AIDWA struggle for food security in U.P.
by Subhashini Ali
[17 October 2002]
The last two weeks have seen many meetings and demonstrations of women organised by AIDWA in various villages and districts of the State demanding food security by making cheap foodgrains available to the poor. Starting with a militant demonstration in Lucknow on August 4th in which the women broke the lock that had been placed on the Collectorate gate by the police and pushed their way into the office of the ADM (Civil Supplies) and had a detailed discussion with him about the disgraceful state of affairs in the capital of the State where among the 810 families that had been surveyed by them only 4 had Antodyaya (red) cards and 355 had no cards at all. After this, rationing inspectors have been sent to the 10 bustees surveyed where they are taking the help of AIDWA activists to issue forms of various ration cards.
From the next day, the 5th October, till the 11th, the General Secretary and President of AIDWA travelled to more than 20 villages in 5 districts. In all these meetings of women from several neighbouring villages were held and, on two occasions, there were militant demonstrations of women at the Tehsil headquarters of Chakiya in Chandauli district and Chunar in Mirzapur district. Altogether, about 5000 women, almost a third of whom were widows, from more than 100 villages participated in these programmes. The recent drought and the basically flawed system of rationing that has replaced the universal public distribution system and the apathetic and insensitive attitude of the State Govt to the sufferings of the poor have created a system where hunger has become endemic in villages across the State. The women who flocked to these meetings and protested angrily against Govt. policies have been hit the hardest. Their anger was only too visible as they shouted "Mayavati tijori kholo ó Lal Card Nikalo" (Mayavati open your treasury and give us red cards). Most of them belonged to dalit communities and their sense of betrayal was palpable.
More than 800 women took part in the demonstration at Chakiya on the 5th even though Sec. 144 had been enforced and there had been a lathi-charge on a some demonstrators the previous day. When we asked them how many of them had red cards, hardly 2-3 answered in the affirmative. The response to a query about widow pensions was similar. They also said that there was hardly any work in the fields because of the drought and the Govt had not initiated any food-for-work programmes. The demonstration in Chunar took place on the 7th and more than 250 women from more than 15 villages partiicpated in this.. Women from Behra and Devkali villages told us that not a single family in these villages had a red card. They said that even for widow pensions, the pradhan was demanding bribes of 300/-. Women from Dhauhan said that some of them had BPL cards but found it too expensive to buy rations on these. A young widow from Jafrabad village, Kanti, who has 3 daughters showed us her yellow (APL) card. She breaks stones all day to earn 30/-. We learnt during both the demonstrations that even in Ambedkar villages all the widows were not being given pensions and many of the most destitute did not have red cards.
When we met the SDMs of both these tehsils with the demonstrators, they had the same story to tell us ó the rationing system and system of payment of widow pensions were not based on need or entitlement but on arbitrary quotas and criteria fixed by the State Govt.. The SDM of Chakiya (where the former Chief Minister Rajnath Singhís home is) told us that while the total population was 3,00,000 of which he believed more than half lived below the poverty line, only 3300 BPL cards had been issued. He said that Antodyaya cards can form only 25% of the BPL cards. As far as widow pensions are concerned, he said that the quota for these is also fixed and no new pension can be issued unless one of the existing pensioners dies. The SDM at Chunar said the total population is about 7,00,000 about half of whom he believes to be living below the poverty line but a total of 1,17,328 APL cards, 27,673 BPL cards, 6325 Antodyaya cards and 1,032 Annapoorna cards had been issued. He also said that no money for payment of widow pensions had been received for the last two and half months. Both of them agreed to survey the villages from which the women had come and see that at least some of the complaints were rectified.
On the 6th, we visited a fairly remote village, Musakhand which is inhabited mostly by dalit families who are all landless. They have been cultivating land that supposedly belonged to the Raja of Benares for generations. This year they have decided to occupy the land and claim it for themselves. As a result some parts of it remain uncultivated while the crop on the the cultivated area is going to be claimed by these families of landless labourers at the time of the harvest. On the 30th of September, goons sent by the Rajaís henchmen had arrived on a tractor to forcibly cultivate the land but the women ó many of them AIDWA members ó had stood in front of the tractor refusing to allow it to move and had forced the goons to leave.
We had a meeting with 127 women of the village. They were all agricultural workers who received wages of Rs. 20/- per day or 3 kgs of rice when they could get work. This year there was hardly any work because of the drought. At the height of the summer in May and June, they go with their children into the nearby forests to gather ëtenduí leaves. They leave at 2 ó 3.00 a.m. and return only by 3.00 the next afternoon. 60-70 leaves make up one bundle and they are paid 30/- for 100 bundles which is the most they are able to collect on one trip. This means that they get 15/- a day after having walked more than 15 kms.
