado segurava as rédeas da economia e a seguir, sobretudo depois de 1991, com a nova hegemonia do capital neo-liberal globalizado, era geralmente suposto que o trabalho não-livre, e nomeadamente as formas feudais de escravidão por dívidas, sumiriam no passado. Porém, isso não aconteceu. Se bem que a servidão intergeracional numa mesma família tornou-se mais rara, a expansão do capitalismo não criou condições de trabalho « livre » na Índia. Em vez disso, as relações de trabalho não-livre pre-capitalistas persistem largamente como formas modificadas de neo-escravidão e neo-dependência. Este artigo examina mais detidamente uma categoria de trabalhadores, designados como migrantes circulares, particularmente sujeitos a estas formas de neo-escravidão

Note on the Draft National Food Security Bill

As agreed by the NAC at its meeting on July 14th, 2010, a Working Group of Members of the NAC was constituted on the National Food Security Bill. After due deliberations and wide ranging consultations, the NAC finalized the details of the basic framework of the proposed National Food Security Bill at its meeting held on 23 October, 2010. Based on the recommendations already communicated to the Government, as a first step towards preparing the draft National Food Security Bill, a detailed Framework Note has now been prepared by the Working Group. This Framework Note was considered in the meeting of the NAC on 21 January, 2011 and it was decided to put this Framework Note in the public domain, inviting comments, before the Draft Bill is taken up for consideration by the NAC. Comments on the draft may be sent to: [email protected]://nac.nic.in/foodsecurity/foodsecurity.htmfood security, food , poverty, access to food, rationing, public distribution, agriculture, farming, India, South Asia