Food Security Act: Demanding implementation of 3-year-old law, hundreds of rural women reach Kolkata

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Sambari’s fight, like that of other women who will tomorrow descend upon Kolkata, is personal. Two and a half months ago, she had given birth to her third child. Her pregnancy could not excuse her from work in her family’s fields, harvesting rice. She was living with her parents in Bardhaman at the time, while her husband went to another state for work. “I had to work immediately after my delivery. I was never able to feed my child on time,” she says. Her youngest died within eight days of birth.

“We need Rs 15,000 crore for this scheme to be implemented across the country. But the scheme is still confined to 52 districts as a pilot project even after three years of the Act being passed. Meanwhile, a Rs 6 lakh crore tax waiver has been given in the same budget to the likes of Ambani, Adani, Tata, Birla etc.,” says Commissioner to the Supreme Court on Right to Food, Anuradha Talwar.

Father Jothisj of the Right to Food Programme, West Bengal, says even in the pilots projects which have begun (in Bankura and Jalpaiguri), the state government is still clearing cases of births registered before June 4, 2013. “The money was to be given for better nutrition and food for pregnant women and lactating mothers. What is the point of clearing cases three years after the birth of their children? The state government’s reasoning so far has been that the scheme does not cover everyone.”

According to the Centre’s scheme, food security will be provided to 70 per cent of the rural and 50 per cent of the urban population. “The state government has been telling us that they are trying to cover everyone, which is taking time. In the two districts where the pilots are ongoing, we know people are still in the process of being registered. We have a very simple demand of the government – please don’t violate the law, please implement the law. What the governments are doing now is violating the law,’’ says Father Jothisj.

The Maternity Benefits Act, 1961, has recently been amended in the Rajya Sabha to provide 26 weeks of paid maternity leave and crèche facilities to women employed in the organised sector. Since most women in rural India are employed in the unorganised sector, they do not fall within the ambit of the Act, says Talwar.

Moreover, both Talwar and Father Josithj allege that the Mamata government’s Khadya Saathi programme – the popular scheme under which the government was giving Rs 2 per kilogram in all rural areas – is in fact being rolled back. “As a matter of fact, even the maternity benefits scheme was introduced in February this year, just ahead of the elections,’’ alleges Josithj.

The organisations, along with NGOs, will approach the governor, chief minister and Cabinet ministers. They have also planned a postcard campaign through which thousands of women will list grievances on postcards which will be sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.