Of the women present, only 6 had red cards. The others said that they had to take grain loans from shop-keepers. For every kilo of grain that they received, they would have to pay back 1.50 kilos. They agreed that in the present circumstances, this was next to impossible to do. Cash loans were available to them at interest rates varying between 15-20% a month.
From here we went to Direhu village which is just off the main road, near Chakiya. Here we met about 50 women ó dalits and Muslims. All of them were landless. None of them had a red card and none of the widows was getting a pension.
At night, we went to Govindipur village where there was a large gathering of more than 200 women. Many of them were from nearby villages. Here we were told that under the Sampurn Gaon Rozgar Yojna 40 women were given work for 8 days constructing brick lanes in the village. They had been promised 20/- and 5 kgs of rice per day but eventually they were paid only 2 kgs of rice per day each. Of the 23 widows present, not one was receiving a pension. One of them said that she had been trying to get a pension for a year and had even paid a bribe of 400/- in order to get one.
After this, we came to Bhodsar village where most of the women who had come from all around the area had left because it was very late. Two or three stayed behind and from them we learnt that while there are more than 25 widows in the village, only 2 are getting pensions. In a population of 2000 people, there are 40 red cards.
On the 7th morning, we visited Badaura village which has a population of 1500 people. The majority are dalits. Earlier it was an Ambedkar village. Some of the upper-caste people owned up to 80 bighas of land but most of the villagers and all the dalits were landless. Because the villagers are quite well-organised in the Agricultural Workers Union, there are 61 red cards in the village. There are 370 BPL, white, cards Only one widow, Kabutra devi, is receiving a pension while 33 had been sanctioned but were never issued. Now there are 30 widows in the village. Agricultural work available has been severely affected by the fact that, at the time of agricultural activity, groups of men from Bihar arrive who work day and night on a lease-system. As a result, the local landless are deprived of their work. Even the transplanting of paddy is done by these men so the women have also been deprived of their livelihood. Their wages have also come down and now they are able to earn only as little as 12/- or 21/2 kgs of paddy.
Later we visited the village situated on the Bairat farm that had belonged to the Raja of Benares but which was now occupied by the landless, dalit labourers who had worked there for generations. It was their forefathers, in fact, who had levelled the hilly and stony land for the Raja. Here about 100 women from the enighbouring hamlets had gathered.
4 women had come from Sadapur village. One of them, Ramdulari, had a red card. She said that she had been able to buy the full ration on it only once in January. After that, the ration-shop owner told her that no ration was available.
One of the women present, Patiya, who owns 5 biswas of land (20 biswas = one bigha, 2.5 bighas = one acre) had been issued an APL card.
There were at least 15 widows present and none of them was getting a pension. The women said that 2-3 widow pensions were being distributed in their area but even these had been stopped.
Work was very scarce because of the drought. The land that they had occupied was also lying uncultivated. No govt. works had been started in the area.
Many of the dalit women belonged to a community called "banbasi" They said that they went into the nearby jungles to collect wood and leaves. Then they would walk about 10 kms the next day to the nearest town to sell these. They would earn about 15/- in 2 days after having walked at least 5 hours on each day. They faced harassment from the forest guards also. They said that the leaves they collected were used for making ëdonasí (cups for food and snacks). For one bundle of about 100 leaves they received 2/-.
On the 8th we visited Adampur Tiloni village of Ambedkarnagar District (where Mayavatiís constituency is situated.) Here about 250 women from several villages had collected. Here also we did not meet a single person with a red card. Women from Bhiti Basayatpur village told us that there was no govt. work there; a widow, Sukhna, from this village told us that she was getting no pension and did not have any kind of ration card
Rajdei, a widow from Kishunipur village said that she was a widow with one son who was crippled and had five daughters. She was the sole bread-winner. She had one bigha of land on which there was no crop at all this year. She did not have any kind of ration card.
Another widow Gayatri from village Ghanghaura said that she was widowed 3 years ago and had 5 children and only 5 biswas of land. She said she had been with her photograph to the pradhan eight times trying to get a widow pension. Then she went to the Secretary who refused to endorse her application and is also refusing to return her form to her. The crop on her tiny plot of land has dried up. Another widow from the same village, Mahaja, said that she had only 1 kuchha bigha of land and was not getting a pension.
Amirta from Kurva village said that she could only earn 2 kilos of rice a day in the fields. The fields belonged to the Thakurs who were harassing her and trying to drive her away from her hut which they claimed was on their land.
Rajmati from Chapra village also a widow with 3 children said that she was not receiving any pension and did not have a red card either. She earned some money by smearing cow-dung paste on the ground for others. She had one biswa of land. One of her daughters was now grown-up i.e. of marriageable age.
