Poll manifestos and what parties can do for the maginalised

The Civil Society Forum wishes to place the key sectoral demands in front of political parties

The Civil Society Forum, a group of more than two dozen organisations working mainly with the marginalised, wishes to place the following key sectoral demands in front of political parties. Below are some extracts:

Database for planning: Census data cross-verified with ‘Kutumba’ family data should be the basis for evidence-based participatory planning as per the Mission Antyodaya toolkit at GP/ward levels. The GPs/Ward Committees should prepare a 5-year ward vision plan based on survey data and the deficits identified in human development, physical and social infrastructure and sustainability at the GP/ward level. Budgets need to be allocated for meeting these deficits and the Sustainable Development Goals.

Urban governance: An expert committee should be set up to bring equality before the law between the BBMP Act 2020, KMC (Amdt) Act of 2011 and KM (Amdt) Act of 2020 in the matter of citizens’ participation. An Urban Employment Guarantee Act should be passed. A Right to Housing Act should be passed and a land bank created to upgrade/rehabilitate all slums and provide registered land tenurial documents to all slum dwellers. Time limits should be prescribed for notification and the development of slums.

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Rural governance: Retract circulars or GOs that are in contradiction to and in violation of the Grama Swaraj and Panchayat Raj Act. Make available finance and functionaries to gram panchayats, which came into existence in 2015. Devolve 20% of untied funds directly to gram panchayats without any conditionalities.

Agriculture: The state government should immediately withdraw three farm-related laws: Karnataka Land Revenue (Amendment) Act, 2020; Karnataka APMC (Amendment) Act, 2020, and Karnataka Prevention of Slaughter and Preservation of Cattle Act, 2020.

A law fixing Minimum Support Price (MSP) for all crops produced, including millets, pulses, etc., based on the Swaminathan formula of 1.5 times the input cost, should be fixed even when the food crops are sold to intermediaries.

Farmer-producer organisations run by small and marginal farmers themselves, should be incentivised to invest jointly in machinery, collection centres, store houses, transportation, and food processing centres to make farming remunerative.

Food security: The state government should universalise the PDS to reduce exclusion errors. As an interim measure, the number of people eligible for priority household cards should be enhanced as per the estimated figures of the population, as ordered by the Supreme Court. The PDS should ensure nutritional security of all by giving 10 kg foodgrain, including millets, 800 grams of oil, and 1.5kg pulses per head per month.

Early childhood care and education (ECCD): ECCD should to be universalised by establishing anganwadis as per population norms and converted into full-time day-care centres. The onus for providing land or premises for anganwadis should not be on the communities but on governments. A second worker needs to be hired to cater only to zero to six-year-olds.

Right to health: Enact a Right to Health Act ensuring a universal health system. Ensure that Karnataka’s spending on health goes above 2.5% of its GDP to upgrade the existing infrastructure and human resources in government health care institutions.

Right to education: Allocate 15% of the state budget to provide infrastructure, staff and facilities; fill up all vacancies of teachers and raise the age of free and compulsory education to 16 (Class X) and, gradually, to 18 (Class XII). Correspondingly, the minimum age for all work should be gradually raised to 18.

Secondary education from the age of 15 to 18 years should be compulsory in academic or vocational streams, depending upon the youngster’s aptitude. The ‘preventive protocol’ developed under Rule 6 of the RTE rules needs to be followed and officials held accountable for implementing it. The ‘policy for education of migrant children’ has to be implemented.

Women’s rights: Unpaid work done by women should, as far as possible, be converted to paid work by self-help groups of women providing senior citizens’ and children’s day-care centres, etc. Vacant positions in schools and hospitals should be filled by recruiting women; honorary workers such as ASHAs, Anganwadi workers should be regularised.

Labour rights: An Urban Employment Guarantee Act needs to be enacted. Minimum monthly wages need to be fixed at Rs 21,000. A fresh state Act for unorganised workers’ social security needs to be enacted. The GO mandating the Building & Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Board (BOCWW Board) to provide registration, employment diary, social rental housing, workers’ temporary housing with creche, health care and transport facilities to all workers needs to be implemented in every ward/group of wards.

Bonded labour: Since there is no inspection system under the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act and as the vigilance committees are located only at the SDM level, ward committees should be designated as task forces for identifying bonded labourers as in the gram panchayats.

Hawkers and vendors: Municipal laws that make hawking and vending per se illegal need to be rescinded. Vending zones need to be notified by town vending committees.

Manual scavengers: Rehabilitation of manual scavengers has to be taken up in mission mode. Adequate number of jetting machines should be procured and manual scavengers supported to own the machines.

SC/STs: As much as 40% of the SCSP and TSP funds should be reserved for the education of SC/STs, 40% for their economic empowerment, and only 20% for civil works.

Persons with disabilities: The rules for implementation of the Rights of Persons with Disability (RPWD) Act of 2016 need to be notified and budgeted.

Transgenders’ rights: The Domestic Violence Act 2005 needs to include transgenders and sexual minorities under it and use the term ‘persons’. The 2017 State Policy for Transgenders and a Transgenders’ Welfare Board needs to be implemented and 1% reservation for transgenders should be introduced.

The Civil Society Forum hopes political parties will include the above in their manifestoes and work towards their implementation if elected.

(The author is executive trustee, CIVIC-Bangalore, and an associate of the Right to Food Campaign)