Minds and intestines

Even during the severest drought in Rajasthan, people have not asked for a dole. They have asked for work, writes Aruna Roy

Aruna Roy

I Have titled this lecture, The Capital of Labour and the Cost of Deprivation. I don’t know if it sounds a bit vague to people today. But what I really wanted to say is that there is tremendous potential strength, energy and richness in the people whom we consider poor and deprived and on the margin. And the people whom we think are rich today are rich in what? Perhaps, it is a philosophical question. But it is something which we have to think of.

This lecture is also a response to the economists who have arrogated to themselves the burden of carrying the universe on their figures. Whenever you begin a debate, their figures decimate you. You might have logic on your side, justice on your side, but some figures are always brought in to kill us. Especially when it comes to the poor.

If everything in a democracy is for people, then why are they still hungry? Why are they still on the margins? And why today, in 2005, are we still talking about freedom from hunger? Why are we exporting foodgrains? Why don’t we have the space to store food? Even today if you look at the Food Corporation of India’s (FCI) godowns, you will find foodgrains lying outside. They are rotting and rats are eating them.

Two of the major legislations that have been borne out of this massive campaign that has been going on in Rajasthan and in other parts of India are the Employment Guarantee Act and the Right to Information Act. So long as human beings are deprived of food, there will be a storm on this earth. We have said it over and over again that hunger, deprivation, poverty and unemployment are terrible things. And whenever I come to Delhi and talk to people, it is always the cost of ‘employment programme’ that is cited: “How can we give you 2 percent of the GDP, this is too much.” Whenever we talk about anything related to the poor, corruption becomes a big issue. Okay, so let us talk about corruption and let us find out why there is corruption. But let us not dismiss things because there might be corruption.

The Employment Guarantee Bill was one of the most discussed Bills in recent times. It was talked about in the newspapers, there were public discussions outside Parliament and inside Parliament. In states, there have been signature campaigns. Some people asked me, “Do you think the Finance Commission’s recommendations will not be implemented for civil servants if there is the Employment Guarantee Act?” Whenever there is an issue of money, even a small amount of money, or 2 percent of GDP going to the poor people, we get into a state of great unrest. Do we realise that in a democracy majority of the people who elect the government to power are not middle class people or the rich, but poor people? And when there is commitment by politicians accidentally or intentionally, they will have to keep their commitment. They might like it or not, there will have to be employment guarantee for the poor people of India.

‘We want our rights and we are not begging for anything. We want our rights. So why can’t the establishment assure us employment, a livelihood with dignity?’

There is huge amount of foodgrains lying in our godowns and yet nothing comes to the poor. So we have another slogan, “Deprived stomachs, godowns full of foodgrain, it is unjust and offensive.” It is a crime to have FCI godowns full of foodgrain when people are dying of hunger in Baran (Rajasthan) and Orissa. Foodgrain is not reaching the ration shops, so what is the meaning of democracy? What are we a free country for? And why do we have central and state governments? No, they will have to reformulate their policies and channels of procuring grains.

What stops the government from giving food to the people? Are we still slaves? Is there any division or demarcation between citizens and subjects in India? As former Vice Chancellor of Delhi University Prof. Upendra Baxi is fond of saying, there is one India which is full of citizens and one Bharat which is full of slaves. So what are we as members of the civil society doing? The civil society is not one big map. If you want to enter a five star hotel, and if you are not properly dressed, you won’t be allowed to enter the premises.

Empty stomachs and stockpiled godowns: this is a big rallying slogan for people all over the country. In Rajasthan it began with the five-year drought and we had no food. Every time we approached the state government and asked for food and employment, they said they had no money. We told them, forget about money, release foodgrains. They replied that they don’t have food stocks. We counter-questioned, how can they say this and so openly? At that time there was 60 million tonnes of foodgrains in FCI godowns. We questioned, “What about the FCI godowns which are bursting?”

The panchayat will say there is no employment. The panchayat samiti will say there are no sanctions. And the district collector or district magistrate will say there is no money. You go to the state capital and they will say, “We don’t have the money to buy foodgrains from Delhi”, or, “We belong to two different political parties (in the state and the Centre) and so we are not getting foodgrains”. Then we have to go to Delhi to lobby. But for the poor this is great democratic education: the micro and the macro are not divided. To get your micro benefits you have to be interested in macro issues.

And for purchasing these grains you need money many times over. I remember, in the first severe drought in 1987, before the birth of Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sanghatan (MKSS), Prof Hanumantha Rao, from the Planning Commission, came with a team of experts to visit Rajasthan. Around 400 people gathered to meet him on the highway. He asked them, what do you want? The half-starved people in people in India have great dignity and I felt so proud when they all said, “We don’t want your dole. We want to work. We want work because we want to live with dignity. We want to earn money and buy our own food.”

Even today, even during the severest drought in Rajasthan, people have not asked for a dole. They have asked for employment and work. They have asked for food for work. Because women want food. Or else, money is spent on intoxication; but foodgrain comes home and is used by the women to sustain the family. So this takes me to the third slogan that we have coined, “We demand our birthright, we are not begging for alms.”

In Rajasthan the scene has now changed where the villagers demand, “We want our rights and we are not begging for anything. We want our rights and this is an independent country with a secular fabric. So why can’t the establishment assure us employment, a livelihood with dignity?”

Excerpted from a lecture organised by
Centre for Environment and Food Security, New Delhi