Meena Kumnari from Umrai complained that the pradhan gave the cards and homes and everything to the upper-castes while landless dalits like herself got nothing. She said that he even sold the subsidised ration that was sent for the card-holders.
On the 10th, we arrived at Dakhinwara Chauraha, Kadipur Tehsil, Sultanpur. Here about 100 women from the neighbouring villages of Ranauli, Dakhinwara, Chaturpur, Chandauli, Jamauli, Pure Shivdayal, Ismaelpur, Sadhumari, Saraiyya, Majhva, Shyam Pandey ka purwa, Thagunva pur Saraiyya had collected.
Champa, a widow from Chandauli who has lost her husband, son, daughter and grandson, said that her hut had also fallen down. She had no one to help and worked in the fields for 4 kgs of wheat a day whenever work was available. She had a white card.
Phulkali a widow from Shyam Pande ka purwa had a red card but could not always afford to buy even the subsidised rations available on this card. Ramawati, another widow from the same village also had a red card. Dulalmati from the same village who has been abandoned by her husband and does domestic work for 3 kgs of wheat a day has an APL, yellow, card.
A blind, old and bent widow from Sadhobari village, Patai, had an APL card. She begs for food.
Prabhavati from Majhauli village said that while previously she had a BPL card, this was subsequently taken away from her and she now had an APL card. She had no land and worked as an agricultural labourer for 25/- per day.
The vast majority of women in this meeting had APL cards and none of the widows who numbered about 20 was receiving a pension.
In the same tehsil, we attended another meeting in Surapur village in which there were more than 200 women from several villages.
Sanju from Bijethwarajapur village said that she had only 6 biswas of land but had been given an APL card even though she had to work as an agricultural labourer.
Shyama from Khalispur Gopalpur village who owns 2 bighas of land also had an APL card.
Sarjudevi, another widow, said that she had one son who was mad and another who had no regular work. She owned 3 biswas of land and had an APL card.
There were about 60 widows at this meeting and only 3 were getting a pension. 4 had red cards. Of all the women in the meeting only 2 others had red cards. This was in spite of the fact that they all had either no land or less than one bigha and were mostly dalits.
In Mohana village of Lucknow District which we visited on the 11th, there were about 75 women from 4 villages. Sarjudevi from Nagar Chaungava village said that she had a BPL card but that kerosene had been made available earlier that day after more than 2 months.
Malti, a widow from Bidhna village whose daughter, Shivpati, also a widow who lives with her has a yellow (APL) card in spite of the fact that she performs domestic labour for about 4/- a day.
Munni, a widow from Mohana, has no card at all. She has no children and does chikan embroidery earning between 5 - 10/- a day. Hasina and Vahidan who have no land and are agricultural labourers have BPL cards. Madhurani, a widow, who has 2 bighas of land has a red card in her own name. Chandrakali and Swabhavati from the same village who have no land and have not had any work this year either have BPL cards. They do odd jobs like weaving chair-seats. Sabira had a BPL card but a year and a half ago when there was a big crowd at the ration shop because kerosene had come after some time, the shopkeeper, in a fit of anger, threw all the ration cards at the crowd. Hers along with some othersí got lost and she has been unable to get a new one issued.
Here also there was not a single widow who was getting a pension.
Our last visit was to Kathwara village also in Lucknow District where our meeting took place in the dalit part of the village which is dominated by Thakurs who own all the land.
Here there were about 30 women. 10 of these were widows out of whom 5 were getting pensions only due to the efforts of the AIDWA unit.
Hardei who owns 8 kuchha biswas of land and works as an agricultural worker mostly in potato cultivation has an APL card; Kisuma and Mohini, both agricultural workers, do not have red cards. Shivrani, a widow, who sometimes gets stale scraps of food from one of her sons, has no card or pension. Shanti, whose husband is unable to work after an operation, is an agricultural worker who has been issued an APL card. Ramkali w/o Kadeele has a BPL card but her son, Pohakar, has been issued an APL card because he has four sons! Lajjavati, an agricultural worker who complained that their meagre wages were often not paid for many days, has an APL card.
The struggle for food security through the demand for affordable foodgrains is going to be conducted all over the State by the AIDWA. The following demands have been formulated as the focus of the agitation:
1. Villages identified by AIDWA to be surveyed again. Activists to be contacted and involved in the process;
2. All families below the poverty line to be issued Antodyaya (red cards) at least for the next one year;
3. All widows to be issued Antodyaya cards;
4. The quality of foodgrains issued to be ensured;
5. Foodgrains used as payment for development work carried out by the Govt./panchayats etc to be valued at 2/- a kilo;
6. Joint pattas to be issued whenever land is distributed to the landless.return to New collection at South Asia Citizens Web
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